information on a good but somewhat cheap card

[wily5150]

I'm looking at a Powercolor Radeon 9700 pro vid card for $200.00, but this is abit expensive for me now. I just spent $700.00 on a tower and everything that goes into it. I need some imput on a good but cheaper card. I will be overclocking my new system so I has to be able to keep up with it. I have a P4 2.6 with an asus P4C 800E Deluxe mobo with OCZ PC 3700 ram. If anyone has info on such a vid card please let me know. Thanks. Oh, and the mobo manual says to get a vid card that runs on .8 or 1.5 volts, and the 10 diget number on it should end in 30,
(xxx-xxxxx-30) no clue what that means.

[Soulburner]

That number refers to the 9700, some of the early ones had problems in that board for some reason.

The next step down on the chain is GF4 Ti4200 128mb, these can be had for around $100.

[minibubba]

have you considered a 9600 XT or are you dead set on a 9700 pro?

[Soulburner]

He can save some money with a 9600XT but it is a step down.

[wily5150]

No, I'm not set on any one card. I just need one that will basically keep up with the new system

[minibubba]

He can save some money with a 9600XT but it is a step down.

from the 9700p, yes it is. but it's better than the Ti4200 128
: peace2:

wily5150, since $200 is too much how about you tell us what will fit in your budget so we can get you the best card you are willing to afford

[Sovereignty]

9700pro is the best value right now. Save up till you can get it. It's way better than the 9600xt and will last you quite a while.

[wily5150]

well, $ 150.00 max. I mean I could probably come up with $ 200.00, but That would be scraping.

[tacos4me]

Go with the 9600 XT.. Its a great card and can be overclocked to 9700 speeds with proper cooling. I run minein my other machine at 580/640, and I get 4200 3Dmarks in 3dmark 03:cheers:

[wily5150]

what's your idea of proper cooling? It has a fan on it. Plus I'm going water cooling in my new system. If need be I could put a water block on the card processor

[Soulburner]

Go with the 9600 XT.. Its a great card and can be overclocked to 9700 speeds with proper cooling. I run minein my other machine at 580/640, and I get 4200 3Dmarks in 3dmark 03:cheers:

That just proves that it won't run at 9700 speeds because a 9700 will score 5k at default easy.

[SmokeyTheBalrog]

what's your idea of proper cooling? It has a fan on it. Plus I'm going water cooling in my new system. If need be I could put a water block on the card processor

Are you buying the water-cooling system now?

Unless you have a very good reason or really want a super quite system you can save a lot of money buy using good air-cooling instead. And let you buy a much better system.

NOTE: you can get a pretty quite system buy using good air-cooling. And I think some of the cheap water-cooling systems can be a bit noisy and may not cool very well.

What water-cooling system are you using/planning to buy?

[wily5150]

I already bought the Asetech waterchill kit.

[Beefy]

9700pro is the best value right now. Save up till you can get it. It's way better than the 9600xt and will last you quite a while.

Best advice yet.

[Wiggo]

If ya jump quick then ya'll find a few places with R9700P's for around $190us atm but they're goin' fast so be quick or it'll be an R9600XT for about $150-170us (128MB vs. 256MB) or about $230us for an R9800P (128MB).