what graphics card

50Cent

That does make sense alright Ricardo. I just realised that not one single game recommends 128mb memory...

asylum

Need to buy a card but on a tight budget.Had a geforce 2 gts.Is the fx 5200 faster than this.was thinking of getting the Gainward GeForce FX 5200 256MB DDR
AGP, "PRO/680TV-DVI",Tv-Out, Retail .Is this card any good only play the odd game so not sure what to get.

Raz

Originally posted by Drazhar
Well, the second thing i was on about, the voltage, definately want to check that. I think a few newer cards wont let you boot up if they detect 3.3v AGP port.

Or maybe that might be newer boards and older 3.3v AGP cards

The old AGP2x sockets ran at 3.3V while the newer AGP4x 1.5V and the newest AGP8x runs at 0.8V. The newer motherboards will detect which type of card you have and run it accordingly. I may be off on the 8x voltage value but that's basically how it works.

Keith@modified

Originally posted by MisterAnarchy
I bought a 64Mb Sapphire Radeon 9100 off Komplett for €80.
It is the best Graphics card under €100 by a bit.
Its basically a souped up 8500 which this time last year was Radeons top card.
It can push the 4200 close in most tests and is unbelievable value .
The 128Mb version isnt worth the extra money as the performance gain if any is negligible.

True the 9100 is basicly a 8500 but...

The 9100 is actualy an underclocked 8500

Gpu runs @ 250mhz & Memory @ 230mhz

The 8500 ran both @275mhz

They scaled down performance in comparison to the 8500 to save on production cost's.

PHB

Is there any advantage to picking Nvidia over ATI or the other way around, besides the actual quality of the carD?
Like driver support etc.?

Keith@modified

I currently have a NVidia based card myself and the Detonator drivers are constantly updated,

I cannot comment first hand on the ATi drivers having not had an ATi card since the Rage 128 but from what I have read on other boards it is one of the reasons that sway people to NVidia.

I would definitly go for a Ti 4200 rather then a Radeon 9100.

But in saying all that depending on how much cash I had I would look at what NVidia and ATi cards had on offer and buy the best. There is no point staying loyal to a brand and buying second rate hardware.

MrPinK

The Rage 128 was also the last ATi card I ever had and I swore I'd never get another after the driver fiasco I had with it. It be fair tho, they seem to have gotten their act together in recent times. I know a lot of ppl with Radeons who have very had any driver problems. I've been nvidia for years now, but the next card I get will probably be an ATi

Adrian

I have read 3 great reviews of the fx 5200 128mb
The other low end Gforce gfx cards only surpass it in a couple of tests and when you overclock it it leaves the others for dead the msi comes with a heatsink unlike a few of them which would not be to great to overclock but the sparkle and msi cards are excellent

Its a load of ballz

CivilServant

Originally posted by 50Cent
So there is a difference then. One has lower clock speeds. The other has not. the pro version of the Radeon series is a good deal better than the non-pro. 9700 Pro is A LOT better than the 9700.

Well actually there's not much difference between these 2 except for the €100 price tag. The 9700 can be overclocked to pro speeds without too much hassle.

RicardoSmith

Personally I think that ATI still have issues with their drivers in particular with older games. I had a 9000Pro for a while and had as much trouble with the drivers as I did with older ATI cards. So for I'll stick with Nvidia. I've never had a problem with their drivers.

Adrian

Originally posted by CivilServant
Well actually there's not much difference between these 2 except for the €100 price tag. The 9700 can be overclocked to pro speeds without too much hassle.

But the radeon 9700 pro can be overlclocked further than the 9700. so the 9700 pro is far better