Re: Shopping for a good cheap video card

["Jones, John (US)" <John.Jones@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Many of the lesser-known brands, and even some of the big ones, use
reference designs from nVidia or ATI/AMD when making their cards.  So
the card probably compares favorably if not identically to other cards
using the same chipset.  Look at the PNY 8500 GT, for instance, and
you'll note the only difference appears to be the choice of cooling fan.

BTW, for cards in this price range, I'd look for something passively
cooled.

But I'd also probably not look in this price range.

An ATI Radeon 3xxx series card should perform well, and 3xxx cards
consume less power than the prior generation (2xxx).  While I'm not a
gamer by any means, the 3870 is pretty nice.

Of late, though, nVidia generally wears the performance crown.  I'm not
as familiar with their lineup, so I can't make recommendations, but I'd
say look for 512MB GDDR3 or GDDR4 RAM and plan on spending $100-150.