Help for a good video card

I'm upgrading my system and I wanted to know of a good performance video card for a decent price.

The best I've seen so far is the Sapphire X1650XT on NewEgg for 104.99...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102068

It has to be PCI-e, but DX10 isn't required.

Any ideas? I'm trying to keep it around/under $150.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102061

best bang for around $150

 

yup, that would be it.

do you have Vista? if so you may want to further consider a DX10 card. If not, go with the x1950

 

No. For my job we must run from XP or earlier. The IPSec dialier for my VPN program won't work on any Vista OS.

I will go for the X1950Pro.

It is better than X1650XT, right?

Performance(speed) and visual detail?

 

yes it is. and welcome to major geeks

 

What about these two HD2600XT cards?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102102

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102700

Performance wise, is either of those HD 2600XT better than the X1950 Pro?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102061

 

2600 is not as powerful as the 1950pro it is however dx10

not positive, but think the 2600s are on par with 1650 series

 

So, since I'm going to be using XP and can't take advantage of DX10, is there a performance difference between the 512 X1950Pro and the 256 X1950Pro?



OR, lets say I could pay more for the X1950XT; which would you chose?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102067

Does the amount of onboard memory make a difference in performance?

 

I would go for that xt


unless you are editing video files, you wont notice much of a difference between 256 or 512 ram on a video card.

 

I think I'll do that. I have a 500 Watt Antec SmartPower 2.0...is that strong enough to run this card?

System specs:

Gigabyte-P35-DS3L
Q6600 CPU
2 GB SuperTalent Cas4 RAM
320 GB SATA
Antec 900 Case

 

I would upgrade the power supply.. need a minimum of 30 amps sustained on the 12v rail.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817812004

here is a good one..

 

Man, that stinks. Because I've had this one more than 4 months now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103937

Could I get by with what I have or will the PS get burned out? Also, is the type of connection I use to power the video card going to make any difference?

 

youve got a dual 12v rail totaling 36 amps youll be fine with that card i run 3 hdds a 7950 gt 512 and a dual core with 40 amps on my 12v rail

 

yeah you'll be good with your current one

 

Hmm, for some reason I can't find Sapphire's X1950 XT model on NewEgg anymore...

Does that mean its out of stock?

 

Just out of curiousity, what type of motherboard do you have? Also, your psu has plenty of power for that one video card, and most of the time the video card, if it's retail, will come with any special power connections you need. i.e my 7800GTX's came with the molex to PCIe adapters.

 

I have the Gigabyte P35-DS3L

Basically the DSRR without the raid.

Its only 95 on NewEgg.com right now and if you go QuadCore grab this board. The chipset is fast as hell. Good overclocker, but mainly will use the hardware I installed better than any other chipset board in the price range. 975X is probably better, but this is cheap/runs excellent.

GA-P35-DS3L MotherBoard
Quad Core Q6600 2.4 GHz(Stock Fan/Heatsinc for now)
2 GB Super Talent Low-Latency RAM
320-GB Hard-drive
DVD-R/RW Drive w/ Lite Scribe
Antec 900 Case(4 fans come with case, superb airflow)
500 Watt Antec SP 2.0

GPU??? Not yet decided. I can't find the Sapphire XT model on NewEgg anymore.

 

try this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102075

 

This is only my opinion but you could buy an ati radeon x700 pro pci-e 16x for under $100.00 and for a budget priced video card it runs well.
I forgot mine was clearenced priced at $68.00.
But after checking newegg i did find this one for $81.00 after rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103020 It's a radeon x1650 pro 256 meg pci-e

 

I went ahead and bought the 1st X1950xt Sapphire that NewEgg got back in stock this morning...

From the comments I've read I might want to install an aftermarket GPU cooler. I've never done that type of install on the video card. Is it hard? Or is it about as easy as installing the CPU w/ a different heatsync/fan?

 

it is similar.. just more screws

 

Thanks for all the tips again.

Now, can you guys help me out in the Software forum?

:confused