Graphics What to get for £130 to replace 8500GT

I mate of mine is after a new graphics card but he has a budget of £130(he wont go over that), at the moment he has a 8500GT but from what i have seen this isn't a great card. He has a E4300, 2GB Crucial Ballistix but he wants to change the card. Now from looking at price for his price range theres the GeForce 7950 GT 256MB and the ATI x1950 Pro 256MB and 512MB. Now for gaming performance are these two better than the 8500GT, i know both cards are higher up the charts on that king of the hill list but i would like your opinions aswell ( i haven't read any benchmarks ). I know the 8500 is DX10 but excluding DX10 which performs better when it comes to games.

Any other cards in that price range thats better ??

 

from what ive read review-wise on this site, the x1950xt would be the way to go, if that fits in his budget. otherwise, the 7950 gt 512...

 

The x1950 has much better image quality, for similar performance and you can get one second hand for about £70-80 depending on the RAM.

They'll beat the 8500GT in DX9 performance easily IIRC

 

What about the Pro version of the 1950 if he cant get a XT version ??

 

pro version is fine, its just a scaled down version of the xt.

 

There is somone looking to sell a reasonable card in the forums:

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=135723

I'd say £90 max would be a good price to suggest for it.