Best video card for Celeron@450 system?

[Satyrist]

Suppose I'm looking at what would work well as a nice all-around workhorse video card (does well in 2d and 3d, it will be used for some 3d games as well) since I went and have just upgraded this machine, anyone have any suggestions?

I might try for some higher bus speeds on the board (a P2B, rev 1.02), even if it's limited to 103,112, or 133..I know, AGP will be stressed the higher I go.

If it's limited more to the lower speeds, what cards would suit me best, as I do recognize that generally, the performance is going to ultimately be bottlenecked by the slower CPU...

I had heard a GeForce2 MX would probably be the best use for this board, just looking for opinions/suggestions all the same.

Thanks!

EMAIL

 

[Matt]

Hi.

IMHO the Geforce 2MX is the best solution for you since it gives
you the best performance for a penny.
The Hercules G2MX SDR is prob the best one with a 5,5ns memory on it.
I should stay away from the DDR-solutions as of now since they don't offer any better performance due to a narrow memory bandwidth.

/Matt
There can only be one Matt!

 

[Taz4158]

With the new findings on the Radeon LE it looks like THE low priced card to beat right now.

 

[Actaeon]

Perfect thread

I run a Celeron 300a @ 450.

I use a Hercules Geforce 2 MX. (unfortunatly it was OEM *grin*)
I wouldn't get anything TOO FAST. My cpu bottlenecks almost any new videocard out there. Even my MX, so its still not running at its peak. I love my Card, Though, I wish I would have cashed up the extra money for a GTS (could last longer).

The Radeon LE looks nice, May I ask, what bit is the DDR?


I Got this from OldFarts post.

Summary:

32 meg 6ns DDR
clocked at 148/148, but can easily go well above that (180+)
larger, but passive HS
HyperZ disabled in D3D only, but can be easily enabled via registry
Very Cheap ($92)



MXs Core/Memory is clocked faster than the LEs, but what bit is the DDR? Seems nice if it was 128bits. MX would beat this card Unless its DDR is 128bit.

 

[Satyrist]

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EMAIL

 

[oldfart]

The mem bits has not been confirmed yet. If the clock speed is raised and HyperZ is enabled, the cards perform exactly the same as the non LE versions, which are 128 bit. This would lead me to believe they are also 128 bit.

 

[Matt]

Unfortunately the G2Mx with DDR is using a 64-bit memory interface
as opposed to the SDR which is using a 128-bit inteface.
Therefore all benifit from using a DDR-solution goes up into smoke. :Q

Doesn't the OEM version of the Hercules SDR also have 5,5ns memory?
I think that they have just clocked the memory lower on the OEM-chip?

/Matt

 

[BFG10K]

The MX was already beating the Radeon SDR in low resolution situations. I suspect the LE will get beaten even more.

I'd recommend a GF2 MX for your system. nVidia's T&L engine seems to be better than ATi's so the MX generates higher framerates in CPU limited situations.

 

[oldfart]

BFG, I wouldn't be so quick to make assumptions. The LE performs the same a a normal Radeon 32 DDR. The LE outperforms the MX by a wide margin. HERE is a comparison on the LE and MX.

 

[Odin30]

Ya know i always hear this question and thought i would give my 2 cents.
If yer cpu is the bottleneck then upgrade cpu if yer card is bottleneck do likewise.
Try to future proof yourself, get as much card as you can afford cause right now any cpu over 700 mhz is plenty to drive even the fastest video cards-ie at resolutions above 1280 * 1024 *32 bit all vidoe cards are the bottleneck after 700 mhz. So when you upgrade yer cpu you want the card to performm as fast as it can instead of creating another bottleneck as soon as you upgrade to a new cpu.
My 2 cents

 

[Pers]

so which is better, the mx or radeon LE???

 

[BFG10K]

Oldfart:

BFG, I wouldn't be so quick to make assumptions.

You're right. I must have been confusing it with the new Radeon mobility chip for laptops. I know that chip is severly crippled.

But those scores are really hard to believe. I'm going to wait for mainstream websites to run some benchmarks with the LE.

 

[Satyrist]

When's the LE set to come on the retail/OEM markets?

EMAIL

 

[Taz4158]

<< When's the LE set to come on the retail/OEM markets? >>


It already is.

 

[oldfart]

BFG, the LE is nothing more than a normal 32 DDR Radeon with a couple features crippled. They are D3D HyperZ and the clock speed being set to 148. HyperZ is very simply turned back on via registry entry, and powerstrip can fix the clock speed. Most people crank it up to 180+ no problem. This card will perform EXACTLY the same as a normal DDR card. Here are some benchmarks from Anandtech members:


<< For comparison, I'm posting my benchmark scores for Quake 3 using my All in Wonder Radeon. My systems specs are P3 1 GHz, BE6 II ver. 2.0, 128 MB RAM, IBM 45 GB ATA100 HD.

All tests were run on the High Quality setting.

At default 166/166
800x600: 104.8
1024x768: 72.1
1280x1024: 46.2
1600x1200: 32.7

overclocked to 180/180
800x600: 112.2
1024x768: 79.0
1280x1024: 50.8
1600x1200: 35.9 >>


******


<< I recently purchased one of these cards from Newegg. I got mine a few weeks ago when the price was $120 or so. Mine came with just a heatsink, as many of you described, but it doesn't have an LE sticker on the side, so i'm not sure if it's actually an LE. It was clocked at 148/148, but I was able to raise that to 190/190 no prob. I had it installed for a while and then decided to get the 64 meg version of the card since I wanted the VIVO functionality. I bought a retail Radeon 64 VIVO from buy.com that I received a couple days ago. I did run some benchmarks in Q3 when I had the 32 meg card installed. Here they are compared to my new 64meg card:

Res: 1024x768 (32-bit everything)

OEM 32DDR
Clock (166/166) FPS - 67.2
Clock (183/183) FPS - 71.4
Clock (190/190) FPS - 73.5

Retail 64DDR
Clock (default 183/183) FPS - 71.9
Clock (190/190) FPS - 73.2

As you can see there is little difference, and the 32meg DDR actually out-performed my 64meg DDR by a small margin for some reason. I had both card using the same registry settings, and the same D3D and OpenGL settings in case you're wondering. Just though i'd let you guys know about this. >>


********


<< radeon oc'd to 185/185 (very stable, fan blowing across it now)

hyper z enabled, z buffer optimized

3DMark
1024x768, 16bit = 5133
1024x768, 32bit = 4634
800x600, 32bit = 6048
640x480, 32bit = 7022 >>

 

[bjc112]

if you get an MX... get a Leadtek..(great card..) im running it right now at 212/205.. with absolutely no problems.. it also supports Tv-out and i got it for 120$ from mwave.com.. so if you get and MX.. definatley get a leadtek..

 

[oldfart]

Another post from an Anandtech member from the hot deals page:


<< Rhapsody

Member Date Posted: Feb/07/2001 12:27 PM Message OptionsSubscribe to ThreadPrint ThreadText Format

Radeon LE beats Geforce2MX hands down. Got one, got price adjustment in response to my complaint to Newegg that what I got wasn't what was described, and am DELIGHTED with the card.

Much, much better image quality than GF2MX (of which I have 3). Faster, too. Didn't know DVD could be so much better. I plan to get more of these as replacements for the lesser GF2MX.

And overclockability is pretty dramatic.

Make no mistake, this card knocks the underpinnings away from the GF2MX, which was a great bargain in it's day. Yesterday.

I wonder what Nvdia will do to counter this, because once people get wind of this one, Nvdia will lose low end sales big time to this card, unless they have a card of their own up their sleeves that they can play very soon. Sorry, Nvidia, but the GF2MX just doesn't cut it anymore.
>>

 

[BFG10K]

Here are some benchmarks from Anandtech members:

Thanks for the benchmarks Oldfart. After I saw the scores at that website I pretty much suspected that it had to have DDR memory and not SDR.

How much does it cost?

 

[oldfart]

They are CHEAP!! (like me). Currently you can get one for $88 US.

 

[bluemax]

The only thing that bugs me about the Radeon is how much tweaking you have to do in the registry. I HATE the registry!! :| That aside, it's very tempting. What I wouldn't give for a VIVO option for under $100.

Oh yeah, has the FSAA improved at all with the new drivers?