Purchasing A New GFX Card

zAbbo

Im buying a new rig for christmas(or early Jan)

MOBO: Abit KD7 Raid (kt400)

Chip: Amd Xp 2000+

Ram: 256mb 333 Samsung(all I can afford now)

I have a Geforce 2 GTS (200/333), but i was haping to get a new budget priced one( at most 130-140)

I play some games, but dont mind reducing the resolution to gain higher speeds. (my monitor maxes at 1280 as well)

So with all these into consideration, i`d like some opinions on budget priced cards, namely

Sapphire Tech Radeon 9000 pro
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Graphics_and_Video_56.html - second from bottom

Gainward AGP GeForce4 MX460 64MB DDR
http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=25822&t=278&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=24&GrpID=1&s=pl

Sapphire Radeon 8500LE 64MB DDR
http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=28381&t=278&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=24&GrpID=1&s=pl

Any and all help appreciated

Kix

I seriously think about spending an extra tenner and getting

Creative 3DBlaster GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB
AGP, DDR-RAM, TV-Out, Bulk
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=29268&t=&l=&AvdID=1&CatID=&GrpID=&s=sr


K

STaN

or buy the

Wildcat4 7210 Ultra high-end with a total of 384MB of on-board memory AGP8x



http://www.3dlabs.com/product/wildcat4/index.htm

Anima

Jebus that things a beast!! Is that for like rendering 3d movies or something?

STaN

it is, and beats absolutely everything on the home market by a mile. Id love to see a 3D mark for it

koneko

Um, Stan, hate to burst your bubble there....

This is a workstation card. Meant for CAD and 3d Rendering.

It won't beat every home-market card, in fact it won't even come close. That isnt what the card is designed for. Don't assume because it has a lot of memory that it will do well in 3DMark.

I've used quite a few of the Wildcat cards and as great as they all are for workstations, they're a heap of ****e for games.

Baz, tbh, get a GeForce 4 Ti4200. Much better.

spooky donkey

Yeah baz i have to agree with the gang here! The ti4200 (64 meg version is better than 128 believe it or not ) it the best bang for yer buck on vid cards. ( same way as AMD XP chips give you the best bang per buck ). I tink on komplete you could get a gf3 for that kinda money and they are not bad cards ( Last i heard gf3 ti200 103 yoyos on komplete! ) the gf4 mx cards? well lets say id rather a gf2 mx!

There might be a good ati card for that money a 7500 or even 8500 i dont really know much about these babys though heard ati werent great for drivers but that may have changed in the last year! But worth a look anyways!

good luck!

Quigs Snr

Baz,

Of the 3 you mentioned the 8500LE would have it in terms of RAW performance over the other 2, easily.


For the extra tenner, tho' the GF4 Ti4200 from Komplett, is hard to sniff at. If your budget was rigid, and the max you could spend was 140 on a card and 100 on a CPU, I would get the GF4 Ti and downgrade the processor to a 1900 or even 1800.

I had a 1700 for a while with a GF4 ti4400. I got a 2100 recently. My 3DMark score went from 11,000 to 11,800 not really worth talking about I'm afraid.

Say for example with an XP 2000 and a GF4 Mx460 you could expect a score of about 6500 ish under Windows XP

Well, if you had an XP1700 and a GF4 Ti4200 under the same system, I reckon your could reasonably expect over 10,000.

Now you don't have to be a mathematical genius to work out the most cost-effective solution there in terms of bang per buck.

Quigs Snr

By the way, if you still want to get a cheaper card, I think the 8500LE just shades the GF3 Ti200 in enough area's to make it the better bet.

daveg

So which of these would be better (both value for money and performance) the GeForce 3 Ti500 (€120) or the Creative 3DBlaster GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB (€153). My budget isn't too rigid.

STaN

is there a 3d mark for the wildcat out there? still v interested

koneko

Daveg, Definitely the Ti4200.

With a little overclocking it won't be too far off a Ti4400 or Ti4600 (well, close enough anyway!).

Stan - the older Wildcat cards I tested got a few hundred, few thousand tops.

You should be looking out for the Radeon 9700, or the GeForce FX. Unless you're going to do 3d rendering or CAD, Wildcats aren't for you.

daveg

Thanks Koneko. Ti4200 it is if I ever sell my old god damn machine.

zAbbo

Thanks for your input lads, especially the workstation card :mad: ,

Quigs is the only one making sense,
unlike some of yee Taliban Thread Hijackers (tm)

Im going the little bit extra on the mobo, so i can upgrade to a better cpu in the future(based on a 266 FSB).

So it makes sense to drop the cpu tp a 1700 or a 1800. Just noticed these two chips are now tbred based, and not polomino

http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=29508&t=795&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=4&GrpID=6&s=pl

Interesting, anyway i`ll seriously think about the ti 4200, altho I`ll prolly wait until after xmas to see if prices drop with the new nvidia card coming out.

koneko

Originally posted by bazH
Quigs is the only one making sense,
unlike some of yee Taliban Thread Hijackers (tm)

Fool, I made perfect sense. You don't want people giving you wrong advise do you?

zAbbo

the only words on topic you made in regards to this thread were:

"Baz, tbh, get a GeForce 4 Ti4200. Much better."

the rest was some drivel about a workstation card or something.

Thanks for your input

RicardoSmith

I had a 9000pro thought it was pretty slow and it doesn't come close to something like a GF4ti4200 (which I replaced it with)

Buy the GF4ti4200 best all round card you can get these days. I tried a 4600 for a while and didn't really see the difference in performance at all.

halfab

I would put my monty on the 8500LE .. of the choice there but if you could stretch for the Ti4200 it would be a better option.

Just while your surfing take a look see at the ATI Radeon 9500 Pro.. maybe you could hang on till JAN for the 3D Card purchase..
Price may drop to nearer 150 euro

Balfa

i came to the same conclusion as the posse a couple of days ago, that the Ti4200 64MB (NOT 128!) is the best buy.

I've just ordered mine (a chaintech GT20) off newegg.com for $116, but unfortunately they don't ship outside the US, but at the moment they have free shipping, and most states get away with not paying tax, so if you have a friend or relative in the states that can post it over by registered mail, it'll still work out a lot cheaper than the good guys at komplett.

I'll post the URL to that specific item as soon as their website stops acting up

Balfa

This is the item here:
http://www.newegg.com/app/specification.asp?item=14-145-018

But it seems newegg have just increased the price to $146...
How odd.

Gerry

Just wondering about the ti4200, is the 64mb version better because it has faster ram, or just because it is better value than the 128mb version?

RicardoSmith

the ram on the 64mb one is quicker...

PPC

Originally posted by Gerry
Just wondering about the ti4200, is the 64mb version better because it has faster ram, or just because it is better value than the 128mb version?

The 64Mb version is faster because in the 128mb version they used slower ram to keep it at a resonable price.

BKtje

I had a 9000pro thought it was pretty slow and it doesn't come close to something like a GF4ti4200 (which I replaced it with)

Buy the GF4ti4200 best all round card you can get these days. I tried a 4600 for a while and didn't really see the difference in performance at all.

Gah. No offence but did you not do your homework on this card?
Its ATI's competitor for the geforce4 mx. You actually moved down from a gf ti4200 to just better than a gf4 mx.

I'd also have to advise getting a ti4200. If you can wait and will have the extra dosh required for it the 9500 pro looks very very good.

RicardoSmith

Think you'd better brush up on your comprehension homwork too m8. You missunderstand me. I replaced a 9000pro with a Ti4200. But indeed I did read up on the 9000pro and many reckoned in DX8 titles that it was as good as the Ti4200. But thats wasn't my experience. I'm still trying to get rid of the ATI drivers too. Nothing new there either!

zAbbo

Yeah i`ve been reading up on the 9000 pro as well, The main selling point being the dx 8.1 complience. On paper it looks a good budget card.

I`m lowering my CPU to a xp1800(tbred) and spending the extra few quid on a ti4200 in january. Where it hopefully will be down in price.

RicardoSmith

Good idea I reckon. There should be some 9500 cards out too by then and they might be even better then a ti4200. You could also pick up a second had ti4200 by then as some people would have upgraded over christmas!