Good video card for under $75?

Tek7 (Legacy)

Tek7 (Legacy)

CGA & ToJ President
As mentioned in my latest update to the "Operation Burnination: Tek's PC situation" thread, it seems my video card is toast.

Now I need a good--not great--video card. The problem is, money's very tight right now as Ember and I are living on student loans and I still haven't found a summer job. I'm setting a $75 spending limit for myself.

My previous video card was a GeForce3 Ti450, so it shouldn't be difficult to top. I don't care whether it's the card uses an ATi or nVIDIA chipset, as long as it runs as fast or faster than my old card.

Also, this card will be going into a Giga-byte 7VAX motherboard. According to the Giga-byte web site, that means it has to fit into:
1 x AGP slot (8X/4X, AGP 3.0 compliant) , Supports 1.5v display card only.
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I understand my options are limited, but I'd like input from the video card experts in the community.

And while I loathe Best Buy and CompUSA, I'd even be willing to purchase a new video card locally if the price difference between a local store and newegg.com wasn't staggering. I've waited over a month to get back to gaming and this nonsense with the video card is only prolonging the agony.

Again, all suggestions are welcome. It's 1:15AM here so I believe it's time to put this horrible night to an end and get some sleep.
 
Would either or both of these cards be 1.5v only?

Also, is there a site where I could view benchmarks for each card?
 
What do you all think of the VisionTek Xtasy RADEON 9250? Best Buy sells it for $79.99. I'm thinking that it's not a good price for the card, but it is local.

Or what about the Verto GeForce FX 5500? It's on sale at CompUSA this week for $59.99 after rebates ($20 instant, $20 mail-in).

It would be nice to have a card right in the next few days, but I'd rather have a more powerful card at a better price than have a weaker card tomorrow.
 
for 6 more dollars you can get the card HES posted, which is better then the visiontek =P
 
Hm. The SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600 has my vote right now. ^^

How does the Radeon 9600 compare to the GeForce line? In other words, what is the nVIDIA "equivalent" (and I use the term loosely) of the Radeon 9600? GeForce 4? GeForce FX?
 
Okay then. I just have one last concern before ordering.

My old video card (the GeForce3 Ti450) had three segments of connector board (for lack of a better term) where it fit into the motherboard, like the Rosewill Geforce FX5500. The SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600 only has two sections of connector board, as seen in this image.

And for reference, here's a picture of my motherboard. (Click in for a closer look.)

Does this make any difference at all? I know it probably doesn't, but I've already lost so much time and don't want to purchase a card, wait four days, and find that it won't work with my motherboard.

Again, here are the specs for my motherboard, the Giga-byte 7VAX.
 
HCS has reassured me that the video card will work with my motherboard. If I determine that the video card needs to be replaced (see this post for details), I'll immediately place an order for the SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600.
 
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600 purchased (from Newegg, of course). ^^

I'll report on the card as soon as I get it installed and running.
 
I purchased a SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9550E (from NewEgg) a few months ago, and have been quite happy with it.
 
I have a 9600 and it runs pretty good. I've been thinking about upgrading to a 256 MB card, but I've certainly been very happy with the one I have.

It runs a lot of my favorite games with no effort at all, like Solitaire, Minesweeper, Descent, Tetris, and even StarCraft. lol - just kidding.

btw - I think I paid $60 for mine through newegg, which was about a year or more ago. ATI Radeon 9600se 128 MB. Now I'm sure you can find a slightly better card for about that same price.
 
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Tek7 said:
I'll report on the card as soon as I get it installed and running.
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The card is installed and running...but a busted chipset fan has delayed installation and playtesting of Unreal Tournament 2004. :(
 
Hmph, Tek, you make 75$ seem like too little. You can buy a very good descent card here! I think Fry's Electornics gives huge rebates, but that's only regionally. :p

$75 card is still good.
 
SilentAssassin said:
Hmph, Tek, you make 75$ seem like too little.
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Heh. $75 is a rather large chunk of change to spend on computer parts when you're married, unemployed, and living on spring semester's student loans during the summer.
 
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