Best Sub $100 nvidia pci-express card

[marksas]

Anyone have suggestions on what the best Card would be to use with an Asus M2NE Mobo / Athalon 64 combo? Right now i'm eyeing a PNY Geforce 7300GS PCI-E w/256mb. I won't really be doing any gaming, mostly graphic design and maybe PVR in the future. Is 256MB overkill or is 128MB sufficient? Trying to build a budget but quality rig that will last.

 

[uwisuwerme7]

Fine for what you do.
256 def wouldnt hurt to have.

 

[sithscout80]

If you want to be able to have very good 3D performance and don't mind ATI, go for the Radeon X800 GTO 128mb. Still under $100 and performs much better than the Nvidia 7300GS.

256 def wouldnt hurt to have.

I thought a large memory size was only useful when running at high resolutions (in 3D). More important is the GPU clock speed and memory access speed on lower end cards. From what I remember.

 

[uwisuwerme7]

But if you are rendering something rather large right?
If it's only 15-20 more then I would go up in ram.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

On a card that slow 256MB of texture memory won't matter much if at all. I'd suggest going with a faster GPU and not worry about the amount of memory. Companies like to jack up the texture memory since the average consumer will buy the computer (product) that has bigger numbers even if it isn't faster. Why does it have to be an Nvidia card?

Edit: You may want to check out this link. Also, you may have gotten a better response if you had posted this under graphics cards rather than nvidia in the forums.

-mcg

 

[marksas]

Is that ATI card compatible with that Asus M2NE Mobo?

 

[marksas]

When you are talking about faster GPU's, do you mean "Core Clock" or "Memory Clock"?

 

[The_OGS]

Hi marksas,

Is that ATI card compatible with that Asus M2NE Mobo?

Yes, if it is PCI Express x16.
Having 256MB video memory is not unreasonable, especially looking ahead to future OS's.
Avoid cards with 64-bit memory! But you do not require 256-bit...
An inexpensive 128-bit vidcard like GeForce 6600 would be good.
Or even a Radeon X1600 (inexpensive, but good investment - Vista is coming, right?)
But the 7300 is awful low, bro...
Regards

 

[sithscout80]

Yes it is compatable with your motherboard.
Either of these cards will work. The 256MB version has a slightly faster core clock (392 v. 400) and a much faster memory clock (700 v. 980). The 256MB version also has a $10 rebate which puts the price at $99.99, just in your price range.

 

[The_OGS]

That's amazing! That X800GTO GDDR3 is excellent for that price, thanks sithscout80.
That's actually a real vidcard - it will work well.
L8R