O/T? Reasonably priced graphics cards

  • Thread starter Thread starter oO
  • Start date Start date
O

oO

Hi, I'm not too hot on graphics/videos cards so I was hoping someone here
might be able to help. My current card (ATI All in Wonder 9200) is messing
up (details below).

Anyway, I'd like to purchase a new one - not a high end overly expensive
one. Just something (preferably better than my current one) that will enable
me to get good results for playing games such as Battlefield 2,
Counter-Strike and using applications such as Photoshop etc...

Any suggestions?

All help much appreciated. Thanks!

*Basically it can appear fine for a while but suddenly when playing video,
using Photoshop or even just scrolling WebPages purple lines appear. Also in
games graphics become distorted. With a bit of fiddling with the monitor
lead it seems to correct itself. However it soon fails again. Obviously
something is loose or mangled inside but it appears fine upon opening up and
inspecting.
 
oO said:
Hi, I'm not too hot on graphics/videos cards so I was hoping someone here
might be able to help. My current card (ATI All in Wonder 9200) is messing
up (details below).

Anyway, I'd like to purchase a new one - not a high end overly expensive
one. Just something (preferably better than my current one) that will
enable me to get good results for playing games such as Battlefield 2,
Counter-Strike and using applications such as Photoshop etc...

Any suggestions?

All help much appreciated. Thanks!

*Basically it can appear fine for a while but suddenly when playing video,
using Photoshop or even just scrolling WebPages purple lines appear. Also
in games graphics become distorted. With a bit of fiddling with the
monitor lead it seems to correct itself. However it soon fails again.
Obviously something is loose or mangled inside but it appears fine upon
opening up and inspecting.
Click to expand...

Have you tried a different monitor? Could be the card or the monitor.

Anyway, I'm more partial to nvidia now (long story). Anything in the
6600/6800/7600 range would probably do fine. I just bought a fanless 7600
last week (in PCI-E, but I think you can also get AGP). I like it a lot,
particularly since it is in our living room machine and, of course, silent.

Tom
 
oO said:
Hi, I'm not too hot on graphics/videos cards so I was hoping someone here
might be able to help. My current card (ATI All in Wonder 9200) is messing
up (details below).

Anyway, I'd like to purchase a new one - not a high end overly expensive
one. Just something (preferably better than my current one) that will
enable me to get good results for playing games such as Battlefield 2,
Counter-Strike and using applications such as Photoshop etc...

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

It's pretty hard to beat the value of a GeForce 7600GT-based card right now.
To wit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143049

Awesome all-around performer for the money. It's a great value, IMHO.
 
The real issue that you don't acknowledge is that your next system will
use a PCI Express video card rather than AGP, so I wouldn't put a lot of
money into any AGP solution. Unless you are going to replace the
motherboard and build a new system, I'd look for a used ATI Radeon 9600
(but not the dumbed down SE) on E-Bay. You don't say if you want to
stick with an All-in-Wonder (TV tuner) or are willing to give that up.
 
Hi, I'm not too hot on graphics/videos cards so I was hoping someone here
might be able to help. My current card (ATI All in Wonder 9200) is messing
up (details below).

Anyway, I'd like to purchase a new one - not a high end overly expensive
one. Just something (preferably better than my current one) that will enable
me to get good results for playing games such as Battlefield 2,
Counter-Strike and using applications such as Photoshop etc...

Any suggestions?

All help much appreciated. Thanks!

*Basically it can appear fine for a while but suddenly when playing video,
using Photoshop or even just scrolling WebPages purple lines appear. Also in
games graphics become distorted. With a bit of fiddling with the monitor
lead it seems to correct itself. However it soon fails again. Obviously
something is loose or mangled inside but it appears fine upon opening up and
inspecting.
Click to expand...

Could be the monitor cable itself. If the cable can be
replaced, I'd try replacing it first, or at least trying the monitor
with a different system if possible. The next thing I would try, is to
just do either an unistall/cleaning of the video drivers, then do a
fresh reinstall of the drivers, or do a HDD format, and fresh install
of the OS, updates, & device drivers. You'd be supprised how much
uneeded money waste can be avoided by doing this (however time is
another matter).
If none of that works, then if your not exclussivly ATI fan,
then for a cheap Nvidia AGP, I'd suggest the 7600GS AGP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127219.
Leadtek does make a 7600GT AGP with the same clock speeds as the PCI-e
version, but they are kinda high compared to the PCI-e version.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122009
The 7600GS AGP is better than the 6600GT AGP, so keep that in mind if
you consider a 6600GT, as it is only a few bucks cheaper than the
7600GS.
On the ATI side, the x1600Pro AGP is the newest core that I
know of that's AGP.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131430
It would stomp your 9200, but I hear it's not a great performer in new
games, but I'm guessing that's if you run them with full eye-candy,
and high resolutions. My Athlon XP 3000+ with a 6600GT AGP still plays
new games at 1024x768 32bit with no AA/AF smoothly. The x1600 is
supposed to be at, or better than the 6600 performance in some games,
while some it's worse.
There's also the older x800GTO.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609
I'm not sure how it performs against the others I listed as it doesn't
have SM 3.0 support, and some consider that a turn off.
 
Larry Roberts said:
If none of that works, then if your not exclussivly ATI fan,
Click to expand...


Hmmh, yes check the fan, purple lines and distorted gfx can be the result of
overheating.

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Hmmh, yes check the fan, purple lines and distorted gfx can be the result of
overheating.

Ad
Click to expand...

I was actually commenting on if the OP was loyal to ATI, or if
he didn't mind using another GPU manufacturer.
 
Larry Roberts said:
I was actually commenting on if the OP was loyal to ATI, or if
he didn't mind using another GPU manufacturer.
Click to expand...

yes I saw that, and what? My comment still stands.



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