Budget graphics card

[Trispec]

Hello, i am almost done building my new PC, but i need a somewhat great graphics card. I have a $200 budget and want the absolute best for this price range, any suggestions?

Edit: For some extra info, i may watch blue rays, and play black ops/fallout on this and i would prefer to max them both out.

[llDemonll]

What is your computer for? Is it a WoW-only computer, or are the other games you play with it?

[Trispec]

Like i said in the above post it is not only going to be playing wow, other higher end games and videos.

[llDemonll]

If you can spare a few extra bucks, the 1GB GTX 460 is a solid buy in that price range

[Trispec]

Funny you should mention the GTX460, i saw it on amazon for $200 on sale, i may go for it. How does this card compare to a similar radeon card?

[Coquine]

gtx 460 1gb $179 - $159 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500169

gtx 470 $234 - 214 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500157

free shipping on both

[Jaarh]

There's an XFX 6850 on tigerdirect.com for $189.99. Another solid card.

[Coquine]

Funny you should mention the GTX460, i saw it on amazon for $200 on sale, i may go for it. How does this card compare to a similar radeon card?

it really depends on the game but the gtx 460 and amd 6850 are pretty close. ive had a gtx 460. loved it. the 6850 is newer so i dunno if youll find any crazy awesome sale on it. also since its newer it's performance could increase as the drivers for it matures... but thats a maybe

gtx 470 is the next teir up, its closest price competitor would be the ati 5850 i think, but most benches ive looked at has the gtx 470 edging out the 5850

[Xuvial]

Funny you should mention the GTX460, i saw it on amazon for $200 on sale, i may go for it. How does this card compare to a similar radeon card?

HD6850 trades blows with GTX460 depending on the game, pulling slightly ahead overall. It's a newer card though and will definitely see improved performance in driver updates.....but GTX 460 can overclock better. I.e. it's completely up to you. Both are in the $200 range.
Oh and HD6850 has better support for blu-ray/HD video playback I believe.

[bewsii]

One thing to keep in mind, that I've not seen mentioned is that when people ask about buying "budget" graphics cards, they don't typically have high-end rigs. This means the chances of his PSU properly handling a GTX 460 is slim to none. If you want a good budget card for under 200, check out the HD 5770 1G Super OC 900mhz card for around $140. You shouldn't need a PSU upgrade (though it wouldn't hurt) with this card, as you almost definitely will with any of the GTX 4xx series.

[vesseblah]

Oh and HD6850 has better support for blu-ray/HD video playback I believe.

My CPU usage is around 4% with BluRay/1080p h264 video playback on 768MB GTX460. Non-issue really with either brand.

[Coquine]

One thing to keep in mind, that I've not seen mentioned is that when people ask about buying "budget" graphics cards, they don't typically have high-end rigs. This means the chances of his PSU properly handling a GTX 460 is slim to none. If you want a good budget card for under 200, check out the HD 5770 1G Super OC 900mhz card for around $140. You shouldn't need a PSU upgrade (though it wouldn't hurt) with this card, as you almost definitely will with any of the GTX 4xx series.

gtx 460's recommended PSU is 450w. as far as power consumption the 5770 almost consumes as much power as the gtx 460 but doesnt perform nearly as well

[vesseblah]

This means the chances of his PSU properly handling a GTX 460 is slim to none. If you want a good budget card for under 200, check out the HD 5770 1G Super OC 900mhz card for around $140. You shouldn't need a PSU upgrade (though it wouldn't hurt) with this card, as you almost definitely will with any of the GTX 4xx series.

Difference in power requirement between R5770 and GTX460 is around 40W, which is irrelevant scaremongering/misinformation. And factory overclocked R5770 requires more power than stock speed GTX460 anyway, so there...

[spandex]

I am currently building a new computer myself and had roughly the same criteria to meet. I went with the cyclone 460 gtx 1gb at $199 on newegg. It looks a bit ridiculous but I read good things about it and the 6850 just didn't have me convinced. It's your call though, they're pretty much even.

[vesseblah]

According to tests MSI Cyclone has one of the best OEM coolers. It's quieter and cooler than Nvidia's reference box even if you overclock the card to max.

[Deleted]

What's the rest of your system?

[Deleted]

I have bought GTX 460 1GB (gigabyte) and it works great on stock clocks