Best bang for the buck 3dv card?

[PistachioByAzul]

WAY out of the loop. I have a GeForce2 GTS 32mb, what's the best card to upgrade to, nVidia preferred, and no more than $100-$150?

 

[chizow]

In that price range, get a good OCing GF4 ti4200 with 128mb ram (8X AGP is out there too, but I wouldn't let that be a deciding factor). I believe Leadtek and Gainward provide the best offerings with those specs. If you can afford to go to the $200 price range, go with a Radeon 9500pro.

Chiz

 

[PistachioByAzul]

No overclocking, I forgot to mention. Just want to pop it in and go.

 

[PistachioByAzul]

Or let me ask this. How will a GeForce4 MX420/440/460 64mb rate against a GeForce2 GTS 32mb? How will the TI4200 rate against the GTS? This is in a P4 1.5 system with 384mb RAM.

 

[chizow]

GF 4 MX cards are GF2 cores on 'roids with faster RAM. They've got a neutered memory substructure compared to GF4s and even GF3s and no DX8 support, so I wouldn't recommend that as an upgrade path. In that range, just pick the cheapest GF4 Ti4200 within your budget that offers the features you are looking for and you're set. You can also check out the software bundles and such. Just curious though, why no OCing? The major difference between higher performing parts like the ti4400 and ti4600 boils down to RAM speed, so there's nothing wrong with extra performance, especially when its free

Chiz

 

[PistachioByAzul]

I had fun overclocking every thing I could back in the day, but now I just don't have the time/don't care enough. Thanks for the info on the MX cards, I knew there was something crippled about them.

 

[AnAndAustin]

GF4MX420 is roughly = to GF2GTS
GF4MX440 " = GF2Ultra
GF4MX440-8X is faster still
GF4MX460 is a bit faster again

Even so it is still the GF2 core at the heart albeit with a speed boost, enhanced image quality, dual display, TVout, DVD playback etc. Even the GF4MX460 is still slower than a stock GF3TI200 so really you are best to go for one of the following cards ...

Rad8500LE-128MB (or other Rad8500 derivitive) - I wouldn't consider anything less inc the Rad9000PRO
GF4TI4200 - Great value even at stock speeds and plenty of room if you do want to o/c
Rad9500PRO - Great value if you can afford the price tag

Even the Rad8500LE will be noticably faster and more capable than a GF2GTS but if you can afford the extra go for the GF4TI or Rad9500PRO, all three cards are IMHO 'great value for money' so make your choice and take the plunge! Of course do ensure your CPU is decently fast, given the price of XP2000+ type CPUs it makes sense to avoid choking your new gfx card.