I am trying to buy a new video card i am debating between the GeForce FX 5200 256mb $92.00 and ATI RADEON 9200SE 128MB $55.99
i really need to know is either of them worth the money and which gives me more bang for my buck

Get the Radeon, the 256 MB on a 5200 wont do crap.

But moving up from a Radeon 9000, you wont see much of a change at all. Just save up for a Radeon 9600 SE or so. You even get HL2 for free with that.

Let me tell ya, those cards will not give you any kind of performance on the new games like Doom3 and Half Life 2, framerate will be under 20FPS at superlow res.

They will play todays games ok, but thats it. Don't expect to turn up the resolution or turn on the eye candy, your frame rates will go down the toilet.

I suggest since you have carefully chosen other good parts, don't cheap out now, it's like building a powerfull engine for a car, then panting it with spray cans...goes like hell and looks like crap

A few $$ more AT MINUMUM I would get a 9600SE, they are realy the bottom of the barrel for cards, but a much better choice than than the 2 U listed, it's not much of a stretch, and you will be much happier.

Info-Tek GeXCube Radeon 9600SE 128MB AGP 8X Video Card, Model GC-R9600LSE-C3 - Retail 99$
at New Egg

HERE is a list of 9600SE's under 120$, and a regular 9600 is about 125$ and the 9600XT can be found for 165$ (out of stock)

I would save up and get a 9800SE (145$ )or a 9600PRO if you can, they are both about the same performance, and under 150$ they will give good game play at decent resolutions for the next gen games, and will Kick A$$ in todays games.

If you go cheap on the card, you might be disappointed, and will end up replacing it down the road, so better to save an extra 50$ and wait, then spend 150 to 200$ when new games come out that make those puny cards gasp and wheeze

Note "SE" is a lower clocked version of ATI's regular cards, they are not the greatest for overclocking, as they use cheaper memory, hence the cheaper price. you may ge them to perform near regular ATI cards performance, so they aren't terrible, but a 9600PRO will overclock quite a bit, as they have better memory chips.
As always, you get what you pay for, and Speed costs, how fast ya wanna go?

That seems like a choice between crap and sh!t. Either way, it stinks. Do what $Solid$ suggested or get a GF4 Ti4200 off ebay for cheap. I've seen alot of these overclock to Ti4600 speeds and beyond. That would be your best bet in that price-range, and still be a good performer.

I defently suggest saving up for a 9600 pro or 9600 xt.. It would be well worth it and you would not have to change cards for a good 6 months to a year depending how you are with games..

definatley a 9600 pro, the xt isnt worht it to me because it BARLEY has a performance increase.

This ASUS 9600XT with vivo seems like a decent deal...500mhz core speed and 300mhz DDR...all for a tidy sum of 199.00?
check out the stock cooling, that ought to do the trick huh?

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Ok well i got about 200 to spend but i still want to get a 256mb twin pack of pc3200 Corsair XMS RAM which should i get first if i were to purchase them 9600?

I would get the video card first.

You'll see more performance up front if you get the video card first. A lot of games depend more on the graphics card than on the other system components.

What OS are you using? What games are you playing?That will determin whether 256 of ram will be enough. With win xp it is best to have a minimum of 512 of ram. Xp is a ram hog..

right now i have games like medal of honor, but i am always getting more. i am running windows 2000 pro. i will be buying games like half life 2 (when it is realesed) and max payne soon but i am working on having my comp upgraded before then.

Well how long will it take you to save up the 200 if you get the ram first? In my honest opinion I would say go for the ram first.. 256 is just not enough.. Thens save up for the 9600 pro or xt.

both those cards suck and the 9200se will give u no performance boost form ur 9000, infact will be slower. IF you had to save up and get a 9600 pro or 9600 regular but not the 9600 se. Se dosnt stand for special addition, more like sucky addition.

Thanx Mot19 but i already solved the comparison between the cards as most ppl say you have to read the whole post. About how much am i looking at spending to get the 9600 pro?


My brother just bought me 512mb pc3200 Geil ram for an early christmas present so i basically have about 200 for the card itself but i am still trying to get the most bang for my buck.
i need to know if it is worth getting a new card or should i wait for the next big thing and get one of the many cards that will drop in price?

9600 pro for about 160, GET THE ONE BUILT BY ATI ITS GREEN, ALL THE OTHER ONES SUCK. My 9600 pro kicks ass and it overclocked to 500 core and 330 memory, better then that 9600 xt above for 40 bucks less. Also, if your ganna go with the 9600 pro, i can tell you right off, it beats a 5600 ultra in nearly everytest and overclocked can stay with the 5700. Get it or youll regret it.

Quote: Originally posted by mot19 9600 pro for about 160, GET THE ONE BUILT BY ATI ITS GREEN, ALL THE OTHER ONES SUCK

Uhh, dude, the ATI ones are red...

About what order should i go about with my upgrades. i am sure someone has came up with a pattern that works well. i need to know if my 1700 palomino is ok if i get the 9600 pro and want to play "higher end games."

It shoudl run fine for a while and will be able to play better games.. Some day you will want to upgrade your proc and probably the mobo.. But probably not right now..

Upgrade paths depend on what you have already.

For now, I would upgrade your Video Card to 9600 or better, then upgrade your processor to 2500+ or better, then upgrade your RAM to 1GB. In that order.