Advice on New ~$200 video card

[mitchelt]

I am moving my Matrox G-400TV from my PC to a used P3-550 PC I just picked up cheap from my brother in-law, the reason is that I can't afford to tie up my main PC for hours while rendering video.

Anyway, I'd like to get a new video card for my PC, it is a P3-600.

I was looking at Nvidia based video cards, but I have been out of the hardware scene for a while so I have not kept up. BestBuy has some nice looking cards but I am not sure which is a good one, and can handle newer games First Person Shoot'em up games, and the new Soldier of Fortune II that is coming out. Anyway, here are some examples:

VisionTek GeForce2-MX400 AGP Graphics Accelerator 64Meg, $99.00
VisionTek Xtasy GeForce2 Ti AGP Graphics Accelerator 64Meg, $130.00
VisionTek Xtasy GeForce3 Titanium 200 AGP Graphics Accelerator 64 Meg, $199.99

I can probably get a better price online, or CompUSA...my friend is a manager at the one by the house.

Thanks!

Mitch

 

[chizow]

I've been testing a VT GF3 Ti200 for the past few days and must say this is a fantastic card. I got 2 as gifts during the BB sale, so it was considerably cheaper than what it retails for. After playing with it for a few days though, I think this card is worth the money even at full retail. That being said, I'm not sure if it is the best card for your system. I'm thinking your CPU will become a bottleneck for the card at resolutions higher than 1024, and the GF2 Ti performs similarly to the GF3 Ti200 at those resolutions. Don't get the MX400, its a waste of money at this point as there are numerous "value" cards available now that just slaughter it in performance.

Chiz

 

[Jgtdragon]

Paid $20 more and get yourself a retail Radeon 8500.
Look in the fs forum.

 

[mitchelt]

Do you guys think the Radeon 8500 will be really "bottlenecked" by my P3-600? I am perfectly happy with the Matrox G400 performance, so I am assuming it's got to be better than that.

I may upgrade the CPU to a P3-850 sometime, it's a cheap upgrade and I don't have to worry about memory speed seeing that it is still 100MHZ

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

You could probably use that PC-100 in a i845 mobo with a P4. If you wait a while, the price on the SDR boards will drop, and so will P4's. That might be a better upgrade.

I would stick with the video card you have right now, especially with the CPU you've got -given you are happy with it.

Take the $200 and spend it later on a more dramatic upgrade across the board. I think you'll be a lot happier with the result. If you spend the $200 now, you'll be CPU limited. If you go the other way upgarding CPU, you'll be video card limited. Either way, you'll probably not be happy, and $200 poorer. If you wait a bit the Radeon 8500 will drop in price when demand slacks and the P4 will inevitably drop when the i845 DDR mobos are released... There is also always AMD - excellent value for your hard-earned gaming dollar.

My 2 cents.

Jeff

 

[mitchelt]

I actually have no choice, the Matrox G400TV is going in a different PC, so my main PC will need a new card.

Mitch

 

[RgrPark]

go to newegg.com and look under geforce 3 ti-200 section...at least 3 different brands under 190$...i would get the Leadtek geforce 3 ti-200...might get lucky and get the 3.8 ns ram chips