Top 5 Budget 3D Video Cards

12/8/05 - Video cards are undergoing a major change currently. The new PCI-Express interface is starting to take off. This means that the mainstream market is a mix of cards designed to support both, PCI-Express only or AGP only. This can make purchasing the right card difficult. Be sure to know what type of interface your computer has when selecting a card. With this in mind, here is my selection for the best budget 3D graphics cards based on my research and experience for under $200.

1) NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS

While initially priced around $250 to compete with ATI's upcoming Radeon X1600 graphics card, some GeForce 6800 GS cards can be found for under $200. This card is essentially a reworked GeForce 6800 core that results in an amazingly fast card for the price. As a bonus, the card can also support SLI configurations making a pair of these cost less than a top of the line GeForce 7800GTX graphics card. The card is only available for PCI-Express graphics slots.

2) ATI Radeon X800GTO

The Radeon X800GTO is essentially a scaled down version of the X800XL graphics card. Instead of the normal 16 pipelines, the card using 12 which still gives it very strong performance. While the performance is not up to the same levels as the X800XL, it does score very well with DirectX 9 and OpenGL games. The card is only available in PCI-Express versions.

3) NVIDIA GeForce 6800

The GeForce 6800 used to be the lower grade version of NVIDIA's high end graphics processor. With the release of the 7800 series graphics card, the 6800 series prices have dropped significantly making it fall into the budget category. Performance is extremely strong for OpenGL based games but it does very well in DirectX games as well. The card is available in both AGP and PCI-Express based versions.

4) NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT

The NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT graphics card trails very closely behind the GeForce 6800 graphics card, but the price is also much lower making it one of the best price to performance ratio cards. DirectX and OpenGL games both perform well with the card even though it may not be able to have all the effects turned on at higher resolutions. The PCI-Express version can also be setup with a second card for SLI with compatible motherboards. An AGP version is also available but does not have SLI.

5) ATI Radeon 9800XT

The Radeon 9800XT was a performance updated to the hugely successful Radeon 9800 Pro from ATI. The main difference is that the XT comes equipped with 256MB of graphics memory for improve texture support, but it also has a minor speed boost over the previous version. Graphics performance is still quite good for DirectX 9 and OpenGL games. The card only comes in an AGP version.