Budget temp video card

[orangat]

Hi,
I'd like some quick opinions on which budget video card I should get
for my AXP1.8G/384Mb PC which currently has a GF3Ti200 until I upgrade
the whole rig later on in the fall.

I haven't been keeping up with video card offerings for a while so
a quick look seemed to suggest either the:
Chaintech 128bit FX5200 $70 or Sapphire9600 128bit $96.

I wasn't sure how fast the MX440, Ti4200 would be and I didn't see them
for sale at my usual stores.

Would wither of those 2 cards help me in meantime with games like FarCry??

Cheers

 

[Matthias99]

Not particularly. The 5200 is probably slower than your current card. The 9600, while slightly faster, is not going to be a huge step up. To see a big increase you'll want, at a minimum, a 5700U or 9600Pro/XT. But then, you might as well spend a little bit more and get a 5900XT or 9800Pro.

 

[imported_juanflaiter]

I would buy an Ati Radeon 9500PRO, they go for about 90 bucks in eBay and performs practicly like a R9600XT. BTW changing to a GF4 ti4200 wouldn´t be much of an upgrade.

 

[Avalon]

BFG 5700 Ultra for $129 shipped will hold you off for a while if you are willing to pay that much. There is a link around here somewhere for it.
A 9500 pro for under $100 will do very nicely as well.

Here it is:
http://www.chumbo.com/info.asp?s=855650000326

 

[Corporate Thug]

$50-$60 ti 4200 @ FS/FT

 

[orangat]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Not particularly. The 5200 is probably slower than your current card. The 9600, while slightly faster, is not going to be a huge step up. To see a big increase you'll want, at a minimum, a 5700U or 9600Pro/XT. But then, you might as well spend a little bit more and get a 5900XT or 9800Pro.

juanflaiterI would buy an Ati Radeon 9500PRO, they go for about 90 bucks in eBay and performs practicly like a R9600XT. BTW changing to a GF4 ti4200 wouldn´t be much of an upgrade

Are you sure??! I thought my Ti200 was at least a generation or 2 behind already. I'm surprised that a 128-bit version of 5200/9600 won't bring much improvement. I mean my Ti200 isn't even on the speed comparison charts.

The Ti4200 doesn't seem to do well on DX9. There seems to be so many variations of the same chipset with different acronyms - LE/XT/Pro/Ultra. Confusing.

I'll take a look at Ebay.

EDIT: Thanks Avalon, I'll have a think about it. I was really hoping prices come down after the recent Nvidia/Radon debuts. $400 is too much at the moment.

 

[Curley]

orangat,

Take a look at the refurbished 9700Pros for $150.00 on New Egg. This card will smoke any card list so far in this thread except the 9800Pro, 256bit version. There are some 9800pro running at 128bit also.

Good Luck

Curley

 

[gsellis]

I found a refurbed Sapphire 9600XT at newegg almost two months ago for $115. So, there are bargains to be had, but there are some risks that it may not work or have a piece missing. Newegg is really good for stuff, so you have to weight that.

 

[imported_juanflaiter]

If you are willing to spend 150 bucks I would go for a Radeon 9800SE. This way you could softmodded with Omega drivers and go for the full 8 pipelines, it´s like a 9800NP.BTW you could even overclock it to 9800PRO. Sweet Deal

 

[SneakyStuff]

That BFG 5700u for $130 at chumbo.com is hard to beat, don't listen to what the other people have said, why would you spend 200 dollars for a card you'll only use for a few months? Just get something cheap and save yourself a few bucks for your rig upgrade.

EDIT: And if you're using a Ti4200 now, you should be fine until the fall, that card is a great card, even now.

 

[Cawchy87]

4200 beats both cards you mentioned on these tests!

 

[Zbox]

do you suppose a 5200 would beat a gf2gts hands down?

 

[orangat]

Hmm..my old thread got bumped up.

Anyway I got a 9600pro temporarily until the x800/6800 prices drop
for $100, my next choice was the 9500pro.

No one should ever ever get a FX5200 used or new even if its faster than
a gf2gts. Get a cheap used Ti4600 for $50 or spend more and do what I did.

 

[Zbox]

I was asking because I have an unused one and a friend of mine is running on an old gf2 gts still... If he can get better performance for free, why not take it?

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Zbox
do you suppose a 5200 would beat a gf2gts hands down?

Im not too too sure... i know the the Geforce 2Ti (64mb DDR) massacres a 5200 (ultra, non ultra, SE) and for that matter beats a 9600SE too. It also beats all geforce 4mx's. The only thing the other cards have going for them is 128mb of memory, and support for DX9 (all but the G4 Mx's) which probably be too slow to run anyways.

Im not sure about a GTS though. Is a GTS 64mb DDR, or is it SDRAM. I gotta have the cards specs.

-Kevin

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: orangat

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Not particularly. The 5200 is probably slower than your current card. The 9600, while slightly faster, is not going to be a huge step up. To see a big increase you'll want, at a minimum, a 5700U or 9600Pro/XT. But then, you might as well spend a little bit more and get a 5900XT or 9800Pro.

juanflaiterI would buy an Ati Radeon 9500PRO, they go for about 90 bucks in eBay and performs practicly like a R9600XT. BTW changing to a GF4 ti4200 wouldn´t be much of an upgrade

Are you sure??! I thought my Ti200 was at least a generation or 2 behind already. I'm surprised that a 128-bit version of 5200/9600 won't bring much improvement. I mean my Ti200 isn't even on the speed comparison charts.

The 5200 is just dog-slow; it's the bottom-end card in the GeForceFX line. It's designed mostly to be really cheap. The 128-bit 5200Ultra is probably about as fast as your GF3Ti200. A 64-bit 5200 would be far slower. The 9600 NP runs about the speed of a Ti4200 (better with AA/AF, worse without) -- sure, it's faster than what you have, but probably not worth spending $100 on. A used Ti4200 (~$60) or Ti4600 (~$80) might be.

The Ti4200 doesn't seem to do well on DX9. There seems to be so many variations of the same chipset with different acronyms - LE/XT/Pro/Ultra. Confusing.

The Ti4200/4600 doesn't do DX9 *at all*. The 4600, however, is pretty fast (about as good as a 9600Pro at DX8 titles with AA/AF turned off); it just won't look very pretty on new and/or upcoming games that heavily use pixel shaders, and it loses a lot of performance when you enable IQ features.

 

[brokejumper]

Orangrat,

Where did you get a 9600 pro for $100? The lowest I am finding is a $123 PowerColor from New Egg. Or did you get the refurbished one for $95?

And just so I don't have to clutter the board with yet another advice thread... does anyone have experience with the POWERCOLOR Evil Commando 2 ATI RADEON 9700 PRO? Found it refurbished at New Egg for $138.

 

[Cawchy87]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: orangat

Originally posted by: Matthias99


The 5200 is just dog-slow; it's the bottom-end card in the GeForceFX line. It's designed mostly to be really cheap. The 128-bit 5200Ultra is probably about as fast as your GF3Ti200. A 64-bit 5200 would be far slower. The 9600 NP runs about the speed of a Ti4200 (better with AA/AF, worse without) -- sure, it's faster than what you have, but probably not worth spending $100 on. A used Ti4200 (~$60) or Ti4600 (~$80) might be.

ti200 will and does beat it.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87

Originally posted by: Matthias99
The 5200 is just dog-slow; it's the bottom-end card in the GeForceFX line. It's designed mostly to be really cheap. The 128-bit 5200Ultra is probably about as fast as your GF3Ti200. A 64-bit 5200 would be far slower. The 9600 NP runs about the speed of a Ti4200 (better with AA/AF, worse without) -- sure, it's faster than what you have, but probably not worth spending $100 on. A used Ti4200 (~$60) or Ti4600 (~$80) might be.

ti200 will and does beat it.

actually, the 5200U tends to win out by a small margin (however, this test is from a while back, and uses older drivers and a fairly limited set of games, but it's the best I could find with all the cards in it). The 128-bit 128MB 5200 is almost dead even with a 64MB GF3Ti200, and the 64-bit version is (as expected) far slower. In fact, the 5200U often beats the rev1 GeForceFX 5600!

Edit: man, you screwed up the quoting something fierce.

 

[Cawchy87]

ya, i did screw up the quoting. I know that my friend and i have simalar dell computers except mine is 2.0 ghz and his is 2.4 ghz. He has a 5200 and i have a ti200. I beat him in every game for fps, how good i can make it look etc. So just based on personal experiance i would have to say ti200. and its cheaper too

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87
ya, i did screw up the quoting. I know that my friend and i have simalar dell computers except mine is 2.0 ghz and his is 2.4 ghz. He has a 5200 and i have a ti200. I beat him in every game for fps, how good i can make it look etc. So just based on personal experiance i would have to say ti200. and its cheaper too

He's right. Also the GF3TI200's are decent ocers from my experiance. My card is running at 204/481 up from 175/400. And guess what? THE FAN IS BROKEN! Yes this thing is stable and cool. Been oced for a month and a half with 250hrs+ of gaming on 6 different modern games and has ran 3dmark2001/2003 both for 2 days straight. I noticed my frames increased by as much as 30% in many situations in farcry and Halo (55fps avg w/ low settings on 1024x768). I highly reccomend doing this route and saving your cash for a better gaming pc.
(system in sig)

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: shady06
$50-$60 ti 4200 @ FS/FT

 

[Cawchy87]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: shady06
$50-$60 ti 4200 @ FS/FT

No doubt if you can get it this cheap then it is the card for you!