I recently bought an ASUS av8 deluxe mobo, and a socket 939 3500+(the new process one). I'm running a gig of el cheapo ram, and currently an old GeForce MX440 video card. Performance is actually decent considering the age of the video card but I'm wanting to upgrade it. I'm putting myself on about a 200 buck video card budget.
What options would you guys consider in this price range?

I assume you mean the Asus A8v deluxe. If so its agp 8x if it had PCI express I woulda said get a http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?DEPA=0&description=14-145-098&ATT=Video+Cards&CMP=OTC-d3alt1me
But since its AGP I would go with one of the ATI Radeon 9800 pro cards. They are about the best you can get for AGP in the $200 range.

yeah, I meant A8v, thanks for the correction. I was leaning towards a 9800 pro, just thought I would catch some other opinions. I stuck with AMD on this system because my last pentium 4 2.8g ran a little too hot for my tastes, maybe some of it had to do with my case, but with this case I'm running 38c idle and around 55c gaming with the AMD when I was running around 55c idle before and well around 65-70c with the pentium.

There is always water cooling my friend.

As always, I have to be different. I happen to like the NVidia cards; I'm running a Leadtek A380, which is a GeForce FX-5950 Ultra with 256 megs onboard. Since NVidia has released the 6800 series cards, you could probably pick up a 5900 series card within your budget. The ATI's are good cards, but if you're into gaming, a lot of the high-end games are NVidia optimized. ATI does a better job with anti-aliasing than does NVidia, so it's all in what's important to you in a video card. My machine (AMD 64 3000+, Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro mainboard, 512 megs Corsair PC-3200 ram and an Audigy soundcard) has yet to meet a game it can't handle; I can run Far Cry at high res without skipping a beat. Not bragging about my machine, just telling you that the AMD and NVidia video combo works well with the NVidia chipset on the mainboard.

You all have too much time on your hands!!!! LOL J/K man.

OldSalt I got a game that will bog anything down. Throw in Doom III its awesome but turn the detail all the way up and you will be getting about 6 fps. Its crazy the amount of machine the game needs.

Well, I just ordered another gig of Pc3200, and an MSI GeForce FX5900xt. Should see it on thursday. I was getting about 6200 on 3dmark01 before and a whopping 358 3dmark03(MX440 card I have only supports 1 of the tests) I just hope the new video card will outperform my wife's computer, she's getting tired of me playing games on hers.

I play solitaire, do I need extra hardware?

I play solitaire, do I need extra hardware? :lol: :lol: :lol:


THAT'S FUNNY, I don't care who you are! :lol: :lol:

Yeh you should definately look into one of the higher end Alienware computers if you play Solitare. They are supposed to give the best frame rates for solitare. It makes that little shuffle of the cards at the end of the game run sooo quick you cant even see it anymore. Thats what you need.

I play solitaire, do I need extra hardware? :lol: :lol: :lol:


THAT'S FUNNY, I don't care who you are! :lol: :lol:Yeh you should definately look into one of the higher end Alienware computers if you play Solitare. They are supposed to give the best frame rates for solitare. It makes that little shuffle of the cards at the end of the game run sooo quick you cant even see it anymore. Thats what you need.
LOL - Reality is, if I win the lottery tomorrow and can afford to have the best gaming hardware money can buy, that still wouldn't prevent my wife from wacking me on the head every time I try to play games on the computer instead of helping around the house. Don't misunderstand me now, I'm not "whipped" - I'm just living in a balanced marriage where I can spend a lot of time and some money on my Titan, but I can't buy and play the cool games too. Although I have occasionally sneaked away to download and play some of the hot game demos out there (too bad Doom 3 requires some high tech 3D hardware). :cry:

I haven't tried Doom3 yet. I just have this thing about paying $50 for a game. I usually wait until a game has been out awhile, and when the price comes down enough, then I'll spring for it. Plus, by waiting awhile, the inevitable patches and fixes are already out. I really don't have too much time on my hands; I usually play late at night on the weekends. I'll get Doom3 soon, and we'll see how it runs on my machine.

well, I got the 5900xt, between that and the extra gig of ram it makes a world of difference on all the games I play. My 3dmark01 scores went from a 6900 to over 16000, 3dmark03 went from a whopping 359 to 6137, and my pcmark04 scores went from 3864 to 4258. Haven't played with overclocking it yet, with the older games I'm playing I don't really see the need to, and none of the newest games really interest me much yet.