Help choosing a Video Card for my Friend's kid.

suraswami · Apr 4, 2008

As the title says my friend need a Video card to add to his new machine. Kid might be playing not so VC 'torture' games. May be Railroad/Sims etc. But my friend might play some newer games.

His budget is under $75 (with or without Rebate). I was thinking of 8600GT or 2600XT (256 or 512).

How are the new ATI 3xxx series cards?

He is in dilemma to go with pre-built 5000 or 9500 Emachine.

Though I am urging him to build his own to have better components.

Thanks for your help.

:toast:

JrRacinFan · Apr 4, 2008

So more media intensive stuff then? If you could find a 7600GT/X8x0 for that price it would be a card to look into. If more less HD and media is involved then look into the 8600GT 256/512 or HD3650 512 (if you can find one at that price).

EDIT: Oh also, I still have a 7600GS. Would handle those games halfway decent.

newtekie1 · Apr 4, 2008

Either the HD2600XT or the 8600GT.

WarEagleAU · Apr 4, 2008

good choice newtekie and I agree. However the 3650 line is quite nice as well.

newtekie1 · Apr 4, 2008

WarEagleAU said:
good choice newtekie and I agree. However the 3650 line is quite nice as well.

I couldn't find a 3650 with GDDR3 in his price range, all of them are GDDR2. And since there really isn't any difference between the 2600XT and 3650, I would rather have the 2600XT with GDD3 over the 3650 with GDDR2. :toast:

suraswami · Apr 4, 2008

This is going to be his Kids PC. May be next month he is going buy one more for himself. He is coming from a PIII 800 + 256MB ram machine which his kid was beating to death right now. So anything would be better.

Also I forgot to mention - the 5000 machine has 8300GS card and the 9500 machine has the 2400XT on it. Are those any good? Should he directly discard it and go for the new video card?

Also y'all know that pre-built ones comes with crappy PSU. So if I need to upgrade his VC I need to pick a PSU too right? Or anyone know if Emachine bundles a good PSU?

If so I would drag him to build one probably 2.

He hasn't opened both the boxes so he can return it.

Thanks all. Awesome.

suraswami · Apr 4, 2008

JrRacinFan said:
So more media intensive stuff then? If you could find a 7600GT/X8x0 for that price it would be a card to look into. If more less HD and media is involved then look into the 8600GT 256/512 or HD3650 512 (if you can find one at that price).

EDIT: Oh also, I still have a 7600GS. Would handle those games halfway decent.

If it was for me or for my son I would have got it from you. But for my friend I don't want to deal with used one headache. you know what I mean.

JrRacinFan · Apr 4, 2008

Oh of course, I just bought it last year(like May 2007) for 60. But its ok, wasnt really an offer to buy mine. Just giving some insight on some lower power req cards.

suraswami · Apr 4, 2008

Thanks JR.

Is 8300GS or 2400XT any good?

JrRacinFan · Apr 4, 2008

For HTPC's, yes. For casual gaming, not really. I mean, if your buying one go the extra few bucks and do 8600GT.

suraswami · Apr 4, 2008

hey I saw Frys has the Visiontek 512MB 3650 for $70 AR. That should be good for light gaming too right? I don't think they are going to use for HTPC purposes.

JrRacinFan · Apr 4, 2008

DDR2 or DDR3?

Snipe343 · Apr 4, 2008

8600GT is a great budget card, i have it and i play new games(Crysis, Assassin's Creed, and others) Its also good for sims and stuff like that

System Name	---
Processor	FX 8350 @ 4.00 Ghz with 1.28v
Motherboard	Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 v4.0, Hacked Bios F4.x
Cooling	Silenx 4 pipe Tower cooler + 2 x Cougar 120mm fan, 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200 mm Red LED fan
Memory	Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 16GB + Patriot Memory DDR3 1866 16GB
Video Card(s)	Asus R9 290 OC @ GPU - 1050, MEM - 1300
Storage	Inland 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD for OS, WDC Black - 2TB + 1TB Storage, Inland 480GB SSD - Games
Display(s)	3 x 1080P LCDs - Acer 25" + Acer 23" + HP 23"
Case	AeroCool XPredator X3
Audio Device(s)	Built-in Realtek
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000 Modular
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

System Name	Dual Build Streamer
Processor	Ryzen 7900x3d : Ryzen 4600G
Motherboard	AsRock B650E Steel Legend : Giga B450i Aorus
Cooling	Custom Water 1x420 : Stock
Memory	32GB T-Force Deltas : 16GB Dominator Platinums
Video Card(s)	PowerColor 7900 XTX Liquid Devil: iGPU
Storage	20+ TB
Display(s)	Sammy 49" 5k Ultrawide
Case	Custom White Painted Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2
Audio Device(s)	Onboard : Onboard
Power Supply	EVGA 1200W P2
Mouse	Corsair M65 RGB Elite White
Keyboard	Hyperx Origins 65
Software	Windows 10

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Pandemic 2020
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 "Gen 2" 2600X
Motherboard	AsRock X470 Killer Promontory
Cooling	CoolerMaster 240 RGB Master Cooler (Newegg Eggxpert)
Memory	32 GB Geil EVO Portenza DDR4 3200 MHz
Video Card(s)	ASUS Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 DUAL-RX580-O8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video C
Storage	WD 250 M.2, Corsair P500 M.2, OCZ Trion 500, WD Black 1TB, Assorted others.
Display(s)	ASUS MG24UQ Gaming Monitor - 23.6" 4K UHD (3840x2160) , IPS, Adaptive Sync, DisplayWidget
Case	Fractal Define R6 C
Audio Device(s)	Realtek 5.1 Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair RMX 850 Platinum PSU (Newegg Eggxpert)
Mouse	Razer Death Adder
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Mechanical & Corsair K65 Wired, Wireless, Bluetooth)
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

Help choosing a Video Card for my Friend's kid.

suraswami

JrRacinFan

Served 5k and counting ...

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

WarEagleAU

Bird of Prey

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

suraswami

suraswami

JrRacinFan

Served 5k and counting ...

suraswami

JrRacinFan

Served 5k and counting ...

suraswami

JrRacinFan

Served 5k and counting ...

Snipe343

Processor	i5-2500K @ 3.2Ghz
Motherboard	ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 8GB
Video Card(s)	Radeon HD 7850 2GB
Storage	250GB Samsung EVO; 1TB WD Black
Display(s)	22" ASUS
Power Supply	Rosewill Hive-650
Software	Windows 8 64-bit