card under $200

Capt. Insane · 03-03-2007, 07:58 PM

I'm starting to think that my graphics card is the root of my game lag. It's an eVGA 7600GT 256mb overclocked to 600 core and 1560 memory clock speeds. It'd like to upgrade it to something better, but I'm not sure what. I don't want to get another eVGA brand card, but I don't really know about the differences between nVidia and Radeon. The games I want to play are Doom 3, HL2, and GTA:SA. D3 and HL2 I'd like to play on pretty high settings, but don't need to be max. I would, however, like to use HL2's HDR effects. Right now on the 7600 the HDR looks like crap, unless of course it's like that for everyone. It's increadibly bright, more so that it seems like it should be, and I don't think that it's the gamma.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Anyone have ideas?

ChemicalWarrior · 03-03-2007, 08:19 PM

First, the 7600GT should be doing the HDR in HL2 just fine, it is over bright and as is most use of HDR out there. Developers tend to not have a clue how to use it right for the most, just recently has it been done with style.

As for the card, you can grab a X1950 Pro right now that should be very good, you can grab the 256MB cards for around $160 off of Newegg in PCIe form. The games you mentioned should all be able to run at max settings on this card.

April we'll see the 8600 series but I am doubtful they'll out perform the X1950 Pro by much and with the edition of DirectX 10 only useful if you have Vista.

{OF}Blong · 03-03-2007, 09:39 PM

uhh I have a 6800gt and dont get game lag. how much ram you got?

slinki · 03-04-2007, 02:51 AM

I had an archive hard drive that was going bad and caused some major lag. Replaced it and everything ran much smother.

Cheese · 03-04-2007, 07:54 AM

i'm pretty sure that hdr is crap regardless of your card. i have a 7600gt and those games should run just fine. css i believe i have everything maxed except hdr, but including aa and af. it starts getting bogged down when i try to run stuff made in the last year or so though.

Capt. Insane · 03-04-2007, 05:44 PM

Well, it's really only GTA and HL2 mod Dystopia that lag. I've got 2gb of DDR 400 Corsair RAM so it's not that. I, and a few people I've talked with at school, think it's the card's overclocking that's the problem, but I can't get it to stay underclocked (it was factory overclocked). Those two games seem more graphically intense than others I play (except for D3). It also doesn't help that rooms at my school are insanely dusty and the computer is constantly inhaling it all; there's no way to avoid it. But, even when I clean out the computer, it doesn't help much. Though, it could be as simple as my case doesn't have good enough airflow. I'm tempted to get a new case to fix this as well as give me more room, but the only one that I'm interested in has four side-mounted 12mm fans, which means that if they're intake fans then it'd more than quadruple the dust intake.
Oh, forgot to ask, would one of these cards include a TV tuner? If it wasn't under $200 with the tuner, that'd be fine

ChemicalWarrior · 03-04-2007, 05:57 PM

ATi no longer does its All-in-Wonder line up. The last one was a X1900 but it has rather low clocks and could be rather expensive. I would suggest against looking for such a card and instead look of a stand alone tuner that's more powerful. It would suck for just the tuner to go out and have to replace them both, or vice versa, etc.

Capt. Insane · 03-04-2007, 06:55 PM

OK, cool. Any suggestions on tuners? I remember one of my friends telling me about one that was like $35 and I could hook up anything from a TV to a VCR, game system, whatever, and was really great. I'd ask him, but I'm on spring break and don't have his screen name.
And, what's a good company to buy the card from? Also, what's Vivo?

Also, thanks all of you for all your help!

ChemicalWarrior · 03-04-2007, 07:26 PM

For $35 I can't imagine you getting anything decent unless you are very easily pleased. Hauppauge is a very popular brand and their PVR-150 model is about the best bang for your buck for SD content, you'll have to do some more searching on your own about the various models. They start around $70.

VIVO stands for Video-In, Video-Out. It is a feature on some video cards that allows you to capture video. You need the correct software for use, etc. It will not work as a TV Tuner.

The best place for parts is generally Newegg, in my opinion. They tend to have competitive prices and I've yet to have an issue where they did not fix it up quickly and easily.

Capt. Insane · 03-04-2007, 07:37 PM

Oh, I said company but I meant brand (like Sapphie, XFX). Also, would it be better to spend the extra couple bucks for an 1950XT? A few are only $19 more, with or without a rebate. I mean, I'd prefer spending less, but I'd go a little more for extra power. And I'm having trouble determining the best one to get (for the pro that it). This one looks good, but it's out of stock at the moment:
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814121031
Would this be a good choice on my part or am I going in the wrong direction? When it comes to specifics, I'm not that great. I know to look at higher memory and clock speeds, but I'm not sure if this would be a good one or not.