Help me pick a cheap graphics card

[F. King Daniel]

I'm having a new computer built. It's not going to be a super gaming rig, but I would like to be able to play Portal 2 if it ever shows up, as well as Crysis. I don't need them to have every setting maxed out.

I'm happy with the specs my computer guy has come up with, but I've heard a few bad things about the graphics card I've been recommended, an Nvidia 240GT with 1GB of memory. Does anyone know of a superior card in the same budget price range? One site recommended the ATI Radeon HD 4670 over it, another the GeForce 9800GT.

Or are the differences so slight as to be meaningless?

Any help much appreciated.

 

[TEH BABA]

xNvdia 250 gts with 1 gig of memory for 130 dollars. We yankees are awesome.

 

[PsychoPere]

I'm far from an expert in this matter, but a friend of mine who purchases numerous games through Steam uses an NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT in his computer and he's been quite satisfied with it. My current computer has an ATI Radeon HD 5500 based off of a recommendation made by that same friend. The only gaming I've done, however, on my computer has been Star Trek Online, which it handles just fine.

For what it's worth, here are some selections from my friend's Steam list, in case that helps at all with a comparison:

• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• BioShock 2
• Borderlands
• Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis Wars
• Dead Space
• Dragon Age: Origins & DAO - Awakening
• Left 4 Dead & L4D2
• Mirror's Edge
• Portal
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom

 

[John Clark]

One site recommended the ATI Radeon HD 4670 over it, another the GeForce 9800GT.

Or are the differences so slight as to be meaningless?

Any help much appreciated.

My 9800 was a good card and managed fine with a lot of games. I didn't have it cranked up to the maximum resolution of my monitor for most games though.

Haven't used any of the Nvidia GT2xx or ATI 46 series cards so can't comment.

 

[TheGodBen]

I'm far from an expert in this matter, but a friend of mine who purchases numerous games through Steam uses an NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT in his computer and he's been quite satisfied with it.

I bought a GeForce 8600 GTS, but it broke down and it was replaced with a 9600 GT with double the memory. It's an okay card, you should be able to play most games, but some of the newer games tax it, and Civ V set around half of the graphics options to low. In a year or two, I imagine there'll be games that wont work with it. But it plays Minecraft okay, and that's all that matters to me these days.

 

[Amaris]

ATi Radeon HD4670. I play everything with it, including flight sims on max settings.

 

[Rincewiend]

I'm far from an expert in this matter, but a friend of mine who purchases numerous games through Steam uses an NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT in his computer and he's been quite satisfied with it.

I bought a GeForce 8600 GTS, but it broke down and it was replaced with a 9600 GT with double the memory. It's an okay card, you should be able to play most games, but some of the newer games tax it, and Civ V set around half of the graphics options to low. In a year or two, I imagine there'll be games that wont work with it. But it plays Minecraft okay, and that's all that matters to me these days.

True...
Though with my 9500GT i can play most games at 1920x1080 but not with max settings...
Though the most recent PC game i have is Settlers 7...