$130 Mid-Range Video Card

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Banana King

Weaksauce
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Aug 14, 2006
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Looking for a mid-range video card to accompany an Intel E4500 budget gaming build. DX10 is not necessary because I do not plan on crossing over to Vista quite yet. All other components are priced out, leaving just about a $130 margin for a average video card. I've heard some decent things about the X1950GT and 8600GT, and would probably go with the HD3850 if it weren't $50 out of my price range. Please feel free to post any recommendations below - I'd like some input on my dilemma.

-Thanks
 
While I absolutely hate recommending that people stretch a budget they already spent time developing, I would really recommend holding out a bit for the 3850 if at all possible; especially for a gaming build. What other components do you have picked out? You might be able to tweak a few things (such as getting the case with free shipping or something from ZipZoomFly to allow the extra money).

Short of that, the X1950 Pro is a good buy for 134.99 at Newegg. Then again, that's for the Sapphire model, and that company doesn't seem to popular around here lately.
 
ATI HD 2600XT got mine 256MB for $85 AR 512MB around $100. Strongly recomending at least if youre into HD HTPC stuff.
 
milan03 said:
ATI HD 2600XT got mine 256MB for $85 AR 512MB around $100. Strongly recomending at least if youre into HD HTPC stuff.
Click to expand...

But if you're gaming, don't.

Just save the $50. Thats chump change for the performance boost.
 
there's no reason not to get the HD3850 for a week's lunch money, for the huge boost in performance for the price tag, makes the last-gen midrange cards look horrible for the price/performance ratio.
 
Best Buy has the VisionTek 256mb 3850 for $159 this weekend (online only).

Honestly, I know you have the $130 limit, but the performance increase is worth spending the extra $30. It's literally nearly double the performance of the other stuff you'd be looking at. Wait a few days/weeks and save the extra $30; I think you'll be much happier with your gaming if you did.

edit: link to the card at BB http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8636657&type=product&id=1194053242019
 
Okay, since my budget does include shipping, stretching it $30 isn't that big of a deal. By the way, what makes the HD3850 such a good mid-range card? It seems like everyone recommends it now.
 
Banana King said:
Okay, since my budget does include shipping, stretching it $30 isn't that big of a deal. By the way, what makes the HD3850 such a good mid-range card? It seems like everyone recommends it now.
Click to expand...

It's a great card for the money.The 3870 is even better but for a higher premium. I'll post some benchmarks in a bit. These days you wouldn't want anything lower than a 3750 for the games that came out this year.
 
Usually, I don't like to recommend stretching your budget, but for the extra $30-50 dollars the HD3850 offers 3 times the performance of a 8600GT/2600XT and twice the performance of 8600GTS, x1950pro.
 
/agree, The price/performance increase in a HD3850 makes it almost an imperative. Money does not grow on trees, but buying something that you will have to replace in a year or so because it cannot do the job is not saving money.

I am now going to try to persuade you to kick up the extra cash but read the first sentence below twice.

Now if you have just a few games you play and that is it, the lower tier card might do, but for newer games you will be hurting and next years games might be unplayable. Also consider the "the experience" you might could scrape by with the cards you are considering but what is the point if your game frame rate goes to 10FPS right when you need to kill a monster before it kills you. If you do not fully enjoy the game you are playing it kinda kills the point of it all. You have saved money on other parts of the system, Vista (here comes the flames) gets you nothing in gaming or certainly nothing worth $100+ for the software, a little OCing will make the rest of the system perform very well but a marginal video card will make it all for naught.

I am building a (ups dropped off the MB and CPU yesterday) budget gamer for my son.
Motherboard $90 DS3L
CPU $130 E4500
memory $50 2 x 1GB 4 4 4 12
video card $280 (8800GT)


I used you exact strategy, DS3L motherboard, E4500 which should go to 2.8-3.0 even on the stock cooler. ( I did pick up an Artic Freezer Pro and I am shooting for 3.2GHz) The video card cost more than the motherboard CPU and memory combined and believe me I did not want to spend that much but on the other hand I want him to be able to play the "in" games and I don't want to be looking to have to buy a new card next Christmas or him using his school money to buy a better card behind my back. As mentioned above, if he did not enjoy it then I missed the whole point.

If you have not bought a case yet, here is a super duper buy, its cheap as dirt, actually by most standards it is junk, HOWEVER for cooling and high performance budget build it cannot be beat. Airflow is fantastic and it does the basic job without any negative attributes. Don't look all that bad either. Add a 120mm fan in the front and a corsair VX450 and the game is on.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147074
 
If you set the 8800GT as the fastest video card, here's the proximate performance for each video card.

8800GT 100% performance = ~$280-300
HD3870 ~85-90% performance = ~$220-250
HD3850 ~75% performance = ~$160-180
x1950pro ~35-40% performance = ~$140 - 30 rebates = ~$110 (no directx10)
8600GTS ~35% performance = ~$150 - 20 rebates = ~$130
8600GT/2600XT ~25% = ~$100 - $20 rebates = ~$80



This chart compares the 8600GTS vs the HD3850 well: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=8
 
Get the HD3850 even if you have to cut your CPU budget, it would be better for games than getting a $130 card with a faster CPU.
 
Its $35 more, put in a few more hours of work or eat Ramen for a week if you have to and get the HD 3850 :p. Honestly, if I'm building a PC for someone and we reach that area where we've optimized the budget as best we can and we're right at the cusp of a performance tier, I always say go for it. Buy something better, enjoy your new build, make money later, you always can :D.
 
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