Okay, first, I'm not actually worried about the noise of the stock cooling. Stock cooling is way to unleet...

Anyways, I killed my GeForce3 Ti200. I want to order a new card today or tomorrow. I do play games a lot (Wolfenstein ET, BF1942, UT2003, to name a few). I'm not too concerned about video quality, i.e. I'll turn off AA and such for good enough frame rates. I'm looking not to spend much money; $150 is the absolute maximum.

I'm thinking maybe a GeForce4 Ti4200 for a real cheap price, about $80 on newegg. But I'm a 9600 pro could be had for $50 more, and would probably show an improvement in performance.

Any suggestions for what card/where to buy it so I can get good enough performance for the lowest price possible?

i think the the 9600pro is only faster with AA and stuff turned up otherwise its about the same or slower than a ti4200. Toms a videocard roundup that shows it

Unless of course if you plan on using that card in the future to play DX9 games, in which case 9600pro is probably faster.

9600pro will run substantially cooler, though. The Ti4200 is using an older chip process.. which makes sense as it is an older card..

I think I'm gonna go with a 9600 pro; it does cost more, but only against the 64 mb 4200, and it should be more futureproof.

I don't care about cooler, I'll just be sticking on a waterblock anyways.

if i was watercooling i would get a 9800non pro or pro because they are quite a bit faster than the 9600pro

But their also more expensive

This one just barely stays in my price range, at $149:
Sapphire Atlantis ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB 8X AGP DVI/TV BULK

I guess I'll have to get it, and I wanted to spend that money on a new pump

yea that price is tempting

My 9500 Pro outperforms the Ti4600 in nearly all benchmarks (Doesn't win in 800x600 with no AA/AF but with AA/AF wins at every resolution). A 9600 Pro is much faster than a Ti4200.

Edit: I just read Tom's videocard roundup and it shows similar results.

I'd just go and get a stock passively cooled GF440MX

I have one and I get 100 fps in 800x600 in CS which is quite good enough for me


And the best thing is that then you can buy your pump also

My GF440MX can barely do 20FPS on my machine in UT2003 if there are any bots around, even with all detail set to minimum. But without bots I can get up to 220FPS at medium detail.

I wouldn't recomend it

that sounds like a CPU problem, <random numbers>

Anyways, the 9600 pro is ordered. I decided it would be better to get a DX 9 card since the way I go about this I won't want to upgrade again until they stop making AGP slots, and probably for some time after.

Too bad your old card got fried. the new XT and Fx ultras are coming out which means the fx 5900 ultra and radeon 9800 pro will be dropping in price in next 1-3 months.

Eric