Best Card for Unreal Tournament 2004?

[MBony]

I have played CS for ~3 years on my Geforce 2 32MB card and now that I've played the UT2k4 demo and pre-ordered the game I'm wanting to upgrade my video card to really get the full experience of the game.

I am looking to spend ~$100-$130 on the card.

Can you all give me some suggestions?

Also, can someone explain the difference between ATI AIW Radeon, Sapphaire Radeon, Powercolor Radeon, Visiontek Radeon, etc. Are they all Radeons or not? I'm a little confused.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Incomplete]

In the demo with NO AA/AF and all settings on high in the game i get around 80fps on my ti4200-8x 64mb, and i got it for $50 on ebay....it beats the sh*t out of most 5600 Ultras, and it overclocks to 290/590 =D Most 5600 Ultras are in the 100-130 price range, so try to get a 5700 non-ultra on ebay for around that price, i think u can manage it

On the Radeons, the AIW is all-in-wonder its like a tv tuner card and a vid card, the Sapphire and Powercolor, etc are just the brands, personally i think sapphire is the BEST brand to get.

also, if you are lookin to go the ATI route, i would go for a 9500 and flash it to a 9700np =D

 

[Todd33]

Ya, a GF4 Ti4200/4600 is the best at that price I think, unless you go up to the 9600XT for $150.

Newegg has refurb 4200s for ~$60.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: MBony


Also, can someone explain the difference between ATI AIW Radeon, Sapphaire Radeon, Powercolor Radeon, Visiontek Radeon, etc. Are they all Radeons or not? I'm a little confused.

AIW = all in wonder = radeon plus tv tuner

as for sapphaire, powercolor, visontek and such, those are just card manfuatures for radeons. just like you can get a geforce made by gainward, leadtek, pny or whoever.


9600pros are just over 130$ now which is a good deal, but if you don't want to spend that much then a geforce4 is the way to go.

 

[MBony]

What about a good overclocking Radeon? Its weird (to me) because the higher number (9500vs9600), the higher number isn't always the better card. Its kind of confusing. And I can't keep track of what card overclocks to what. I'm not interested in getting a bunch of fans so if I had to OC I could use stock fans. (I have a Dell and like how its quiet)...

 

[CaiNaM]

personally i would save up a couple extra bucks and get a 5900xt or perhaps a 9700pro. you should be able to get one for around 160-170. the 9800pro is imo the best card if you're talking to $210 range, but that's a bit more sustantial cost than the price you are thinking about now. any higher than $210 i'd simply wait another month or two to see what the next gen delivers.

you can always "get by" with a gf2 at lower resolutions with no aa/af if you have to, as the market should be more clear about the time ut2k4 ships, or shortly thereafter.

 

[Omegachi]

how bout PCI cards?

 

[NEVERwinter]

well, just don't get anything lower than 9600pro in that price range.... get a couple more $$$ to get a 5900XT would be a good choice

 

[otispunkmeyer]

its not what card its what system lol!!!!

UT is very CPU and Memory sensitive.....im sure my 9500pro can push more than 120fps (it can in flyby) but when there are other characters in the game etc it all comes down to cpu and memory....

 

[MBony]

Thanks for the help everyone, the system its going in is a Dell Dimension 4550 w/ 768MB PC2700 Crucial and 2.53GHz CPU.

 

[SneakyStuff]

If I were you, I would look around for a Radeon 9500 Pro. You could find one for under $100 out there.

EDIT: Or, if you don't feel like cruisin around, look into a Radeon 9600 pro, of geforce fx 5700 non-ultra

 

[MBony]

Which would be the better card? The 9500Pro or Nonpro mod'd to 9700Pro? Do both use the 8 pipe architecture?

 

[SneakyStuff]

the 9500 PRO has all 8 pipelines enabled by default, and can be soft-modded to a 9700.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Unreal tournament games should always run fast on nvidia cards
every since the fall of 3dfx i guess nvidia has been the next best thing for UT games
imo

 

[SneakyStuff]

granted, ATI cards aren't exactly useless

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
the 9500 PRO has all 8 pipelines enabled by default, and can be soft-modded to a 9700.

No it can't be. All 9500 pro's have a 128bit bus so it is impossible to mod them into a 9700.

 

[SneakyStuff]

My cousin has a 9500 pro, and it is running as a 9700, so, there must be some way.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
If I were you, I would look around for a Radeon 9500 Pro. You could find one for under $100 out there.

EDIT: Or, if you don't feel like cruisin around, look into a Radeon 9600 pro, of geforce fx 5700 non-ultra

the 5900xt/se/nu and 9800pro will run circles around these cards, for alot less money.

if you ck the "hot deals" forums, there's a dell offer where you could net a 9800pro for $167. if you can get one at that price, the 9800pro is a no brainer.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
My cousin has a 9500 pro, and it is running as a 9700, so, there must be some way.

He might have overclocked it, but a 9500 pro can never become a 9700, just can't happen. Now, the drivers will often display the name of a 9500 as a 9700, so maybe that's the case?

 

[Corporate Thug]

9600 pro

 

[SneakyStuff]

the 9500 pro is better than a 9600 pro, and it would be the most cost effective card in this case. Here's a benchmark, with the same processor as MBony's. German!

 

[BFG10K]

For a little bit more than $130 (perhaps $150-$160) you can pick up a 5900XT/SE which will demolish the mid-range cards.

 

[SneakyStuff]

The cheapest 5900XT i've seen is from MSI, and it is $185.

 

[BFG10K]

There were some deals for $165 floating around before (probably using rebates). It pays to check because if he does find one, he'll get much better performance.

 

[modedepe]

Newegg did have the xfx 5900xt for $159. I think they've since upped the price though.