$150 to spend on a used PCI-E Card....suggestions

SouperComputer

Im in the US and looking on ebay for a used card around $150.

What models should I consider? No need to go into major details, just the models will do fine.

TIA!

8T8

What do really want it for games, regular usage ?

For $150 you should be able to find 7600GT cards for that price or possibly less, good midrange card.

If games aren't your thing anything in the lower end will do X1300, 7300 etc.

Newegg have pretty good deals on cards as well.

SouperComputer

7600GT you say? Grand so, ill start looking now. Ill add it to my search for a BMW 750il!

I play games alright, I probably should have mentioned that! Mostly racing sims like R-factor and Live For Speed. Live for speed is mostly CPU intensive (im getting 60FPS with my current rig 1600x1200x32x85Hz details up full), R-Factor uses whatever it can get from both! I used to be well up on the graphics scene, but its taken a back seat right now, so I figured I'd just draw from the knowledge on this board!

Im happy enough to go used to get a better spec card. It started off as a budget system ($20 mobo and $60 D805 chip!) so I might as well continue along that trend.

My current rig: 3.06 @ 3.6, 1Gb, 9800 pro will become the new MythTV backend for the house. Although I may go with nvidia ( have an FX 5200 lying about from teh old MCE rig) if the ATI give me gip with drivers in linux.

Oh, I plan on overclocking the bejasus out of whatever card I get. Are there any specific cores or brands that I should be looking for?

/edit saw a 7800Gt for BIN 179USD, would it be worth spending more? Is the difference as big as it was between the 9600 and 9800 pros, back in the day?

8T8

Yeah there will be a pretty big difference between a 7800GT and 7600GT class card when you start to pile on the details, AA at higher resolutions. With no AA at medium resolutions like 1280x1024 you wouldn't notice the difference as much.

If you can snag the 7800GT at that price go for it though the 7900GS currently available is the same in terms of performance and they go for $185 new.

If you are more comfortable with ATI the X1950 Pro they can be gotten for $199 & is basically the same as the 7900GS in terms of performance.

It may not always have been possible with the 9800 cards but with the ones above you can definitely enable 4xAA & 16xAF in some of the games particular ones where you are not bound by the GPU.

SouperComputer

I'm a brand slut! AMD or Intel, Nvidia or ATI. I dont et overly fussed, I just look at the most bang for buck I can get.

If you can snag the 7800GT at that price go for it though the 7900GS currently available is the same in terms of performance and they go for

Ive setup some spines for 7800Gt's at $160 including shipping. With overclocing taken into account, on average, which is likely to be a better peformer: the 7800GT or the 7900GS?

8T8

Couldn't say with 100% certainty about overclocking the 7900GS is the mature version of the GPU with high yields so I would imagine it is the better overclocker but it comes with a weedy cooler (it doesn't really need anything great).

The 7800GT is the fore runner as such you can see it has a more beefy cooler overclocking potential is there but I'd say the 7900GS takes it.

Note that the 7900GS is actually clocked higher than the 7800GT to begin with but if not overclocking for $160 get the 7800GT.

SouperComputer

Thanks 8T8. Although I game, im not a hardcore gamer. Think ill go with the 7800 and OC it.