Best card for $150

Im trying to reccomend a card for my friend...



Max budget $150, but if there is another card under that that i wont notice any difference i'd like to save a cuple bucks.



He wants to play these games:

cs source

half life 2

metal of honor

call of duty



It can only be 4x AGP, I dont care who its by and i dont know who the best provider would be either.



Will i benefit by getting a 256mb card to run these games? or would the 128 be better and cheeper? The card will not be updated anytime soon so its a long commitment. ( he is poor SOB like soo many of us )



There is only 256mb in the comp but another 256 stick might be added.



The person who wants a card wants it to be directx9 capable. Does that even matter? I though it only mattered on the brand new games.

for your price range I would recommend the following video game



http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...164-008&depa=1



This not going to be able to play half life 2 on max settings but it should work fine if you chose reasonable graphic settings to play it at.(am also guessing you have a older computer so even if you did buy the best graphic card money can buy you would have other factors bottlenecking the computer.)



On the topic of system ram I would definally consider putting anouther 256mb of ram in your computer. 512 ram is a good amount for your computer.

I've read that the 9800 pro 256mb is the exact same card as the 9800 XT. The only difference is the bios that slow the card down. Is this true? It would be wise to get the extra 128mb with the pro version and still cheeper than the soo called 128mb XT version.



-----edit-------

you reccomended the 9600 not the 9800..



nevermind

You might have trouble finding a 9800 pro for under $150. Maybe on ebay you could find one for under 150. In most places a 9800 pro cost close to $200.

is it worth it to get the 256 version for a cuple more $$ or will it make any difference except on the very high end games ( that this card would lag in anyways )..



Heres a link

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...164-027&depa=0



i think i might actually buy this one too, if not then probally the 128mb version.

I dont think on that level getting the 256MB one will make much of a difference.

Radeon 9700 PRO



Mine was $145 Shipped

Buy a 6600 GT 128 MB if you have pci-express...



I have one and I have no doubt that it is a bad card, look at tomshardware.com to if you want a better overview!

9600 - 9800 (Maybe)



It doesn't matter if you have AGP4X if you put a GFX card with AGP8X in the AGP slot, it will Downlock it to 4X and believe me you won't find much difference unless your a real hardcore gamer