What is the best graphic card with the best price to performance ratio for
A- Under $100
B- Under $200
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M$3 Answers
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-graphics,2086.html
As far as whether to choose ATI or Nvidia, it largely depends on what you want to do with them. If it's Linux, it has to be Nvidia. ATI is improving there but isn't anywhere near Nvidia's level of support.
If it's games, the specific game matters a lot if you only play a couple. Some are better on one than the other. You'll need to check benchmarks yourself for the game you play if you want the fastest.
You should also consider the resolution you're going to play in. If it's 1920x1200 and you like to use AA, you're going to want a card with more memory, whereas if you're happy with 1024x768, you don't need something loaded with 1GB of RAM. But RAM doesn't affect performance unless you don't have enough with video cards, so don't waste money on a slow card like an 8600GT that's loaded with 1GB of RAM - the card is so slow you won't be able to get the performance benefit of the RAM at all.
Here's a Radeon HD4830 for $85 after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131129
Here's a 9800GT for $105. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between them, but there are a couple games the 9800GT is faster for:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121268
Overall, the 4830 is a better value but the 9800GT is about as fast.
Around $200, you can go for a 512MB HD4870, or the older 192 core, 896MB GTX260:
4870 for $180:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102810
GTX260 for $200:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127361
You can get the 1GB version of the HD4870 for $225:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801
And the 216 core GTX260 for $250 with Far Cry 2, a value of $20-30:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130398
The 512MB 4870 will be the best value for most, but the GTX260 holds its own:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Crysis-v1-21,754.html
There's a benchmark the GTX260 is about 15% faster in. The 1GB 4870 would have likely fared better than the 512MB version, though not by that much. But at lower settings, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Crysis-v1-21,748.html
Here's a game that exemplifies that sometimes one brand just wins over the other in a certain game:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Enemy-Territory-Quake-Wars-v1-4,761.html
So, purely for best values, $85 for an HD4830 and $180 for the 512MB HD4870 are going to be as good as the deals get, but find your favorite games if you'll be playing them for a long time and look to ensure that your favorite game runs better on the card you'll be getting.
In most cases, the difference is going to be insignificant at best between the pairs of cards I've listed.
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M$B: Asus HD4850
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M$
b - 4850 for about $150 plus shipping
c - 4870 for about $180 plus shipping
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M$
