Can anyone give me some recommendations for a graphics card in the price range of $200 - $400 AU (~100 to 200 US dollars), that is widely available.
Thanks.

Without a doubt, you must get an ATI Radeon 9800.

Yeah I'd like to but (assuming prices on that site are $US) it's a bit expensive for me!

oops, I stopped at the $400 and didn't see the AU

Then I would definitely go with the ATI Radeon 9500

Agreed. Try to get an ATi 9500! The 9600 is the newer model, but it's actually slower. (go figure)

How does the 9500 compare to the Geforce FX 5600?

A little bit slower, but a lot less heat and a lot less noise. The nVidia card uses a HUGE fan. I don't believe the little performance advantage that a Gforce FX could provide would be noticable in games.

I don't believe the little performance advantage that a Gforce FX could provide would be noticable in games.

We'll see how that pans out with Doom3 and the 5900.

We'll see how that pans out with Doom3 and the 5900.

You're right, let me rephrase that :

I don't believe the little performance advantage that a Gforce FX could provide would be noticable in current games

Well, I'd think that if Pedrohoon is going to be getting a card today, he might want it to play Doom3 in a few months. In that case, the word on the street is you need that 5900.

I hope that Carmack is getting kickbacks from Nvidia, Dell, Gateway, Alienware, and Falcon Northwest.

We'll see how that pans out with Doom3 and the 5900.

Screw Doom3 -- I'm waiting for Half-Life 2, and then I'm upgrading to whatever's available at the time.

If I could find a Radeon 9500 Pro I would get it for sure, but here in Western Australia it would be easier to find hens teeth! The replacement (Radeon 9600 Pro) is slower - something to do with the pixel pipelines I think. I have been quoted a price of around $AU 350 (approx. $US200?) for a GeForce 4 Ti 4800SE - is this a good card and a good price? It is hard to find info on this model - some say it is just a Ti 4200 with 8x AGP, others say it is a Ti 4400 or 4600 with 8x AGP.
Thanks.

In reply to:

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Screw Doom3

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OMG - Sacrilege! Actually, AFAIK (correct me if I'm wrong) Half-Life2 and Doom3 will be on par with each other in the realm of CPU/Video requirements. I'll definately be buyng them both.

Got to upgrade though, still using a PIII 600 MHz/Nvidia 5200 and trying to make it in UT2003

Currently the 5900 is way above my budget, but by the time D3 or HL2 come out the price may have dropped enough - the trouble is I want a card now . If a card is DX9 compatible would that be enough to handle those games even if the frame rate was down a bit?

Well, right now ATI has shown off Half Life 2 on the 9800 Pro, and Doom 3 has mostly been shown publicially on the 9700 Pro. While numbers are still up in the air about Doom 3 peformance, either of these two cards would definitly be fine. Of course, the 9700 Pro still sits about $300 US if you can find it.

I also won't trust Doom 3 benchmark numbers when done on an NVidia card due to who knows what cheats they might be trying to pass off in their drivers. While ATI got caught once with the Quack 3 issue, they at least learned their lesson. For NVidia to put 12 seperate cheats into their drivers to improve 3DMark scores is just not something I can easially forget.