Affordable (but decent) video cards

[Uniqueuponhim1]

Hey. I'm upgrading most of my system, and one of the things I'm upgrading is the video card. I don't know a whole lot about them, though. I'd like to be able to play games like Lineage2, Shadowbane, and Halflife 2 without either sacrificing quality or speed/framerate. I don't know a whole lot about video cards, I'm just wondering which ones would be adequate for what I need, but not overly expensive. Thanks.

 

[The Amish Kid]

I not quite sure what you consider overly expensive, I am assuming that you mean you dont want to spend $300. Well you could get a 6600GT or maybe a 6800

 

[Uniqueuponhim1]

what about ATI cards?

 

[jac006]

How much can you spend?

 

[The Amish Kid]

well I was just looking on newegg.com and I saw some x800xt pe's for around $300 their refurbished though. Those are excellent cards. Or if you dont want to get a refurbished card you could get a x800xl. By the way am I right about the price range?

 

[Uniqueuponhim1]

I was planning on getting the card from eBay, and I don't want to spend more than $200, preferrably closer to $150.

 

[The Amish Kid]

then I would say get a 6600GT

 

[Uniqueuponhim1]

Alright. With the Geforce 6600GT, are they all the same, or is there a difference between the MSI, the nVidia, AOpen, etc?
Also, what about ATI X600 or X700, or 9800? Are any of those any good?

 

[moondoggie]

I'd say this one, it's the one I have and it's awesome
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130231

 

[BigLu]

I got my X800 with 12 pixel pipelines and 256mb of 256 bit memory for $160 off of newegg. It is incredible, I can play HL2 and CS:S with full graphics, full resolution, and full aa and af with no lag.