Best gaming card for under $175

Z

zilla

New Member
The primary game I'm going to be playing is Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow :)

What should I go with?

Computer is as follows, if it makes any diff...

Dell Dimension 8400
P4 3.2
1 gig PC2-4200 DDR
80 gig hd
radeon x-300 SE

Thanks for any input guys, I really appreciate it.
 
a gf6600gt would be the best you can do in that price range, I think x700s still cost 250, failing a 6600 non-gt will do well as well.
 
hmm I wonder why I did not notice them when I did a search for video cards between 150 and 175 on newegg.'

edit: oh I see because it REFURBISHED I proberly skipped over it. but I was still wrong I should of said you can not get a new one for under 175.
 
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REFURBISHED: Chaintech nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card
^says in title.
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Quite correct you are but the first one that Cromwell noted doesnt have any indication of refurbishment ... and so when he said
oh I see because it REFURBISHED I proberly skipped over it
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Its intriguing that he would skip over it ... when the first one doesnt have any indication of being refurbished (and hence would bring not reason to skip over).

Regardless, this is semantics ... it is important to note that Newegg is (by far) not the be-all, end-all of videocard prices :) There are cheaper outlets, you just gotta hunt them down
 
Praetor said:
Where exactly are you seeing this? :)
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on cromewell post the third link the one that cost less then $175. I did not see the other 2 because I was searching between $150 and $175.
 
mgoldb2 said:
your main choices are geforce 6600 or radion x700 pro.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-123-146&depa=1

or

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-121-179&depa=1

I chose PCI-x card because that what I think dimension 8400 have.
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You're right, the 8400 is a PCI-E set up.

So is it safe to assume, that a card with 128GDDR3 running at 1000MHz, is going to be faster than a card running 256DDR at say.. 500MHz?

I'm pretty much a newb when it comes to understanding the nuances of each card. I understand that the GT (and the Ultras are even better I guess) models on the geforce cards are a better engine. Basically I just want to make an informed decision... :)

Thanks for the all the replies, I really appreciate it.
 
zilla said:
So is it safe to assume, that a card with 128GDDR3 running at 1000MHz, is going to be faster than a card running 256DDR at say.. 500MHz?
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Yeah that pretty safe to assume and now that I look closer to what those cards really are your best choices are the 6600GT or the x700 pro. It seems the x700 pro a little cheaper but the 6600GT proberly the better card but you might half to spend slightly over $175 to get a new 6600GT.
 
mgoldb2 said:
Yeah that pretty safe to assume and now that I look closer to what those cards really are your best choices are the 6600GT or the x700 pro. It seems the x700 pro a little cheaper but the 6600GT proberly the better card but you might half to spend slightly over $175 to get a new 6600GT.
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Thanks.. I've been looking around and I can get a 6600GT pretty easily for 175-185 :)

Thanks again for all the information guys... keep it coming if ya got more! :D
 
You're right, the 8400 is a PCI-E set up.
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8400?

So is it safe to assume, that a card with 128GDDR3 running at 1000MHz, is going to be faster than a card running 256DDR at say.. 500MHz?
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You have a nomeclature conflict there ... the 6600GT for instance has 128MB GDDR31000 (500Mhz) and the other unnamed card has 256MB at 500MHZ (1000DDR) ... note the notation. So the real differnece is 128MB vs 256MB and DDR vs GDDR3 .. having a look the cards im suspecting you're comparing the 6600 to thr 6600GT? The difference is more importantly, the core speed: the 6600 runs 300/550 while the the 6600GT runs 500/500 ... the extra 100MHz on the memory for the 6600 doesnt mean jack next to the extra 200MHz on the core for the 6600GT

I understand that the GT (and the Ultras are even better I guess) models on the geforce cards are a better engine
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The 6600s only come as baseline and GT

some of the sites are kinda sketchy though.
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Yep
 
Praetor said:
8400?


You have a nomeclature conflict there ... the 6600GT for instance has 128MB GDDR31000 (500Mhz) and the other unnamed card has 256MB at 500MHZ (1000DDR) ... note the notation. So the real differnece is 128MB vs 256MB and DDR vs GDDR3 .. having a look the cards im suspecting you're comparing the 6600 to thr 6600GT? The difference is more importantly, the core speed: the 6600 runs 300/550 while the the 6600GT runs 500/500 ... the extra 100MHz on the memory for the 6600 doesnt mean jack next to the extra 200MHz on the core for the 6600GT


The 6600s only come as baseline and GT
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You read too much into that first statement there, I was just conjuring up numbers to make a generalization. That generalization being that more RAM isn't necessarily going to make the card faster.

On the second part, I wasn't referring to the 6600 models specifically, rather the GeForce line in general.

Thanks for the info.
 
You read too much into that first statement there
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Yes but when you compare 128MB vs 256MB with same clocked memory ... :)

That generalization being that more RAM isn't necessarily going to make the card faster.
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To which i agreed :)

On the second part, I wasn't referring to the 6600 models specifically, rather the GeForce line in general.
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What were you comparing the 6800GT/U to? the Radeon X8s or the 6600s? :)
models on the geforce cards are a better engine
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Cuz if you want to compare the entire GF6 line there's also the 6200s :)
 
Praetor said:
Yes but when you compare 128MB vs 256MB with same clocked memory ... :)


To which i agreed :)


What were you comparing the 6800GT/U to? the Radeon X8s or the 6600s? :)

Cuz if you want to compare the entire GF6 line there's also the 6200s :)
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I was comparing the GT/U's to any products in the GeForce family, in general, say with the 6800 line.. the 6800 Ultra will be faster than the 6800 GT... what I'm driving at is that the Ultra chipset (is that the right word?) is faster than the GT chipset. That's all. Just newbie stuff, trying to get a handle on all this.


As a side note to everyone, I was running Pandora tomorrow last night for the first time, with the Radeon X-300SE that I'm currently sporting... it ran fine on high detail settings at the 2nd highest resolution setting (can't remember which), there were a couple instances when it slowed down a touch, but it never hampered the game play. I'll probably still upgrade the card though, gotta have more powa!!! lol

Thanks again to all that have replied!!
 
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