Vid Card Questions

I need some advice on vid cards. I'm trying to keep the price under $100 and get the most "bang-for-my-buck"

1) Is it worth it to pay for 128M memory, or can I get by on 64 for a year or 2?

2) What is the best chip set/manufacturer

3) Where can I get a good price (in the US)

4) will I need a new cooling fan

I'm upgrading from a Voodoo3 3000(AGP):D, and have a cooling fan for that. It has a PIII 600 and 128/133mhz memory for support. I've been looking at the XfX G4 440 w/ 64meg. The game is MorrowWind.

Thanks!

Personally I don't think I would go with the MX440. I would try and scrape enough money together to get the TI4200 ($120). However, if you really are low on funds I would go for the ATI Radeon 9000 Pro. It beats the MX440 in all respects and I believe you can get it off of www.pricewatch.com for somewhere around 80 bucks. Anyway, here is a bunch of benchmarks from the various ATI and nVidia cards http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1655&p=1 . Judge for yourself.
So lets see.
1) Yes, 64 megs is fine for now.
2) Depends. ATI and nVidia are both good. As far as nVidia card manufacturers you can pretty much just go with the cheapest. These companies just followed the reference design provided. You won't get pretty extras but if you just want to play cool games it will save you money.
3) www.pricewatch.com
4) No.

If you can hold out a little longer the Radeon 9700 prices will drop, pushing everything else down.

And yes a Ti4200 or R9000 Pro would be good choices....MX440s/460s are OK but nothing special.

If you have cash and patience, get a R9700 when NV30 comes out and you'll be set for quite a while by the looks of it.

-C

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Originally posted by vfluckey
I need some advice on vid cards. I'm trying to keep the price under $100 and get the most "bang-for-my-buck"

1) Is it worth it to pay for 128M memory, or can I get by on 64 for a year or 2?

2) What is the best chip set/manufacturer

3) Where can I get a good price (in the US)

4) will I need a new cooling fan

I'm upgrading from a Voodoo3 3000(AGP):D, and have a cooling fan for that. It has a PIII 600 and 128/133mhz memory for support. I've been looking at the XfX G4 440 w/ 64meg. The game is MorrowWind.

Thanks!

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1) I'd go for 128 right now.

2) Best chipset is the Radeon 9700 Pro, best chipset for the money...depends on how much you want to spend.

3) Newegg.com

4) No

A G4 MX is crap, any model is crap. Get at least a Radeon 8500, GeForce4 Ti series, Radeon 9000, or Radeon 9700.

You can get a GeForce3 Ti500 for a very decent price.

Little over $100. But worth it.

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Originally posted by DiGiTaIErRoR
You can get a GeForce3 Ti500 for a very decent price.

Little over $100. But worth it.

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Radeon 8500 is cheaper and faster. 128MB 8500 is $106.

Mind you because that is most likely the LE, you'll have to flash it to the Retail BIOS to get full speed :) Though I've heard it only works on 64 mb LE boards.

Nope, talked to a guy who bought a 128MB LE and flashed to Retail.

Even if you kept it at 250/250 it'd still probably beat a Ti500...:)

No, it wouldn't, actually :) And the OEM bios is 225/230 (around there) :)

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Originally posted by Sastraxi
No, it wouldn't, actually :) And the OEM bios is 225/230 (around there) :)

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Yes, it would, actually. ;) 8500s can easily hit 10K in 3DMark with a little tweaking, something Ti500 can't approach. General gaming performance (Q3 aside) is also superior with the Catalyst drivers.

225/230 is something I've never seen in the US before, and most 8500s can go beyond 275/275 with a BIOS flash. :)

www.tomshardware.com

the ti500 out does the radeon 8500 when it gets intensive.

UPDATE:

I went for the G4 Ti4200 w/ 64M. It looks like the best performer w/o breaking me. I've also thown in another 256 stick of memory for good measure.

Sounds good.

:cool:

Quote:

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Originally posted by DiGiTaIErRoR
www.tomshardware.com

the ti500 out does the radeon 8500 when it gets intensive.

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With what drivers? Old, pre-Catalyst drivers?

And you use THG as a source, LOL. I think their video card reviewer also runs an NVIDIA site, if I recall correctly.

:rolleyes:

225/225 what it's supposed to be, apparently.

I'm gonna get a ti500.

Not my decision. It's better if you are into rendering. But the 8500 is better for games.

Sas: Please, don't play games with me. I can go to Newegg right now and get an OEM 8500 at 250/230 and flash it to 275/275. Many people do this. Some of them are rumoured to come with 3.3ns RAM, the cheap ones..

Mine came at 250/250, and on XP I clock it up to 270 (haven't flashed it yet ;)).

I think it's got 3.6ns RAM on it (at least, looks like it from what's printed on the chips).

Radeon 8500 64mb LE ;)

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Originally posted by Jungle-Man
Sas: Please, don't play games with me. I can go to Newegg right now and get an OEM 8500 at 250/230 and flash it to 275/275. Many people do this. Some of them are rumoured to come with 3.3ns RAM, the cheap ones..

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Why are you getting mad? I only posted what a quick web search showed :confused:

Jungle-man has anger-management problems.

;)

Quote:

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Originally posted by DiGiTaIErRoR
Jungle-man has anger-management problems.

;)

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Hey I'm not the banned one.

Nor, does it appear, is he anymore :)

Well he was...:D