Video Card Suggestions?

[odel0022]

Right now I am currently running a ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128mb AGP card (picked it up for like 120 about 2 1/2 years ago) in my current computer and I am starting to budget money for my new computer. I plan on doing some gaming and I would like to be able to have decent quality when new games come out. Am I going to need a better card you think? How much money will I have to spend? I was looking at some offbrand Radeon 9550 for like 60-70 bucks...should I pick something like that up? What non-ATI brands would you recommend? Sphaire? Asus? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!

[Kov-Ice]

Are you wanting to use the new vid card now in your old computer? What are your future budget plans for the new comp?

As for gaming, high-end is buying an SLI motherboard to utilize two graphics cards at once. Mid-range uses a PCI-Express card (which your older mobo probably doesn't have.) After that, for any future usefulness whatsoever, you'd probably want a Radeon 9800Pro or similar. I don't believe the 9550 is even a DX9 compatible card. Any Radeon brand will be decent. I've used both Sapphire and Gigabyte in the past.

[lil Jimmie]

Sounds like a 9800Pro will do the trick if you are just going to upragade your current PC. If you are looking for something for a new build you prolly want to look at PCI-express, but as Kov, mentioned it will not work in your current PC. Sapphire, ATI and Powercolor have all been good brands for me.

My suggestion is to wait and get a card with the new build.

[PcRookie]

Ok heres the deal. It seems as you put it you have a pretty old gc. And you want to upgrade. Right?. You didn't specify your other parts. But i am expecting that it isn't any Voodoo pc or L Rock or something.
I think that you should not buy a new gc now. I would save up 500-800 bucks and upgrade all your computer parts.
You wanna game right? If not...

[kram 2.0]

The Radeon 9550 is a DX9.0 card - however, it is ATI's lowest DX9 card. It's not a good option, unless you are on a strict budget. Remember to consider the Radeon 9600 Pro, which has fallen to around 80 USD, or the Radeon 9800 Pro, which is at a sweet 130 USD pricepoint.

kram

[xGame-GuruX]

Well i suggest going with NVIDIA SLI, i'm also building a Pc mostly for gaming and i'm using a SLI mobo and planning on getting 2 Nividia Geforce 6600 GT SLI ready
video card. Also the ATI Radeon video cards are not bad either. But if your going to build a PC for some gaming i still suggest useing a Nvidia Geforce for gaming. Also it depends how much are i willing to spend on a video card. SLI ready can be expensive.

[glc]

Before you even want to think about SLI, how much money will you be able to budget for a new computer? SLI is high end, spelled EXPENSIVE, and this is a PCI-E thing, not AGP.

[nocturnx]

I second waiting until you actually begin building the new computer. You dont want to get an agp card now and limit yourself on the new build where you could be using a pci-express card instead. Also by the time you start building the new computer video card prices may have dropped, which they often do. If you plan on getting an agp card to use in your current computer and also in your new computer an ati 9800 Pro is definatley the way to go.