PCIE video card suggestions

[cY2k]

I'm on the hunt to upgrade my system's video card. I'm currently using the onboard GeForce 6150, with 128MB allocated to it, on Vista Business. And it definitely gets choppy at times, with SDTV, and HDTV is REALLY choppy. So I'm assuming that it's a video card problem.

I've been doing some searching in the forums here, and so far the only recommendations I've seen from people are the following:

Radeon HD 3650
Geforce 8500 or 8600 GT

Anyone else care to weigh in on a relatively inexpensive video card choice? I'd love to not have to spend more than maybe $75.

Also, my system specs are as follows, in case anyone cares:
Athlon 64 3700+ (single core)
onboard Geforce 6150 video
PVR-150 (analog)
HVR-1600 (analog + digital)
2GB RAM
Vista Business
80GB SATA drive (OS)
80GB PATA drive (recorded video)

Thanks for any help you can give!

[cY2k]

Just thought I'd add one more thing:

I'm not looking for the PERFECT card, so even if you just want to weigh in real quick with what you use, and if you like it, etc. that'd be MORE than fine. I don't need indepth statistical research or anything crazy like that. Just some people's opinions, that's all.

Thanks everyone!

[stustunz]

i have a 8600 and its good
had ati2400 and it was shit will not be going back to ati anytime soon
but others have said the 3650 are good

[pcostanza]

Count me in on the 8600 (EVGA). I'd go for the 8800 but as I'm not a gamer, the 8600 has played very nice for me.

[Satori]

I have a Visiontek 3650 and it has been great. Still setting up the new system (I am really slow at this) but all my tests with the system below have been flawless. I am using the component out (old HD TV).

[cY2k]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone!

Once more, anyone else out there care to weigh in on what video card they're using?

Thanks!

[Rickos]

I use an MSI 8600GT with passive cooling, it's totally silent, does well for offloading decoding from the CPU (with the right codecs installed).
Good picture, DVI->HDMI..
I've also had an 8500GT, with virtually identical video performance, so that's also a good buy. watch out for the passive heatsinks on some of these cards, they can get hot, the Asus 8500GT's passive heatsink was only a few mm away from my Nova-S card and it caused the Nova-s to become unstable due to heat.
The MSI 8600GT's passive setup is heatpipe'd to a sink on the other side of the card so doesn't interfere with the cards below it, but you do need room in the case above it.

[Hairy]

My personal preference is for AMD cards, I just get a better picture (once tweaked) from them.

I've used a 8600GT, 2600XT and recently a 3650 in my HTPC. I find that the nvidia card is better out of the box (screen position, colour, etc...), but once tweaked the AMD gives me significatly better picture. For me applying the ATI_HD_Reg_Tweaks is essential to getting the best from the AMD card.

This of course could be situation specific, from my sig you can see that I'm using S-video to CRT - so still stuck in the analogue world. I'd also like to add that I've recently replaced the 2600XT with the 3650 because the 2600XT died (not much more than a year old :eek so reliability might be a problem, the 3650 has worked flawless so far.

But for me the AMD (with the reg tweaks applied) is the winner, lets just hope this 3650 last a little longer than the last card .