graphics card , help me!!

[nonlinear]

hi, i'm in the search for a 128DDR, 128-bit 8x graphics card. I have to say that the money exchange rate is not favorable for imports here(third world country far faaaar away), so you will see by those prices that buying at a local computer store is basically a rip off, thus, my originally low budget gets even lower. Given this, i need to get the best deal under U$s200 and so far this is what i got:
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Albatron FX5200P 128DDR 250/500/4ns 4L DVI/TV U$s 145
Albatron FX5200U 128DDR 250/700/2.8ns 8L DVI/TV U$s 195

Asus v9520/TD GeForce FX 5200 with TV-out and DVI U$s 165

ATI Radeon 9600 128 DDR DualHead DVI/TV out U$s 194
ATI Radeon 9200 128 Mb DDR DualHead DVI/TV out U$s 130
ATI Radeon 9200 128 Mb DDR DualHead DVI/TV out Box U$s 192
Gigabyte ATI Radeon 9200 128 Mb DDR ViVo Box U$s 142
(i think the 9600 is from shappire but im not sure if its pro)
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Please i need your help to decide, i think that,with this budget cards, minor differences in performance are noticeable so i really want to buy the best for this price range
-Which one do you think is better and more stable?, i'll use it for 3DStudio max 5.1 and photoshop.

-And i'll probably buy it here, unless i take the chance of online shopping overseas, do you think its a good idea, whats your experience on that, can you recommend me an online store that ships internationally?

thanks for the help

my specs
*Albatron KM18G Pro Socket A FSB333 DCh400/Video+TV+AGP8x/5.1/lan (Gforce MX420 integrated GPU)
*AMD Athlon XP 2500PR 512K Barton Box
*DDR 400 Mhz PC-3200 OCZ Premier 512 Mb
*Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 40 Gb ATA133
*Medium Tower Vitsuba 400W

 

[Nights_L]

ATI Radeon9600 128DDR, just make sure it's not SE

 

[addiarmadar]

Id go for te 9600 of that and like he said make sure that its not the SE (sh!t edition)

Barton 2500+ @ 2200mhz (10x220 vcore @ 1.775)
Asus A7N8X Dlx 440 FSB
1gb Geil GD pc3500 Dual Channel (2-3-3-6)
Segata 80gb SATA 8.5ms seek
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro(420/700)

 

[GeneticWeapon]

You have a good system...why get a crap video card? none of the cards you listed are very good.

<b>Athlon XP 2100+ @2.02Mhz
MSI K7N2 Delta-L nForce2 Ultra 400
768mb of Generic DDR266 @310 6-3-3-2
Built by ATi R9800 @420/630</b>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

For $150 US he can buy a 9600Pro...thats in store, not just online.

<b>Athlon XP 2100+ @2.02Ghz
MSI K7N2 Delta-L nForce2 Ultra 400
768mb of Generic DDR266 @310 6-3-3-2
Built by ATi R9800 @420/630</b>

 

[nonlinear]

thanks for all replies, it seems everybody likes the 9600 here, i hope this one is not SE. If it is i guess i'll buy one of the others, the best fx5200Ultra or the ati 9200. do you think the fx5200Ultra sucks even if you don't use it for gaming?

geneticweapon, as i said before, my problem is the low budget, i have to keep it under 200, and because of exchange rates everything is more expensive here so there is no 9600pro for 150 for the moment.
For instance, the ATI Radeon 9600XT 128 DDR is U$s290 at the store so..


wusy, thanks for the link, unfortunately they don't ship overseas, but 128DDR and 256bit sounds good, i'll see for how much i could get it here

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

ORder Best to worst IMO;

R9600P

FX5200Ultra

R9600SE (but not really worth $60 more than an R9200 IMO)

R9200

FX5200

And if your main focus is Photoshop and such the R9600 is a good choice. You will notice the diff. in gaming, but you can always lower the Res.

BTW, this is What country? I'm surprised by the prices.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[nonlinear]

thanks for that list

I'm from Argentina, the exchange rate is 3 to 1 to the US dollar, but depending on what kind of component, prices are at least 30% higher and up to a 100% higher and in some cases even more expensive than that. If we talk about graphics cards, there is a bigger price difference than that of RAM or CPU or others when compared with online retailers.

So if that radeon 9600 is not good(i mean if it's SE) i guess the fx5200 ultra is the next then, it seems to have good features,
Albatron FX5200U 128DDR 250/700/2.8ns 8L DVI/TV , do you know what does the 8L mean there? and does the 2.8ns make a difference?

The main focus is actually 3Dstudio max, but also photoshop. Do you think the fx5200U would crash often?, i mean the onboard GFX420 that i have now is slow but hardly ever crashes, so i want it to be better than what i have, which is not too difficult, but also stable.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Both the R9600 and the FX5200 should be fine with 3DSMax, stability is something not easy to predict. It shouldn't cause you problems, but could. No way to really tel until you put it inside. However both should give you a good boost.

As for the 2.8ns memory that only matters for overclocking. And with your limited resources I wouldn't worry too much about the memory unless you are given a choice. The lower the number the better the overclock potential. 2.86ns memory is rated for 350mhz. 3.3ns memory is rated for 300mhz. If you get the R9600 it will likely come with even slower TSOP memory that will likely be rated 4ns. There's not much you can do about it though.



- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK