New GFX card recommendation

[jiten87]

So today my ATI 9800XT decided to bug out and it seems dead (does not boot when the computer is turn on) but when I put in another card it works fine. My question is what graphics card will put out the same performance without costing over $200 (50-100 being the ideal price) I dont want a top of the line card I just want to get my computer working again. I have not been keeping up with the graphics card news so any help would be appreciated.

 

[dirtmountain]

Is it an AGP graphic card ? What power supply does your system have? I'm assuming it's AGP and not PCIex16. Since the 9800XT uses 60watts at load i'd also assume that your power supply could handle the HD3850 AGP card (63watts at load)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131090
second choice that uses less power HD3650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102814

Make sure you check both your power supply and your motherboard, i'm making some assumptions that could be wrong. Make sure you have an AGP socket and that your power supply is at least 400w to handle the HD3850 AGP.

 

[jiten87]

Yes it is an AGP slot (8x) and i have a 400 something watt supply I dont remember. I will check out the cards you have posted. Thank you very much!

 

[jiten87]

Also that is a little bit pricy for a card I was aiming around $75-90 at most but I will do a little more research.

 

[dirtmountain]

Because there are so few AGP cards being produced they really jack up the prices. You might also check www.tigerdirect.com for some decent deals.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4329699&CatId=318
Here's a chart showing the relative power of graphic cards. Many of them only come in PCIeX16 though, so make sure it's available in AGP.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2118-7.html

 

[jiten87]

I got this today from the tigerdirect near my house

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3570059&CatId=2234

Pretty good deal eh?

 

[dirtmountain]

The 2600XT DDR3 is an excellent card, a good 4 tiers above your old card.

 

[jiten87]

Im having some problems installing the drivers. I installed the drivers that came with the CD, however, I want to be up to date with the latest drivers so i installed the one from the ati/amd website. I used a driver cleaner program to get rid of all my old drivers but when I try to install new drivers of any kind I get an error that says driver was not found. Is there a way to completely get rid of my old drivers so i can successfully install new ones?