I have a ATI Radeon 7000 and it has been fine for me, however I am now finding that some of the new games don't support it. I'm not a BIG gamer, but I want something that will perform well enough for todays standards. I would like to stick with Radeon....what is the minimum card to buy? I don't know much about the cards....I've seen the 8500LE for $80 or so and the 9000 for $110 ish. Thanks for the help.
It all depends on your budget. Going ATI is your first good decision. Seeing that you're looking at the $100 range (us dollars right ?), I would suggest the Sapphire Radeon 9600 128mb from newegg. the link is too long so I can'T put it here, but go to http://www.newegg.com , and in the search section, write this: SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600 128MB 8X AGP DVI/TV RETAIL It will bring you to the card, it's $122. It is more powerfull than the two you mentionned, and well into your price range.
The 9000/9100/9200 are basically a rebadged 8500. If you want to get a step ahead with DirectX 9 games, the 9600 would be a good buy. It might be a little more than what you want to pay, but you'll have a fast little card that's comparable to a GeForce 4 Ti4600--but with DX9 support. And, a thumbs up to Newegg---I've always had great service from them, not to mention some of the best prices in general.
Thanks Thanks for the advice, but in my haste I bought a refurbished 8500LE 128MB card for $40. Seemed like a good price for what I'd be getting. if it's not good enough I will certinly follow your advice. Thanks
Should do just fine for now, with a decent system, it should play stuff like UT2003 at a fairly high res just fine, so it's not that bad of a card.
