This is a response to the question about graphics cards in the COD4 forum. Since it's getting more technical and delving into suggestions as to which is the best buy, I thought it'd be better to continue the discussion down in here 
First off, there is no magic bullet for price performance. At the end of the day, you still get what you pay for. A $100 card isn't going to enable you to start running the latest and greatest (especially games like Crysis/UT3) on anything but med/low settings. That said, if your budget is severely limited, you can still get respectable performance even at this price point.
Second, let's cut through the marketing crap a bit. When comparing graphics cards, ignore the first number in the product model. The key number these days is the second number, as that one denotes which market the card is targeted at (3=low end, 6=mid range, 8-9= high end). This goes for Nvidia as well as ATI. For example, a Geforce 8600 GT is NOT faster than a Geforce 7900GT, but it is faster than a 7600GT. While this is not a hard and fast rule, its a decent rule of thumb (note that this only applies when comparing Nvidia to Nvidia or ATI to ATI).
Also take a look at this chart to see how each card stacks up. There are other places to look as well, but this is a decent enough starting point:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html
Now on to the cards....
In the ~$100 price range, these are the cards (IMO) that should afford you a respectable level of performance for the price:
$99.95 - Radeon HD2600XT
$109.99 - Geforce 8600GT - eVGA is one of the better card manufacturers out there, making this a decent choice.
$109.99 - Radeon x1950GT
$119.99 - Geforce 7900GS
$134.99 - Radeon x1950 PRO - A little high, but will perform proportionally better.
I'm using Newegg as an example here, but they are by no means the only place where you can get such deals. I'm also not making any value judgments as to reliability of these cards or the manufacturers...again, sometimes you do get what you pay for. Ultimately this is just trying to help you maximize your gaming potential with as little money as possible.
Honestly if I were to suggest any card right now to the severely budget-conscious, it would still have to be this one (though its far beyond the $100 mark):
$179.99 - Radeon HD3850
This card will literally beat the living daylights out of those other cards, and it gets close to beating the 8800GT for the best price/performance card on the market. Unless you have no interest in running new, more graphics intensive games that are out or coming up, you really should give this card a close, hard look.
If you just can't swing that higher price, those other cards posted will serve you well enough with the current crop of games (even Crysis, just not that well
)
If you find any other good deals on cards similar to these, please feel free to post them in this thread
Edit: Added/sorted by price.
Originally posted by Premonition
Second, let's cut through the marketing crap a bit. When comparing graphics cards, ignore the first number in the product model. The key number these days is the second number, as that one denotes which market the card is targeted at (3=low end, 6=mid range, 8-9= high end). This goes for Nvidia as well as ATI. For example, a Geforce 8600 GT is NOT faster than a Geforce 7900GT, but it is faster than a 7600GT. While this is not a hard and fast rule, its a decent rule of thumb (note that this only applies when comparing Nvidia to Nvidia or ATI to ATI).
Also take a look at this chart to see how each card stacks up. There are other places to look as well, but this is a decent enough starting point:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html
Now on to the cards....
In the ~$100 price range, these are the cards (IMO) that should afford you a respectable level of performance for the price:
$99.95 - Radeon HD2600XT
$109.99 - Geforce 8600GT - eVGA is one of the better card manufacturers out there, making this a decent choice.
$109.99 - Radeon x1950GT
$119.99 - Geforce 7900GS
$134.99 - Radeon x1950 PRO - A little high, but will perform proportionally better.
I'm using Newegg as an example here, but they are by no means the only place where you can get such deals. I'm also not making any value judgments as to reliability of these cards or the manufacturers...again, sometimes you do get what you pay for. Ultimately this is just trying to help you maximize your gaming potential with as little money as possible.
Honestly if I were to suggest any card right now to the severely budget-conscious, it would still have to be this one (though its far beyond the $100 mark):
$179.99 - Radeon HD3850
This card will literally beat the living daylights out of those other cards, and it gets close to beating the 8800GT for the best price/performance card on the market. Unless you have no interest in running new, more graphics intensive games that are out or coming up, you really should give this card a close, hard look.
If you just can't swing that higher price, those other cards posted will serve you well enough with the current crop of games (even Crysis, just not that well
)If you find any other good deals on cards similar to these, please feel free to post them in this thread
Edit: Added/sorted by price.
Thanks guys. Nice write up to carbon. I like that tip about the second number. I never knew that. 
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