Good sub $100 s-video card? (or opinions on radeon 7500)

[Ghoul]

Well I have a free comp right now that will be put in my mame cab and after a few of the replies in my monitor thread I am going to hook up a couple of s-video tv's to it and see how I like it (it's the only display I can reasonably test out on my own, a vga arcade monitor just isn't that common so if I like the way s-video looks I'll go with it). Unfortunately, there is no s-video out on the PC.

The comp currently has onboard video that can't perform hardware stretching, so a new video card is a must anyway. What card (preferably around 100 or below) has a very good s-video output?

I am planning on making a trip to best buy tomorrow and pick up an ATI card, probably the radeon 7500 with a nice s-video cable. It's 80 bucks and has an s-video out, plus it's not older than dirt so it should run games generally well in lower res. Can anyone offer me a better solution?

[toilet]

I picked up a 64 MB DDR 7500 w/ S-Video out about 4 months ago for $74. I have it hooked up to a TV and I think it looks pretty good. Previously I had an NVidia GF2U w/ TV-Out and the ATi card surpasses it in picture quality.

The only thing I wish I could do with it over the NVidia card was the custom resolution hack (http://www.trouble-makers.com/kami/emulation/custres.html). It doesn't matter for my setup now, but it was nice knowing I could go that route before.

[SirPoonga]

ati rules when it comes to non-gaming video (2d, video out, processing).  My friend uses a VE and it is vey nice.

[SNAAAKE]

I got rage fury pro goes for about $30 these days.I hooked it up to my living room tv(yes...s-video) and looks great but I can't afford to use tv in my cab....(I have personal problem with tv )but it looks great for the money.FSSS.....$30 something for a 32mb agp card is dirt cheap .

[dac]

I like the 7500, cheap, and works like a champ for it's purpose... If we're talking gripes, the only thing that I can point out is when it gets warm, (after some time of use) once in a while, the screen will go away... a reboot fixes, but it's somewhat annoying...

[MrArcade]

If you are looking for a pci card, be careful.  From what I have read the pci version of the radeon 7500 has only composite tv out.  The agp version has s-video.

Make sure the card has the s-vid port before you buy.

[HeadRusch]

I'd avoid anything lower than the Radeon 7500.  The radeon 7500 can be had for $50 bucks...I know, I just got one in the mail 2 days ago.  64 meg board and its a very capable 3D card for todays modern games.

Its no Geforce4 or Radeon 9700, but for $50 bucks its a lot of videocard.

You can save $20 bucks and get an older Rage 128 or original Radeon card with 32 megs, but then you're only saving $20 bucks and getting a VERY dated videocard...the Radeon 7500 is modern enough to keep you happy for awhile, especially if you plan on playing PC games on the box from time to time.

If you ahve a few more dollars upgrade to the Radeon 8500.  On an Athlon 1.4Ghz system using a radeon 8500 ($80 bucks, got it 2 weeks ago) I've been playing Unreal Tournament 2003 at 1024x768 without any speed issues at all.

Anyways, the moral of the story is any of the athlons in the sub-$100 range are worth investing in.  Best TV-out you can buy, but the other poster is right:
the PCI versions of the Radeon 7500 offer composite out, no SVideo out.

I've got my 8500 running Svideo out into a "Svideo to composite" Converter as my 27" TV doesn't have Svideo in, and I've found mame and Unreal Tournament to look just fine onscreen.  Text is hard as hell to read, but otherwise things are ok.

[BombProofPlane]

anyone wanna buy mine i replaced it with an 8500 for component video

[Ghoul]

I ended up having to get a pny g4 mx420 because the comp I am using (it was free) doesn't have an agp slot.

If the comp is just too sluggish or the s-video on the nvidia card gives me problems I will just build my own athlon comp with an agp radeon for around 350.

[lightspeed]

Three things:

make sure you buy a card that is "Made by ATI", not "Powered By ATI".   Only the cards manufactured by ATI will have the quality TV -out for sure.  The other cards are made by other manufacturers using ATI's chipset, and TV out quality is hit or miss.

If this is for MAME use only, the discontinued Radeon 7200 w/ 32 meg SDRAM will offer all the performance you need for around $30, if you can find one.   MAME doesn't tax your videocard much at all, and this card supports hw stretch, triple buffering, etc.   Won't be ideal for 3D PC games, tho.

Before spending money on a seperate S-video cable, try the one that comes with the card.  If you can get away w/ using a short length cord, these should be just fine.