need cheap card to hold me over till directx10

[jba6511]

on a budget so i am thinking about holding off on buying a nice video card until the directx10 cards come out. The setup I have decided on will be

MB: Gigabyte GA-965P-S3
CPU: c2d E6400
Memory: G.Skill 1GB DDR2 800 (will add another in the future)
HD: Segate Barracuda 320 GB (add a second HDD in the future)
Case: Lian Li PC7-Plus
PSU: Undecided, can anyone recommend

Can someone please recommend a cheap video card to hold me over? The cheaper the better. I know about the Geforce 7600GT but I am looking for something even cheaper than that. Not a serious gamer so not an issue if I can not play games until the new cards come out. May do some mild OCing in the future but I am a newbie so we will see. Also, I was thinking of buying a tv tuner card to record tv. Can this be used instead of buying a video card now? Any recommendations?

 

[cleeve]

A good card cheaper than the 7600 GT is the 7600 GS.

It's a $20 price difference though, and the 7600 GT is really worth that extra $20.

I guess you could get an X1300 XT for $80, those aren't bad for that price. They're a little better than the X1600 PRO.

 

[kaotao]

I know you're looking for something a bit cheaper than the 7600GT, but here's something a bit better for the same price...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102021

Hey Cleeve, maybe you could add this to your best bang for the buck list.

 

[purdueguy]

Considering a 7600GT can be bought for 100 bucks, anything less would be uncivilized. ;-)

Though I'd get the BFG model for $114 at Newegg. Otherwise, try getting a used card through Ebay.

Midrange DX10 cards won't be out for 3-4 months.

I'm sure you could sell a 7600GT for 60 bucks when you decide to go DX10. Therefore, it'd be worth it in my opinion.

 

[purdueguy]

Nice find while I was writing my above comment. I take back my 7600GT suggestion. That X1800GTO is a very nice deal.

 

[kaotao]

Yeah, I found it yesterday. I did a double take, because I thought at that price, it was surely just an expensive X800GTO, but no. Even before the $20 savings, $139 for an X1800GTO would even be a good deal.

 

[SciFiMan]

I disagree (but have no more proof than your guess does) as I think ATI and nvidia will have their full line of cards announced early January, and on the shelves by the time Vista is released. Business may not move to Vista soon, but consumers will. A lot of systems purchased in 2006 are Vista ready and all they need is a $100-$200 DX10 video card. Neither vendor will want to miss out on the first wave of Vista upgraders, and both know that very few people need a video card costing more than $250. High end GPU's have a great profit margin but they are a tiny fraction of sales.

...Midrange DX10 cards won't be out for 3-4 months.

 

[enforcerfx]

I agree with Kao, pretty swingin' deal for that x1800GTO. I was going to recommend the new X1900GT thats a steal for 150, but that works too

For powersupply purposes, try this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341002

Futureproof for a DX10 card. Have fun

 

[Crapola]

I disagree (but have no more proof than your guess does) as I think ATI and nvidia will have their full line of cards announced early January, and on the shelves by the time Vista is released. Business may not move to Vista soon, but consumers will. A lot of systems purchased in 2006 are Vista ready and all they need is a $100-$200 DX10 video card. Neither vendor will want to miss out on the first wave of Vista upgraders, and both know that very few people need a video card costing more than $250. High end GPU's have a great profit margin but they are a tiny fraction of sales.

Sorry, but a guy who works at nVidia hinted to me that the mid range cards will probably be out in March/April 2007...

8O