Need a little help on 3D cards

(TAngelo) #1

A little off-topic from ET, but I guess I can squeeze this in. I’ve been putting it off long enough now and I need some help trying to decide which 3D card I’m gonna go for. First off, my pc is definitely no monster anymore (Athlon 1GHz, 256 Mb RAM), but I would like to be able to play the new titles that are coming out. Personally I don’t really mind if I’m not able to play in incredibly high resolutions with all options enabled, as long as I can get a good performance and some decent graphics it’s fine by me.

The thing is I still have a GeForce 2 (64Mb RAM version) which I’ll probably try to sell on ebay or the like, and I’ve no insight at all anymore on what’s out there in terms of video cards. I guess most people are going for either a Radeon or a GeForce right now, but the specifications (Ti, Pro, FX, etc) and the number designations (5800, 5900, 9700, 9500, 9600,…) are just lost on me, especially considering that a higher number there apparently no longer seems to mean that the card is automatically better/faster.

Paging through PCGameplay, the games magazine I read, and seeing the results of performance tests for all these cards is encouraging though, as they all seem to get monstrous framerates even in very high resolutions and in the newest games. Basically I figure that if those cards are that powerful, then they should give my computer a serious performance boost even if it is past its days of being a killer machine. Am I right in assuming this? Or would it be better if I stick in another 256 Megs of RAM or something? What I’d really like at this point is some more info on all these things, especially on the kinds of video cards that are out there, which one to consider and which to avoid, and so on. When it comes to prices I never consider the top models though, as I feel it’s wiser to make a choice based on a good balance between price and quality. I’ve been hearing good things about the newest GeForce FX cards for instance, but the pricetag is just outrageously high.

Any help or information you could give me is most appreciated :drink:

(Machine for to kill) #2

I don’t know much about the radeon cards, but nvidia is pretty good about making a card for every budget. Since tomorrow (friday nov 28, US only) is a big sales day I’d make sure you check out the local stores for specials. I have two computers right now, one with a GeForce4 Ti4600, and one with a GeForce MX440. The MX one is really cheap and it gives you somewhat of a good performance boost. I would not recommend it however for future games as it is not a particularly good card. It plays Enemy Territory well, but it really struggles with America’s Army and UT2003. The Ti on the other hand is an exellent, exellent card. The nVidia Ti series are overall very good cards, though they are not very affordable. However as I said you should look for special deals because I’m sure there’s bound to be a GeForce4 Tixxxx card on sale.

(fAAt) #3

Personally I would recommend a GeForce4 Ti4200, or a Ti4800 if you can afford it. It’s a quality card and they (the 4200 - not sure about the 4800) are only about 120 bucks nowadays.

Since you mentioned that you don’t have a bunch of money to blow I thought I would mention this card, as all of the new, QUALITY cards (Radeon9800, GeForceFX 5900) are amazingly expensive.

I also recommend the GeForce4 over all the other, “new but not super expensive” Radeon and GeForce Cards. The GeForceFX 5200 (even though it sounds like a new, baddass FX card) is actually slower than a 4-Ti4200. The 5200 is an OEM/Value card. In many cases, even a GeForce3 will outperform a 5200. Radeons are the same way; the Radeon9000, while it sounds like just a step below the 9800, is in fact MANY steps below it.

Check out http://www.tomshardware.com, pretty much everything you want to know about any video card (made by any manufacturer) is there. They even have handy bar graphs and stuff.

On another note, your 1ghz processor is starting to get a little old, but if upgrading it is not an option, (and even if it is) for gaming you should have at least 512MB system RAM. Actually I would recommend a RAM upgrade before anything else - you will probably see dramatic results just from that.

(Bokkem) #4

Totally agree with above posts.

The latest Nvidia and ATI card would be overkill for you PC and your wallet :wink: You need CPU speeds @ 2,5gH - 8x AGP and 1gB RAM to througly benefit from those monsters.

Upgrading your Dx7 Geforce2 to a Geforce4 4200Ti (considered to be the best performance for value) would seriously boost your gaming performance.

(TAngelo) #5

Thanks for the replies so far guys; with all this talk about people upgrading their computers around this time so they can play Doom 3 and HL2 and what-not will all options enabled I guess what I’m looking for is a way to just add some power to my PC without actually buying a new computer. I suppose a good 3D card is the way to do that. Like I said, I don’t mind if I’m not able to play in 1600x1200 or the like, as long as I can keep up for a while by boosting my system a bit it’s fine by me. I’ve been checking out some hardware guides in the meantime and right now the Radeon 9600 or 9700 look like the best choices, price/quality -wise. Any idea on what that might do for upcoming titles like Deus Ex 2, Stalker, Far Cry etc? I’m not a hardcore gamer per se, so 800x600 resolutions with medium detail are quite ok for me.

(Computertech) #6

I have to say at the start here, a Geforce4 MX440 would be more like SAME performance of your Geforce2 card, The MX420 would be slower.
The video cards are a bit hard to figure out. As one posted above, http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/index.html is a really good sight to look at the video cards in action, including a few playing/testing ET. At what I can see, the Radeon 9600 XT (that’s 500mhz clock speed) is one of the best “bang for the buck”. A true FX5600 Ultra would give better performance for Quake based games.
Now the bad part, it seems alot of ppl out there are playing the “name game”. There’s a FX5600XT (235mhz clock speed) out there, for like $100US bucks, problem is that it performs at least HALF the speed of the TRUE FX5600 (400mhz clock speed). True price like around $170US.
In an old article from tom’s: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html compares some of the video cards on an older 1ghz cpu. In one test with jedi II (quake3 engine) the true Geforce 2 Ti out performed the higher end cards. Alot is based on the speed of the cpu itself.
Careful how you shop and choose.