best video card i can get for UNDER $150

well today i bought a Radeon Hd 2400 256mb agp but its ****ing up BIG time so im taking it back tommarow but im not sure what to get i can use AGP or PCI video cards

1more question

this guide
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=75775
says that pci is the oldest and isnt made on motherboards but it is mine still has them dont all for like wireless network cards and sound cards? and some on bestbuys website have pci

try giving me multipul options so i can get 1 because they might now have it i want the powerfulest i can get for UNDER $150 and only using a 350 watt power supply

thank you for the help

Ok new question whats better a Radeon x9800 SE or a GeForce 7600 GS

if you can find one still, a radeon 9200 (128mb)would work fine, is AGP, and should be really cheap

Paying up to $150 for a PCI or an AGP video card's just a waste, either upgrade the whole computer or get something really cheap; the price/performance ratios of PCI and AGP video cards are starting to really suck since they're produced in such small numbers and haven't been affected by recent PCI-E video card price cuts.

Yes, PCI is still quite adequate... for simple things like network and sound cards. It's way too slow for modern video cards; its maximum bandwidth is 133 MB/s, compare to the common PCI-E x16's speed of 4 gigabytes per second.

PCI is garbage for vid cards...(personal opinion because its outdated for graphix cards)

AGP is getting outdated.....(but still good for running games and so on, its very affordable and better then pci)

PCI-Express is the new stuff thats wicked (what I run and I love it)

SLI if you can afford it....

You can get solid pci cards for 100-150$ range, check out *gasp* best buy for prices. www.newegg.com has a huge variety of cards for solid prices if you want to go that route. Id recommend that. For that price though...its almost better to pick up an AGP (pending your board though...you never mentioned which you had)

If you can stay from PCI though....do it. PCI will be there for sound and networking because those types of cards dont require the interfaces with the transfer rates that new age graphix cards require.

Upgrade if possible though my 2 cents.

-tiki

1 question whats better a Radeon x9800 SE or a GeForce 7600 GS

I had always gone with GeForce untill they started giving me problems.

I recommend ATI, I believe they make a stronger product over GeForce. As for specs id have to take a look at them (im at work and cant access it quickly to do it, sorry)

You can get a Radeon X1950 GT that's better than both of them for $139 at newegg here

As for a comparison between those two cards specifically, the Geforce 7 series has always had a great price to performance ratio, so I'd go for the 7600. Try to find a GT though, the GS has a slower memory interface.

Depending on how ghetto that 350 W power supply is any high-end video card, particularily something as power hungry as a high-end Radeon, could end up killing it. I wouldn't recommend one.

Before you buy; check Tom's Hardware. They do a lot of testing and the results, well see for your self.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/09/...for_the_money/

the 9200 i recommended wont suck much power either - should run fine even in a factory pc with cheesy cheap power supply...
i dunno if you will find one tho...
the ge force 7600 will likely not get enough power from a 350w supply. I needed to get a 500w just to run my geforce 6800gs, 128mb card!

also just pretend pci video cards do not exist- they are trash

^ I agree with N E D M ^

Leave PCI (not PCI-e thats a different slot) alone if you have an AGP port on your motherboard. PCI video is basically used for low-end dumb-terminals or for troubleshooting graphic problems as motherboard/ram/cpu vs AGP or PCI-e graphics card by replacing them...or when you pooch a bios hack on one and need to actually be able to see a screen to reflash one....lol.
Guild Wars runs great on lower settings and like mentioned also, if you really plan to get a good graphics card just save that money and start working on a new PC.

I use this card, and it's fantastic. I'm an NVIDIA fanboy for many reasons, not the least of which being that they wait for ATi releases, study the product and then release their card. I also take issue with ATi's lack of compatibility in some areas.

The 560MHz core clock is plenty for GW, and 12 pixel pipelines is also nice. This card runs EQII at extreme quality flawlessly, as well as Oblivion at max settings with quadrupled wildlife and texture sizes. In my experience, EVGA consistently puts out quality products, and I am extremely pleased with this card. Did I mention that with the rebate you can buy 2 for ~$150? I wouldn't buy SLi at the moment, since NVIDIA is considering discontinuing it in favor of higher-powered single-card products. It's not set in stone, though, so I can't advise for certain either way.

You will want at least a 450W PSU. I use this one, from CoolerMaster, but that's 550W and isn't mandatory. 450W PSUs are cheap enough for you to afford on a $150 budget in addition to one of the 7600GTs.

I have read that it's a loud card, but since I blare music whenever I'm on the computer I don't mind.

N E D M, Timeless Logic: A midrange card like the GeForce 7600 will probably run just fine off a 350 W PSU unless it's a $30 piece of crap. I have an overclocked GeForce 7900GS, three hard drives and a bunch of extra fans in my computer and I'm using an old 350 W Antec SmartPower 2.0 power supply.

Don't be fooled by ridiculous wattage claims; they're a marketing ploy just like any other number they print on the box in a huge font. Most of the cheap "500 W" will probably spontaneously combust when you draw 400 W from them. The PSU's general quality, cooling and the current it can deliver on the 12V rail are what matters when it comes to video cards and gaming. I think some hardware enthusiast forum has a list of different PSU brands and their build quality, but I can't quite remember the URL.

That said, if the OP doesn't know what PSU he has exactly it probably IS a $30 piece of crap.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3030994

PSU guide

I ended up getting a Radeon x1300 for like $130 it has 512 mb of ram and its doing really really good compaired to my old 9800 did i get a good or bad or inbetween deal?

oh ya the full name is Radeon X1300 512 MB XGE

the specs are

ATI Radeon Visual processing unit at 450MHz+
150 MHz overclock
oversized active fansink
single slot solution
dual link dvi
512mb ddr2 memory
agp 8x
90NM gpu
ultra threaded core 3D architecture
Avivo display enchancement technology
Sharder model 3.0
Dual Dvi-i

I can run crysis on the lowest graphics without a lag

or you can read it here http://www.visiontek.com/products/ca..._XGE_pcie.html

wish i had one of the Geforce 8800 like my brother http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...800GTS&x=0&y=0
that one is good and he has another one

Are you serious? A quick look at the VGA Charts would suggest the Radeon X1300's a bad deal even for about half that price. 512 megabytes of video RAM doesn't make much of a difference when the card's memory bandwidth and other features are so poor it chokes on anything that uses more than 128 MB of textures.

actual it runs smootly i can run gw with max settings and get 40fps and my old video card at lowest got that and it also says the x1300 and 9800 are at the same level but there not even near the same.

that and your not even selecting the right card i said x1300 XGE which isnt even on the list

Oh, my mistake. X1300 XGE isn't a Radeon GPU model, it's a brand name created by Visiontek to market their overclocked Radeon X1300's. I just picked the one on the charts that seemed closest to the sparse info on the Visiontek site.

It still looks like a bad deal for $130.