The BEST vid card under 200

[advent42]

Im looking for the best vid card that is under 200 dollars. I need some thing really relieable and OC able. I was looking in the 9600 pro area, but any thing will do.

[SearanoX]

If you can get it for under $200, then go with the 9600 XT. Faster than the Pro, and overclocks nicely. If you can't find one for that cheap, then go with the Pro - if you're lucky and have proper cooling, you can overclock it to 9700 speeds.

[AsianBatman]

I think the 9600 xt are already clocked higher than the 9700. :rolleyes2
But other than that, as seranox said. :thumb:

[SearanoX]

I was referring to the 9600 Pro when I said it clocks to 9700 speeds, not the XT.

[advent42]

I was looking at some and i was wondering the best brand to go with? ATI, Sappire, i was also looking a an asus?

http://usa.asus.com/products/vga/r9600xt/overview.htm

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-331&catalog=48&depa=1

http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9600-xt.asp

[SearanoX]

The perform the same for the most part, but I've heard good things about the Sapphire version, which is somewhat cheaper. I would personally choose the official ATi one unless it meant a huge price difference. Another advantage to third-party versions is that they usually come with software bundles, whereas generally the official versions don't. I'm pretty sure that when you buy an XT card from ATi, however, you get a voucher for a free copy of Half-Life 2, so if you're looking forward to that, then go for the XT. Like I said, I'm not quite sure about which cards have the voucher, as it may be only the 9800 XT.

[Arsenal11]

So which one overclocks better, the NT or the PRO?? Because I have heard that the PRO overclocks better than the NT, therefore I would tell you to get the PRO, but if that's not true, and the NT is in fact the better choice, then there you have it.

EDIT: Just checked out the links, and I would go for the Sapphire for the bundled HL2 deal.:thumb:

But if you don't care about HL2, I would probably shell out for the official ATI XT.

[AsianBatman]

Usaully third party manufactuers are better than official...i know, because i compared my 9800np with other 9800np, they have better memory chips and they can have higher oc potential. Also, the voucher for hl2, i saw for all the new released ATi cards, i saw one for a 9600 pro 256mb visiontek card. I would either go with Sapphire or ASUS. :cheers: I would most likely go with sapphire.

[Mista K6]

Sapphire really is the best :thumb:

[AsianBatman]

Sapphire isn't nesscarily the best, in some areas, like the ATi area its the best, but for Nvidia area, ASUS should be the best.
Another company that is good for ATi is powercolor. :cheers:

GOT MILK?

[Classlessmetal]

[SearanoX]

He's talking about American Dollars, not Pounds.

Yep, the 5900 (and Ultra) is a very good card, which beats the 9800 XT in some cases, but the fact is that the FX series simply doesn't have very good support for DX9 applications, with ATi beating the heck out of them in this field. It's said that the next round of nVidia cards will get very close to beating the DX9-supporting Radeons, though, so ATi's reign may be meeting an end soon...

[AsianBatman]

Yea i bought one of those..before i got my 9800, i prefer the 9800. Also, the cheap 5900 are often budget versions, so watch out people. When i bought my leadtek card, i was like how preeetty...and didn't want to return it because it barely showed any performance gain compared with my ti4400, but i had to seperate from it and found the 9800 to serve me better. Either one, 5900 or 9800, don't buy the crap SE and the LX versions!!!!! Fair warning. :cheers: