I have a 16mb nvidia vanta and plan on getting a new card with a budget of around $180, can someone tell me a good card for this price.
I pointed my friend towards a gexcube/gigacube ATI 9600 Pro. The brand may sound a little dogey, but all benchmarks I've read on this card have been the same as all others. Most third party ATI cards seem to barely differ from the reference board anyway.
I got this board from Computer Alliance for $230. Most Gigabyte/Hercules/Saphire boards are an extra $100 or so. These cards are definately worth it if you are on a budget.
If you can't go that last stretch and get a 9600, don't bother with a 9200 or FX5200. You're better off going down to the DX8 cards and getting a TI4200. But yeah, a 9600 Pro is definately recommended, they are a very good card, and can be found quite cheaply too.
Check out this site for a massive list of Aussie stores selling cheap cards.
[url]http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=153[/url]
Ebay can also be a good source of cheap cards. They are generally new cards, but be careful of international sellers. Postage may kill you. My friend picked up a Radeon9800 for $100 less than retail (inc. postage). I myself am a little wary of buying something like that off ebay, but the option is there.
Yeah... I'd be wary of buying something like that off ebay. I bought a very cheap Clarion car Headunit off ebay earlier this year. It came from the US secondhand but it was amazingly cheap, $220AU inc postage... same unit retailed for $800AU. Actually, it was the third time it was auctioned before I actually got the item, he kept getting non paying bidders.
Anyway, the unit rocked up soaking wet with the box demolished and a tiny part of the unit dented. It wouldn't play cds properly, and at first I thought I had gotten a dodgey unit. Took it to get repaired and found out it was from the water damage. Got my insurance back on it so it was all good.
But yeah, headunits can be fixed easily. If you got a 9800 pro in the mail that didn't work, good luck getting your money back.
I'd still stick to shops for that sort of thing. At least you can go down there and hassel them in person if they screw you over at all. [:D]
Well if you can put in another $100 or so i would say get a Radeon 9600 pro... that's a good card.
For $180 I would suggest a GeForce 4 Ti or some sort, or if you can try and get a Radeon 9100 (not 9000 and not 9200, they are both worse than the 9100)...