Low-End Graphics
We'll close this price guide with the budget graphic cards that are currently available. We feel that the vast majority of users are better off purchasing a mid-range card, which in many instances are two or three times as fast as the budget offerings (sometimes more). Reason being is if you don't intend to play games (which is generally why you need a better graphics card), you should probably just use whatever graphics card you already have - even integrated graphics is sufficient rather than investing money into a low-end card. If you're looking to add a graphics card in order to get better video decoding, NVIDIA's PureVideo and ATI's AVIVO solutions are worth considering, but again you might as well upgrade to a mid-range offering. As we look at the various products, the reason we make this recommendation should become clear.
Beginning here, we have the X1300 cards. The AGP X1300s are somewhat overpriced, as you can easily pick up a 6600 GT and get much better performance than an X1300 can ever deliver. The same rule applies to the X1300 for PCI-E applications. An X1600 Pro, 6600 GT, or 7600 GS can be had for about $100, which you would find us suggesting without any hesitation over an X1300 (PCI-E).
Any one of these X300 cards should be sufficient for its intended use of basic video support and the only thing we would suggest is that you try to stick to the $50 (or lower) price point. We see no real need to spend much more than that for a card of this caliber. About the only motive to purchase a $50 graphics card is if you want a DVI output for an LCD display, since most integrated graphics solutions omit that feature.
These 7300 GS cards are meant to replace the 6200 TurboCache cards. Just as with the X300 cards, we again recommend you stick to the lower end of this spectrum because the $100 mid-range cards offer a much better solution. We mentioned DVI outputs as being one reason for a budget graphics card, but of course the HTPC market often fancies a cheap, preferably fanless, graphics card over integrated graphics due to the enhanced video decoding quality (AVIVO/PureVideo) and additional connectivity options (component out). At $100 or so, X1600 Pro and 7600 GS meet all of those requirements, so if you start nearing that price point we recommend you upgrade to the next level.
That brings this video card price guide to a close. If we missed anything you feel is worth mentioning, feel free to let us know in the comments section. We'll be back again next week, taking a look at the storage market. Thanks for reading!
We'll close this price guide with the budget graphic cards that are currently available. We feel that the vast majority of users are better off purchasing a mid-range card, which in many instances are two or three times as fast as the budget offerings (sometimes more). Reason being is if you don't intend to play games (which is generally why you need a better graphics card), you should probably just use whatever graphics card you already have - even integrated graphics is sufficient rather than investing money into a low-end card. If you're looking to add a graphics card in order to get better video decoding, NVIDIA's PureVideo and ATI's AVIVO solutions are worth considering, but again you might as well upgrade to a mid-range offering. As we look at the various products, the reason we make this recommendation should become clear.
Beginning here, we have the X1300 cards. The AGP X1300s are somewhat overpriced, as you can easily pick up a 6600 GT and get much better performance than an X1300 can ever deliver. The same rule applies to the X1300 for PCI-E applications. An X1600 Pro, 6600 GT, or 7600 GS can be had for about $100, which you would find us suggesting without any hesitation over an X1300 (PCI-E).
Any one of these X300 cards should be sufficient for its intended use of basic video support and the only thing we would suggest is that you try to stick to the $50 (or lower) price point. We see no real need to spend much more than that for a card of this caliber. About the only motive to purchase a $50 graphics card is if you want a DVI output for an LCD display, since most integrated graphics solutions omit that feature.
These 7300 GS cards are meant to replace the 6200 TurboCache cards. Just as with the X300 cards, we again recommend you stick to the lower end of this spectrum because the $100 mid-range cards offer a much better solution. We mentioned DVI outputs as being one reason for a budget graphics card, but of course the HTPC market often fancies a cheap, preferably fanless, graphics card over integrated graphics due to the enhanced video decoding quality (AVIVO/PureVideo) and additional connectivity options (component out). At $100 or so, X1600 Pro and 7600 GS meet all of those requirements, so if you start nearing that price point we recommend you upgrade to the next level.
That brings this video card price guide to a close. If we missed anything you feel is worth mentioning, feel free to let us know in the comments section. We'll be back again next week, taking a look at the storage market. Thanks for reading!
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mobutu - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
Is it me or I didn't see any 7300GT's on your price guide???mobutu - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
That's a great low-end card (even middle-range w/oc), I think it can be had for as low as 80 bucks ...JarredWalton - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
I broadened the search - it was originally "7300gs" and so now it's all geforce 7300 cards. I'd still go for the 7600gs or 7600gt if you're concerned with performance. An overclocked 7300 GT might match a 7600 GS that isn't overclocked, but it's only about $20 cheaper (not even that if you http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">get a card with a rebate)... and once you OC the 7600 GS it becomes faster again.If you really want to be able to play most games at higher detail, though, just save the money and get a 7600 GT. There's no way a card with 800- MHz RAM can compete with a card that has 1400+ MHz RAM, not to mention 12 vs. 8 pixel pipelines and GPU core speeds.
Sus - Saturday, May 28, 2022 - link
Im thik Nvidia GeForce rtx 3080 faster and better than this.