Best for the buck

Agurri

I am what I am
Joined
28 Feb 2004
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I'm currently building a computer for my friend and now has come to time to choose the best vid card for him. His budget for the video card is between US$ 150 and 220 .... He would like to be able to play games such as Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 ... indeed :) So, can you guys help me out ?
 
It looks like a Radeon 9800 Pro would be your choice then. It has the best speed for that price range. Do a search for Radeon 9800 Pro at newegg.com and arrange them by price, lowest to highest. I think the cheapest one is a $170 refurb, and the cheapest new one is about $190.
 
Is there a major difference between the versions of the cards ? I mean between Sapphire, Powercolor and ATI itself ? What are the differences?
 
Not really; there might be minor clock differences between them, affecting pretty much nothing of significance. Most of them use ATI's basic reference design anyway.
 
Do you think it will be able to run HL2 ? I have no idea what are gonna be the requirements for this awesome game ;)
 
It better run HL2. They bundled the game coupons with it. 9800 PRO is the best deal around. I am now seeing it for 197 locally (today teh ATI version is 197 with no rebate). It's always hovered around 200-210 on the internet.

Sapphire, Powercolor or ATI labeled are all the same. ATI has a 3 year warantee the others are 1 year. Sapphire actually makes most of the ATI branded cards.
 
Hum, yeah, I think I'll go with the ATI Sapphire 9800 pro refurb for US$ 169 on newegg. Should I know anything else about this card before buying it ?
 
Not really. I have a friend who bought the refurb and really liked it. It's been going strong. Usually refurbs are there because someone installed it in their system, so it can't be sold as new. Saves money for us end users! : )
 
nope... refurb could mean the product has been used already... that the product had a problem and was fixed... stuff like that..
 
oh and try not to buy the 128bit interface one. that one cuts the pipe line to 4 instead of 8. get the 256-bit one which will allow twice the bandwidth :)
 
It can mean both. I've worked behind the counter at a retail store that sells them. We sent anything that had been installed to the refurb depot, no matter what the customer complaint.
 
prodj88 said:
oh and try not to buy the 128bit interface one. that one cuts the pipe line to 4 instead of 8. get the 256-bit one which will allow twice the bandwidth :)
Sazar can probably explain this better* but I believe that the 256MB cards use a cheaper (higher timings) DDR then those in the 128MB cards. Also you pay more for the 256MB when nothing currently needs it.

* 2:03AM .. I'm 3/4 asleep ;)
 
Xie said:
Sazar can probably explain this better* but I believe that the 256MB cards use a cheaper (higher timings) DDR then those in the 128MB cards. Also you pay more for the 256MB when nothing currently needs it.

* 2:03AM .. I'm 3/4 asleep ;)

Huge difference between bit spec and the MB spec. Bit is the interface, MB is the memory.

Edit: I'll blame it on you being 3/4 alseep.
 
Thanks everyone. But .... I still don't quite understand the difference between the 128 bit and the 256 bit model ?
 
Agurri said:
Thanks everyone. But .... I still don't quite understand the difference between the 128 bit and the 256 bit model ?
Well the 256bit has double the thru-put basically. Ok in english I guess you could say it can allow 2x as much data to flow thru at one time then the 128bit. Anyhoo I'll let an expert come by and explain it better :p
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

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