I need a bit of help juggling graphics cards specs here..

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Alright, hello. In the wake of the release of Half-Life 2, I've decided to pass up my Xbox for a copy of the game and a new video card to run it with. I've got a good 512mb of RAM, 2.6GHz P4, and everything else is set besides it.
Now, I'm a sucker when it comes to video cards. I can recite the specs of my machine, my RAM, my processor, whatever, I know what it all means. But graphics card terminology boggles me. SEs and OCs and GDDR3.. Gah!

I've come to the decision that $150 is the limit I'm going to set for myself when I go out and buy my new card, and that card will be a 256mb. I was searching Bestbuy.com and I saw an Nvidia GeForce AGP card that I liked, and it just skimmed the $150 price tag. It's a BFG GeForce FX 5500 OC 256MB DDR AGP Graphics Card. Here's the link.

Now on the ATI side of things, I see a lovely ATI RADEON 9250 256MB DDR PCI Graphics Card going for $130. Here it is.

Now, I've decided that because of my budget, if I'm going to get a card, its going to be one of those two. So I have two questions to ask you:

First off, Are both these cards poor ones, or are they actually decent, or great? Will they handle the job for the game? Which card of the two do you think -- or hopefully know -- is the more powerful, and why? Another twenty dollars won't kill me if the answer is the GeForce.

Secondly, when it comes to both the 256mb GeForce and the 256mb Radeon, I'm seeing some other models of each kind, one 256mb Radeon going for $500! Why is this? They're both 256, so why such a jump in the price? This is it.

Thanks, this is going to help me a bunch. Replies are much appreciated. n_n

[Torquiln]

If it's just to play Halflife2, go with the Radeon, if it was for Doom3 i'd say GeForce.

HL2 has just been built to work better with Radeon cards, and if thats what your buying the card for in the first place, go for it.

Just to add, the pricier one goes in your AGP slot (good), the $130 Radeon card goes in a PCI slot (not as good).

[module]

Torquiln

If it's just to play Halflife2, go with the Radeon, if it was for Doom3 i'd say GeForce.

HL2 has just been built to work better with Radeon cards, and if thats what your buying the card for in the first place, go for it.

And what if its.. both? e.e;
Why exactly would it be that Half-Life 2 would function better on a Radeon, and vice versa with, say, Doom3?

[Torquiln]

Because they were paid tons of cash by said companies to use their cards. Doom3 just happens to run better on a GeForce, but Halflife2 has been an ad with Radeon cards almost since the darn thing was first announced. Remember all those coupons for Halflife2 with Radeon cards?

That and the games were built using those cards (I'm pretty sure).

[module]

Alright, so unless you're talking about PCI express, AGP generally produces much better results than regular PCI. I guess maybe the GeForce might be the better option then.