Getting a new video card

You'd probably be better off with one of the following.

8600GT $119 *$20MFR brings it down to $99*
NCIX.com - Buy XFX GeForce 8600GT 540MHZ 256MB 128BIT 1.4GHZ DDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV Out DIRECTX10 Video Card - PVT84JUDF3 In Canada.

2600XT $103.99
NCIX.com - Buy Sapphire Radeon HD2600XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I TV Out Video Card Lite Retail - 11110-00-20R In Canada.

i'd like to recommend a 1950pro or something (even the 2900GT's are going for $179 atm), but if you want something closer to $100-$130 those are about what you need.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by neothe0ne

Don't listen to the above posts. The 8600GT is weaker than the 7900GS and similarly priced Radeon cards, especially in the older Source engine games. I myself have an 8600GT, I wouldn't wish it on anyone else in place of my recommendation, especially since the prices should be identical after rebates and such. Although the 8600GT can run CSS fine at 1440x900 at max settings and 16xCS anti-aliasing on my Vista computer with an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and 2gb slow DDR2 RAM, you can get better performance with a 7900GS.

Also, forget about the X1650Pro, it's weaker than the 8600GT by far.

Also don't go for any card with 512mb of video RAM at this price range, because the card will not perform better by any significant amount. If you look at the old, now obsolete 8800 GTS 320 vs 640, even those former top-line cards don't have that great of a performance difference at mid to low resolutions.

Outdated but general guide for all this:
VGA Charts 2007 | Tom's Hardware

Also a benchmark for Orange Box, though lacking directly applicable charts for said cards:
AnandTech: UPDATED Half-Life 2: Episode 2 CPU and Graphics Performance



Edit: You ARE in the United States, correct? I see that Garret is from Canada, so these price ranges don't apply to him..

Firstly about the pricing, if you noticed, the link in his post to the 1650pro was from that of futureshop, which is a Canadian Electronics outlet store. His profile also reveals that he lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Second, while the 7900GS is a better card than the 8600GT, it is also $199cdn, and for that amount of money a better card can be had. I was keeping the price within the $100-$120 (so about $150 with taxes and shipping) area as he had requested. So please don't shoot down the suggestions of others in that manner, as you were somewhat off the mark.

Additional Spam:
NCIX currently has on a special for a 7900GS XT for $119.99
NCIX.com - Buy XFX GeForce 7900GS XT 480MHZ 256MB 256BIT 1.4GHZ DDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I TV Out Video Card - PVT71PUDE3 In Canada.

limited quantity though.

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Originally Posted by neothe0ne

And his country flag is the American flag, not the Canadian flag, when you click on his user name. That wouldn't be my fault.

Ah, true. I wonder why it does that. Simple mistake though.
As for Newegg, they don't ship to Canada. They have been promising for 2 years+ now that they are coming to Canada, but still nothing.

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