which video would be best for me?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=48&Submit=Property

I'm not willing to spend more than $120 (give or take several bucks) on a video card.

All I really want to do is to at most play BF2 (although I'll probably mainly play cs 1.6 and cs:s).

I have an athlon 64 3200+ venice core and an abit ax8 mobo to go along with it (the mobo does have x16 pci-e).

Which one of those video cards would be right for me (i suck at picking video cards out)

 

Well 169$ but very nice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102613 Has 1.6ns ram, very good cooler, 256bit memory bus, 12 pipelines - guranteed oc-settings thanks to super ram and cooling. OEM version but just more value for money. 800GT cards at 10$ less also available but you get much for the little extra.

Performance is almost in 6800GT class. Look up a GTO review but remember this card is even faster than default, at least has the potential. You will likely run it at very high oc-settings.

Sapphire probably deliver some annoying program to oc but use ATI Tray Tools instead. Lets you control mhz and temp controlled fanspeed, 2D vs. 3D oc-presets, game profiles and much more. Should be compatible.

 

search for a 6600GT, should fall in that price range.

 

Yeah, a 6600gt is around $110-160, depending on the manufacturer. Newegg.com quite often has them with rebates which is nice. However they only have 8 pixel pipelines and 128mb onboard RAM so you'll want to have a lot of system RAM to back it up. If you're willing to spend a little more, a 6800 would be better.

ps. I have a fx 5200 and can run HL2 on high settings with no AA or AS filtering and battlefield 2 at low with only 512 system RAM so a 6600gt should do fine.

 

I wouldn't go any less than a 6600GT or you will be disappointed if you want to play BF2.

Not one of the cards in the newegg link you posted is capable of playing that game comfortably.

Make sure it's a GT and not a plain 6600 or an LE or SE, as they are much slower.

 

fx 5200 @ High? 800x600 right? what extensions? DX7 or 8?

 

Sounds like my computer except I run it at low quality.

 

HL2 isn't that demanding, and isn't a good example as it's very scalable and well written.

I've run it on an MX440 at 1027x768 and it ran fine, and that's on a lowly PIII !

BF2 is a different story and requires better hardware to be remotely playable.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150098

I ended up buying that basead on the price and the reviews. Never heard of XFX but I hope the card turns out to be just fine

Now to find some 64-bit drivers for it <_<

 

AFAIK Xfx is good in terms of service; althought there seems to be a complaint from reviews from the fan's performance / life time.

 

I'm curious why you even want 64bit.

There is absolutely no advantage, and drivers are hard to come by, so why bother?

 

Plus, half of the games have erratic errors on 64bit drivers too.

 

Might as well have 64-bit os and 64-bit drivers if I'm going to have a 64-bit cpu (venice 3200+)

 

It doesn't work like that at the moment.

There are very few 64bit drivers, and the ones that are available are buggy.

If there was a performance benefit, I would agree with you.

However, what's the point of creating a headache for yourself for no benefit whatsoever?

 

64bit os/drivers are only gimmic for now, wait a year or two more before they take full effect. The reason to have a a64 over a standard amd XP and such is because they're about 20% faster for having onboard memory controllers/higher fsb, and thats about it.