Need a new Video card

I haven't been keeping up, but the last time I did serious research my best deal was the 9600XT.

Basically, ATI is what you are going to want to go with now for the 1 generation old cards in order to maximize value and be able to run all of the new games. They are mostly DX9+ compatible while the Nvidias for the most part were not.

What are your system specs? This is also important, as a video card without a good system really isn't going to help you out very much. It is pretty easy to build a good all around system without a monitor for around 700 however.

But I digress - check out www.pricewatch.com and see the best prices for different video cards.

It basically goes ATI Radeon 9600 -> 9600 Pro -> 9600XT -> 9800 -> 9800 Pro -> 9800XT

The 9800XT is probably not worth it, so I would, if I were you, weigh the 9600XT vs the 9800np (np=non pro) since those are both probably around that price range. If you can get a cheap 9800 pro however by all means go for it. Do not really worry about 256 mb of RAM, this mostly doesn't matter and is just an excuse to charge extra for something that really doesn't get used.

Pick one of those and you can't really go wrong. There is a new generation of cards coming out (PCI-Express vs the current AGP), but I would not worry about that yet as within the next few years there will be a lot of new standards (BTX cases/PSU vs the old ATX, etc.) so if you build a good system with one of these cards now you will be able to do it cheaply and get good value.

 

Good value cards at the moment are, from fastest to slowest:

nVidia GeForceFX 5900 (if you can still find one)
nVidia GeForceFX 5900XT
ATI Radeon 9600XT
nVidia GeForceFX 5700 Ultra

 

One hundred fifty bucks? Go For a ATI All In Wonder 9200 available at your local Walmart. Not only does it have a great graphics engine, but it can also keep up with the games you listed. However, it's 1 generation old Direct X 8 and 4x AGP. The All In Wonder also allows you to watch TV on your computer, TIVO programs, and capture images right off the TV and store them as .jpg files. Games optimized for AGP 8x and utilizing it's bandwidth is relatively way off. Even a lot of current games still don't really utilize AGP 4x either. This is a good "hold over" card until you decide to buy a new computer or build a new computer. Then you can get a really good card to complement the whole system. I also bought the extra remote and comes with Pinnacle studio 9 bundled in as well.