Help me decide on a new video card

[ryansebiz]

I'm looking to spend around $200 for a nice video card. I've read up on the boards, and heard all the rave reviews on the 9800pro. I've also heard Nvidia cards are better. With my budget (and specs, below) what would you recommend? Please specify card RAM and the cheapest place you know to buy it.

Also, I read that the video cards were supposed to drop in price around June-July. Have they? If not, when will they drop, and why?

Here's my specs:

MoBo: MSI K7N2-L Delta Series 400 FSB
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2700 2.167 GHZ
HD: Maxtor 160 GB 7200 RPM
RAM: Kensington 512MB DDR333 PC 2700
Video Card: Asus V9180 Magic 64MB Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8X (ON THE WAY OUT)
DVD Burner: Liteon SOHW-812BK 8X DVD Dual Rewriter
Fans: Front In, Side Out, 2 Rear Outs
Power Supply: PowMax 450 Watt
OS: WinXp Pro w/ SP1

You guys rock!

[Conan]

For a 200 $ budget, 9800 Pro would be your best bet. Just make sure that the memory is 256 bit not 128 as there is a cheaper model with 128 bit memory.

[cash_site]

How do you determine whether the memory is 256bit or 128 ?? is it more the case of look at the model number and check on the internet??

[rik]

The Radeon cards ROOL!! The 9700 and 9800 Pro cards are the best for the money IMHO.

[Conan]

How do you determine whether the memory is 256bit or 128 ?? is it more the case of look at the model number and check on the internet??

It should say so on the box or the product description.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/vga/9800proatl.asp

[joshsiao]

Lolz. The 9800 costs 200+ now? It was valued at 980 here a few months ago before the X800 and such came out. See how technology changes so fast. And with the release of PCI-Express, my comp has suddenly been outdated... It'll be the release of Longhorn before I can get a new comp.

Well, get the 9800, its worth the 200. Just enough to play the soon to be released games like DOOM III, HL2.:D