I cant find any good deals on pci-e when the time comes

[Geforce4ti4200]

I know I wont be stuck on agp forever. Socket m2 is probably going to be pci-e only unless I find an agp adaptor or some company happens to make one with an agp slot(dual agp, pcie?) I have been looking on ebay for video card prices:

x300se go in the low $20s
x600se go for about $40
x600pro 128mb go for about $60
x600pro 256mb go for about $80
x700 go for about $80
x700pro go for about $120
x800gt(o) go in the mid $100s
x800xl go in the low $200 range

On the Nvidia side, its the same story with 6600 competing with x600xt and x700 and the 6600gt competing with x700pro pricewise.


I paid $56(plus shipping) on ebay for my 9700pro. The equivalent would be the x700pro costing twice as much! x700 vanila would be similar to a 9600xt or 9500pro based on reviews. x800gt is nothing more than a 9800pro under a different name, both are 8 pipes and 256 bit ram.


I have four choices.

1. stick with my rig and dont upgrade anytime soon after socket m2 comes till pci-e cards drop in price
2. stop being so cheap and spend $200 for an x800xl
3. try to find an agp socket m2 mobo or an adaptor to use my 9700pro and other existing agp cards
4. just buy an x600pro or x700 and let the much faster cpu make the difference in the gaming fps despite not having a cutting edge card.

Sorry for the rant. Comment but dont flame.

[OmegaMerc]

Im curious, are you looking for a budget vid card because you won't use it? Or your buying a card based on your pocket? If its the latter how will you manage to buy instantly super high priced mobo / processors and ram?

Plus in my experience 1st generation hardware is always bugged / problematic / and compatability issues all over the place.

[Heretic]

A few questions:
1)Why M2? s939 still has quite a bit of life left in it, so you don't have to make the transition to M2 immediately if you don't want to.
2)What is this system going to be for? If you're not going to be doing 3D intensive work, you probably won't want to get a cutting edge card. On the other hand, you will probably want a card capable of running Vista (should you decided to go that route...I know I probably won't)
3)What exactly constitutes a "good deal"?

[Geforce4ti4200]

socket m2 is supposed to be twice as fast because the ram(ddr2) and cpu are faster. Plus it has other features and speed enhancements. I hear its more an upgrade from s754 to s939 which was quite big when I did that. I will get the cheapest socket m2 cpu and a cheap pci-e card

[OmegaMerc]

DDR2's only benefit AFAIK for now is that it consumes less wattage, thats why you see it in every friggen laptop nowadays. The cheapest m2 + mobo + ram doesn't exactly mean its gonna cost you cheap, it will still be a big burn on your pocket.

[Heretic]

Honestly, if you have a s939 (single core) agp system right now, you'd probably be better off just getting a faster DC proc than immediately jumping to M2 when it comes out. It is most definitely the cheaper option if price is important.

[zabomb4163]

6800GS is a lot better than the x800XL for 200$ anyway...