Graphics Mid Priced Graphics Card Suggestions

I currently have a Geforce4 TI4200 but I am looking for something directX 9 compliant. I am a gamer, so keep that in mind.
My price range is anywhere from $150 to $200.

I have posted around at some of my gaming message boards, and they suggested the 9600XT, but looking around some other boards, I see alot of problems with gaming and lock-ups.

Bassically, I am looking for a directX 9 graphics card from 150 to 200 dollars, and I am looking for some expert (or at least as close as one can get) opinions.

Thanks in advance.


PS: In case it matters, here is the other specs of my computer
CPU AMD|2200+/266 ATHLON XP
DDRAM 512M|DDR333 PC-2700

And the rest isn't that important.

 

The 9600XT is great when it wants to work. While it doesn't work properly in my system (either faulty mobo or just a bad combination) it works perfectly in both my sisters and my mates computers.

Depends if you want that risk or not. Have a look around and see if you can find anyone having problems with it being used on your mobo.

You could go for a GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, its performance is not far off the 9600XT. Theres a comparison here.

 

you can get a geforce fx 5600 256mb for under $100 US. www.pricewatch.com

 

What do you guys think about this one. Anybody out there have one of these?


EDIT: For those who don't wanna travel the link, its a EVGA GeForce FX 5900SE, 128MB DDR, 256-bit

 

If you want fast DirectX 9 performance forget the nvidia FX 5900 series, it should really be treated as a DirectX8.1 card.

While the ATI 9600 XT and Nivdia 5700 are mid level cards they are not a big upgrade over an Geforce 4 series cards.

To really gain better perfomance and IQ such as Antaialiasing and Anistropic filtering you really need to get a ATI 9800 Pro.

I would save a bit more money and shop about for a good price on a ATI 9800 Pro, trust me it is worth going for the extra power.

 

I know they are not going to be a huge upgrade, and I am not really concerned with that. Just so long as it has a good power to cost ratio. Although the 9800 pro is awasome, I'm not in the mood to spend nearly 300 dollars on a graphics card. Heck, my computer only costed 500 all together!

 

to be honest i went from a ti4200 128MB to a 9600Pro to a 9600XT and i noteced a huge jump in performance... thought the XT has its days of not working (which i hopefully finally fixed)

it is a nice jump up in performance in games etc over my old ti4200


also compare a decent 9800Pro to 9600XT you're looking at 1.5x the cost

 

Read the reviews on this site. The 5900se is the same as the 5900xt. I have the exact card you mention and upgraded to it from the ATI 9600xt. There is NO comparison. I jumped up a detail level in NFSU and also gained 12 FPS. Call of Duty never wanders but a few FPS from 60 (I have Vsync enabled with a LCD so the refresh is 60 Hz).

The card overclocks great and also had really good cooling. I got a 3dmark03 score of 5207 ocd to 444/749 - about 4600 stock. My 3dmark03 score with the 9600xt was roughtly 3600ish.

This is a great card and I recommend it over the ATI 9600xt easily.

Like I said read the review at this very site. 5900xt is the chipset used in the 5900se from EVGA. Unlike ATI the XT on nVidia means SLOWER memory not faster. Its still a great card as you can tell from the review.

 

Read the reviews on this site. The 5900se is the same as the 5900xt. I have the exact card you mention and upgraded to it from the ATI 9600xt. There is NO comparison. I jumped up a detail level in NFSU and also gained 12 FPS. Call of Duty never wanders but a few FPS from 60 (I have Vsync enabled with a LCD so the refresh is 60 Hz).

The card overclocks great and also had really good cooling. I got a 3dmark03 score of 5207 ocd to 444/749 - about 4600 stock. My 3dmark03 score with the 9600xt was roughtly 3600ish.

This is a great card and I recommend it over the ATI 9600xt easily.

Like I said read the review at this very site. 5900xt is the chipset used in the 5900se from EVGA. Unlike ATI the XT on nVidia means SLOWER memory not faster. Its still a great card as you can tell from the review.

 

9800 Pro, $239

 

The price in that link I posted has now dropped to $229

 

to my knowledge, thats not a full pro board... soemthing about sapphire disabling something so they can have lower prices to consumers... but i forget.... try finding the black pcb version as i know thats a full blown pro

 

That doesn't sound right to me, you can't sell some as one thing when it is really another, a company like newegg.com certainly wouldn't, there is no mention of the card being inferior on their site, and it is the same one that was $288 before Christmas

 

Save your money and get the 5700. I've seen ATI's drivers wipe-out entire systems too many times, and their support is the rung below non-existant, where it actually screws you more to call it. ( at least in my experience ). On the review on the bit-tech main page the 5700 had 30 or greater FPS on every game reviewed with everything turned all the way up ( except one where it had 20, on which you'd have to turn 8X AA down to like 4X AA prolly ). The difference between the cards still isn't noticable to the human eye, its just sickening that they cost practically the price of a new computer just in the difference. ( yes you can easily build a computer for $300's ) If all you're trying to get is a DX9 GF4 card then the 5700 is for you. I still use the GF4 cards because I haven't seen anything worth upgrading for. I don't need any more shadows in my games..

 

grab a fx5900 non-ultra non-xt non-se. theyre $170 and preform awesome. escecially as compared to the ti4200

i suggest xtreme gear to buy from