Best/Cheapest Video card Now

[sivart7555]

So A friend gave me $55 and told me to buy him a GOOD pci Express x16 2.0 card. The best thing I can find is a GIGABYTE GV-R465OC-1GI Radeon HD 4650 1GB for $54.99 w/ free shipping, is this the BEST deal or what should i get, I never have to build computers for gamers and he thinks I know about graphics cards all that much when in fact I don't. All I build is Quad core Internet surfers, for around $600 all the time and I usually just leave built-on which is what he has but isn't satisfied. He says he wants to play Half life 2 on All High settings without glitches..

the video card I found is here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125253

 

[Bluescreendeath]

4650 is more than enough for maxing out HL2.
I have it on my 2ndary comp and I can play Hl2 EP2 on max, as well as games such as COD4 at nearly max.

 

[sivart7555]

Thanks for that, is there anything cheaper that will compare to it? or atleast run hl2 pretty well, or better than a NVIDIA Geforce 8200 integrated chipset on the Asus M3N78-VM µATX Motherboard?

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Any card is better than the 8200.

You can run HL2 on high to max settings if you get a used 7600GT, 7800GT, or 7900GT off of ebay for ~$25, $35, and $45

 

[AKM880]

Yes it will be better than that IGP. It might be getting memory from the RAM too.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

either the 4650 or an 8600GTS. whichever is cheaper.

 

[sivart7555]

The only thing I could find was this 8600 GTS 256MB.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130394

Does Stream processors do anything, does that number really matter?

How about a GeForce 9400 GT? It looks like it has better spec than the 8600 GTS.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

9400GT is not really for gaming, but it can run older games just fine. (but not really worth the money)

ATi 3870 > ATI 3850 ~ ATI 4670 > ATI 4650 > Nvidia 7900GT > 7800GTX > 7900GS > 8600GTS > 7800GT > 8600GT > 8600GS ~ 7600GT ~9400GT > 8400 GS > ... > integrated

Anything at 8400 GS or above can play HL2 on high on at least 1280x1024.

 

[sivart7555]

Does memory not matter that much on these? So a 8600GTS with 256mb is better than a 9400GT with 512mb?

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Memory is for larger resolutions. Larger memory is useless if the card is to weak to use the memory in the first place.

 

[sivart7555]

Alright, I see now. I think 256 will be fine, it's the core clock and memory clock I am really looking at?

 

[cjl]

Core clock, memory clock, memory bus width, and number of stream processors all matter (note that ATI and Nvidia stream processors are different though, and you can't compare between the two brands).

 

[sivart7555]

After Looking and Looking I am thinking about getting the GeForce 8600 GTS. The cheapest I can find it shipped is $40.00.

 

[sivart7555]

Scratch That Several Charts on here have helped me choose the Radeon HD 4650.

 

[illyan]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121319

-A GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB GDDR3 for $55. $20 mail in rebate makes it $35, and it comes with a free copy of COD: World at War.

EDIT: Eh, guess its gone now.

 

[cjl]

After Looking and Looking I am thinking about getting the GeForce 8600 GTS. The cheapest I can find it shipped is $40.00.

There's definitely no reason to get an 8600. It's quite a bit older, and is sorely lacking in performance compared to the ATI 4600 series or Nvidia 9600 series. The 4650 should do nicely though

 

[sivart7555]

That was the 9600 That I found but then changed my mind when it went out of being in stock. Thanks for helping me.