I’m looking for a video card around the $100.00 range which will handle all the new games, provide a decent frame rate, and won’t need to be replaced for a couple years. Could someone please tell me the difference between the Radeon cards and the Nvidia cards? Some general ideas and information would be much appreciated. $100 is a lot of money for a pauper such as myself, so it’s not a purchasing decision I wish to regret.
Right now, you probably want to go with Radeon cards; none of the GeforceFX cards can compete $/performance with the newer Radeons. Stay away from the GeforceFX 5200/5600’s, they really trail competing Radeon cards in speed, especially in DX9 games. The best card you could get right now in your price range is a Radeon 9600 non-pro. www.newegg.com has them for as low as $108.
As for a $100 card that can handle all the new games, and won’t need to be replaced for a couple years, well sorry, they don’t exist. The Radeon 9600 should be enough to have Doom3 and Half-Life2 be playable, but you are still going to have to turn stuff down.
After Nvidia dominated the gaming card competition for a number of years, most of the computer gurus are now giving ATI Radeons the nod for the best card for the money.
In the $100 range, the best choice is probably a Radeon 9600 SE, 128MB. Note that many companies make the 9600 now as well as ATI itself. Buying from other companies saves some money but make sure it is an established company so you can get driver updates in the future if necessary.
I see I got beat to the punch so I’ll add another point. The 9600 has dual monitor support built in so you can keep another application like a browser window open while you play your games or do real work. ATI has the best dual monitor support at this time.
I am going to have to disagree with you on the dual monitor point ** KenGr **. I have a Geforce4 TI 4600, and I found it no more difficult to set up dual monitors than my friend who has a Radeon 9600Pro. I have another friend with a GeforceFX 5900 (he didn’t ask for my advice before getting the card . . .) who had no trouble with dual monitors either. I say the dual monitor support is even for both sides.
A Radeon 9600SE is a poor choice, as it has been castrated by halving the memory bandwidth. This severely reduces performance. For under $100, the best option is a Radeon 9500 non-Pro. Such cards are slightly faster than the R9600 non-Pro, making them a better value. If you can spend a little more, a Radeon 9600 Pro for about $130 is a great choice.
When I got my ATI, a lot of people were complaining about trouble setting up dual monitors on GeForce. Drivers are probably improved now.
The 9500 is an impressive card, although not a current design. However, I checked Pricewatch and couldn’t find one for under $120. Usual prices are about $150. I think prices are going up instead of down since they are being discontinued. I still can’t see a better choice than the 9600SE if you have to stay under $100. (Personally, I would spring for the extra money for a Pro also.)
This topic came up recently.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=225165
I bought the ATI 9600 PRO and am very happy indeed 
ATI 9600 Pro.
I got a similar card, the 9600 EX, Ponster.
Although the 9600 is a wee bit more than you may want to spend, Creative Munster if you plan to get Half-Life 2, you can get a free copy (check the box, it’ll say if it has a free coupon for one). That will more or less even out the difference in price.
The Radeon 9600 PRO normally goes for ~$130; the somewhat higher clocked version, the 9600 XT, goes for ~$160, but as ** smiling bandit ** mentioned, you get a free coupon for HL2. If you could get 30 extra buck, the PRO version of the card will give you much better results.
Also, stay away from Powercolor made cards. While they are the cheapest of th Radeon cards, often by $20 or more, I have heard generally bad things about them. Like the cards being clocked lower than ATI"s specs, shoddy componets, ect. Stick with either an ATI made card, or Sapphire brand - I have heard generally good things about them.
I posted to the wrong thread. Damn. Can someone give me the web sites where they are finding the Radeon 9600 Pro for $130.00. The cheapest I have found it, avoiding the Powercolor cards as advised by DreadCthulhu, is $150.00.
I made a mistake when checking www.pricewatch.com ; the $130 Radeon 9600 Pros are some sort of “EZ” version; $150 is the cheapest for a real 9600 Pro. And at that price, it would be best to pony up an extra 10 bucks to get the XT version, as it is faster, and comes with a coupon for Half Life 2 for free. (If you want to rationalize the extra purchase, just think you are getting a really good card for $110, and a $50 game.) The Radeon 9600 Pro/XT are both really good for HL2, some of the benchmarks for that game I have seen have them running as fast as a GeforceFX 5900 Ultra, a card that cost twice as much. :o Of course, the GeforceFX5900U is faster in any current game, and Doom3, but the whole GeforceFX series has problems with DX9 games.