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atifraees

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what would be the best graphics card just for gaming purpose

hi

i want to buy a good graphics card for gaming purpose only
the bugget igot for that is $85

so any suggestions

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Luc Franken
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Hi atifraees,

Both the ATI radeons and the GF4 or GFFX are great cards for gaming, also the cheaper ones.

Greetings,

LucF
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buckeyes33

For some suggestions
Most of the cards i will suggest are older cards but should work well.

ATI 8500 LE   128 MB this is a nice card kind of oldish.  ~ $85
Geforce FX 5600  128 MB                                           ~$85 or a little higher
Geforce FX 5200  128 Mb                                            under 85
Radeon 9200 SE    128MB                                                  ~50

There are more cards than this.  You have a wide range of older cards to choose from.
I have a Geforce 4 MMX 440 SE 64MB card.  It runs battlefield 1942 w/ desert combat mod very well.  I am just to poor to go buy a better card.
Look on e-bay and pick up a Geforce4 TI 4200 or 4600 128M AGP or a used Radeon 9500 128 M for about 85.00 .  More bang for your limited bucks on a used card.
AlbertaBeef and others have been critical of the 9200SE, as it is an underperformer.  The 9200, however is much better, though it is not DirectX9 capable - you need to go to a 9500 for that.
Radeon 9200 $71: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-142-011&depa=0

The Geforce FX 5200 is also considered underpowered for 3D, and the 5600 would be better.  The 5600 is DirectX9 capable.
Geforce FX5600 $93: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-128-169&depa=0

If you can get a used Radeon 9500 128M (OEM), that would be a good choice - I have one, and it does UT2003 with no problems on a P4 2.1.
When looking for a video card always look-out for ones that say direct x 8.1 or lower; those are BAD CARDS for gaming at least-- I am using a radeon  7000 (64mb direct 3D and openGL)on this comp and a GeForce2 MX (also 64mb ram direct 3D and openGL) the Radeon was about 100$ but that was a year ago, and the GeForce i bought yesterday for 55$ (and thats canadian) so watch for what ur buying, almost every radeon from 7000 below and 7000-9500 are direct x 8.1 or lower. You definatly want openGL and Direct 3D for gaming purposes. anotherthing to remember;
more memory on a card does not nessisarily make it better, remember to look at the rest of it too.
Huge_Dude,

"almost every radeon from 7000 below and 7000-9500 are direct x 8.1 or lower"

You've got the model range wrong: 9200 is DirectX 8.1
I have a 9500 and it runs DirectX 9.0
I really don't think that any Geforce 4   TI or any other should be considered.  This is b/c you can get much better video cards than what the Geforce 4's have to offer.
I even think that a 9200 will run DirectX 9 it is just not supposed to be supported.  Like my video card is onlt supposed to run DirectX 8.1 but runs 9 just fine.
Boy, that range is going lower and lower!
I agree with Callandor:  GeForce FX5600 or ATI 9200 would be good choices.  The best choice in the price range you're asking about is the FX5600, and if you head over to www.pricewatch.com you'll likely even find a 256Mb version for around $103.

Although honestly, you won't get that much better performance going from 128Mb to 256Mb, so if it were me and I had to stick the the $85 (or so) budget I'd get the FX5600.
I`d suggest to go for a 128mb card instead of a 256mb card. You should be able to get a faster 128mb card compared to a slower 256mb card for approximately the same price. For performance to features feature, get at least a card with DX9 features, such as the Radeon 9500+ or Geforce FX 5200+ (Don't touch the Fx5200 as they suck bad, pretty much only good thing about them is the DX9 support..thats really about it to sum it up).

eg. Sapphire Technology Limited - ONLINE ORDER ONLY - - ATI Radeon 9600 se 128MB DDR AGP8X DVI+CRT+TVO powered by ati (optional 9600 pro 8x agp)
Details:
-MENTION PRICE WATCH -
TotalCost $64
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/sap9600se.html

Or goto www.pricewatch.com -> Vdeo Card -> Radeon 9600 Pro
Hope this helps :)
9600se is NOT a good performing card.  It's only got a 64-bit memory bus, so stay away from it.  You'll get much better performance out of a GeForce 5600 than an ATI 9600se.

GeForce FX5200 isn't terrible, depending on whether you get a 64-bit or 128bit version.  Stay away from the 64-bit versions of those as well.

As for the price of 128Mb vs. 256Mb, it's usually no more than $20 to get a 256Mb version of a card -  Which isn't a lot.  And you can't get a much better card for that $20.

Although Geforce cards are good,you can`t go wrong with ATI radeon cards.
If I were you I would rather wait a bit longer untill I had more cash or just to see whether prices drop again.

But in anycase i would suggest you buy the Radeon 9200 or the Radeon 8500.
These are both great cards,but as I said,you could rather wait a month or to,and buy the radeon 9600 or the 9600XT.

>>Although Geforce cards are good,you can`t go wrong with ATI radeon cards.

Except for the well-known driver issues with many of todays most recent games.  Many of these have NEVER been fixed.  There are far less problems with GeForce FX line of cards and driver compatibilty...

And the 8500 wouldn't be a wise investment due to the lack of DX9 performance.
I agree with an earlier post:   Geforce 4 Ti 4200 or Ti 4600.  I currently run a Ti 4600 and love it.
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ASKER

hay guys thanks for the comments but one problem my board support 4x agp but 9600 is 8x

now what?????????????????????????? will that work
The 9600 will work with it (at 4x), and don't worry about 8x, because it doesn't really give you better performance in your game.
while surfing to choose a good agp i came accross with this site ,so think i should share it with u
http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html
Toms Hardware is a well-known benchmarking site, as well as Anandtech.  Both provide testing of the latest hardware and comparisons of different brands, using popular office suites and 3D games.  A useful site to bookmark.
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