Alright, my old Appian Graphics Dual Head has had it's day and I'm in the market for a new video card. What's the best video card available right now in the $100-$150 CAD range? ATI or NVIDIA? It must be able to be run as a dual head card as well (One VGA and one DVI-I is fine).
Any recommendations?

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save up some money and get 9800 xt if you wanna play games like HL2

i heard the xt wasnt that much better than its old model. not good enough to justify the price atleast

If you can get hold a plain 9800 then they are excelent value for money.

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quote:

Originally posted by smallSHEEP If you can get hold a plain 9800 then they are excelent value for money.

Agreed, the cost difference is huge between an XT, and the older 9800. I mean for performance the XT wins all the way, btw even consider a 9600 XT as it'll run hl2 np...

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quote:

Originally posted by MoonMan Agreed, the cost difference is huge between an XT, and the older 9800. I mean for performance the XT wins all the way, btw even consider a 9600 XT as it'll run hl2 np...

So will a 9600 Pro (and that is NOT a biased opinion lol).

I'm an ATI fanboy so I don't know Nvida's lineup enough to give you anything on them. But if you want to play HL2 or Doom 3 anything from the 9700 Pro on up will run Doom 3 just fine (HL2 will run on a TNT and like 500 MHz CPU so valve clams) if you want a good budget card try to find a 9500 pro it has the same chip as the 9700 i.e. 9700=9500 but they underclocked something. If you do get the 9800 you don't need the XT its just an upgrade in the Ram which is quite worthless for the next year or two at least. If you could I would wait till spring (rumored to be feb/march) when ATI finally does some major revamping of their chip with some noticeable speed increases, more then the change from ATI's 9700 to 9800.

But for your budget I would be looking for a 9500 or 9600 (9500 preferred)

ATI has the best videocards period. I'd stay away from Nvida, they've been caught tuning their cards before doing a bench mark just to get a higher score in 3D bench mark test such as 3D Mark, etc.

Bottom line, IMO I'd get a Radeon 9700 PRO. Its worth the extra buck (I know its more than what you stated you wanted to spend) and will still be compatiable with newer games. And most importantly directX9.

But if you dont want to spend that kind of money and stay in the $100 - 150 then look into getting a ATI Radeon 9200. Or even a 9500 PRO, but I don't think you can find them for that much, even used. Try ebay

Hope this helps.

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Trance is something that moves me in spiritual ways I can't explain, the power, the energy....

thanks for the tips guys! I'm thinking I'll probably have to wait until after xmas anyways so maybe I'll just push it another couple of months and see how much the prices drop...

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9800 is brilliant, neer fails me on anything.

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Radeon 9700 Pro remains one of the best cards out there, Radeon 9800 Pro is just a tiny bit faster, not even noticable diffrence.
One thing for sure tho, Radeon 9700 Pro kills any nVidiot series.

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Radeon really stepped it up with the new cards... leaving nVidia in the dust on some benchmarks. I am kind of eager to see what's coming next!

I know they are gone, but nobody would be able to beat 3DFX if they were still around!!!!