Cheap video card solution...Radeon or GF2 GTS?

[Nexus6]

Topic really says it all...this is my basic setup...
P3/866@1080MHz (166x6.5 1.8V)
MSI 6337 815E Pro Ver 1.X
512 MBs PC100 ECC
(2) Fujitsu 20G
(1) Quantum 10.2G

The video card in it was an ATI Rage 128 16MB, sold it locally and i'm on the i815 onboard graphics at the moment, i'm simply looking for another good solution within my price range with some good price/performance ratios. I had a Blue Orb and some copper heatsinks on the Rage 128, it overclocked rather nicely, and now i'm seeking another card with those kind of capabilities. The two cards that came up in my price range, were ones based on the Radeon LE and GeForce 2 GTS-V chips...I know the Radeon LE (might be VE, not sure), is a crippled card, and the ones i've seen are just the ATI Chips, the cards were manufactured by PowerColor. They have 32MBs of DDR and TV-Out, two options i'm really looking for. But how well do these cards overclock? Can i expect some major performance increases with Unreal Tournament, Quake III with one of these cards? Or will a GeForce 2 GTS-V be a better solution? I'm really leaning towards the ATI Radeon setup, but not really sure if PowerColor makes the best of products. I've seen some nice GF2 Ti200s around, but i only got a Benjamin to work with and need a sound card also (Out of topic, but Fortissimo or SB Live!?). If anyone has some experience with the Radeon LEs or GF2 GTS-Vs, please help me out. Thank You.

 

[Brian48]

You might want to do a search of the forums with "GTS-V" as the search parameter. Personally speaking, I think the GTS-V is still the best bang for the buck you can find right now. They're fairly fast right out of the box even without overclocking, which they seem to do very well I might add. They're down to $49.95 over at newegg.com.

Also, of the two sound cards you've mentioned, I'd opt for the Fortissumo II, which can also be had over at newegg for $32 the last time I checked. The SBLive was great in it's day, and I've owned several of them, but it's somewhat outdated now. I have the F2 in one of my backup boxes and the optical output is really handy to have if you happen to have a home stereo system or boom box to hook it up with.

 

[Deeko]

The Radeon LE is a great low-budget card. If its the VE, avoid it, it is horrid.

 

[check72]

I have owned the LE and now own a GTS.

For image quality, the LE is better than the GTS in 32-bit, but the GTS beats the LE in speed and is close enough in image quality that you would need to study a screen shot to notice.

I would go for the GTS-V and overclock it to standard GTS speed.

 

[Beater]

Just nip over ta the FS/FT board and pick up a GTS there. I just sold a Leadtek one for 50.00 shipped and I saw another go for that just yesterday, can't beat that!

 

[Nexus6]

Alright, well, i've decided to spend a little bit extra...and found a Chaintech GeForce 2 Ti200 card...It's got 32MBs of DDR memory and TV-Out...two things i really want...and it's $71, not a bad price...I've used a couple of Chaintech motherboards, nothing flashy or fancy, but they worked great. I did find a MicroStar GF2 Ti200 with 64MBs of DDR for $85...Is the extra $15 worth the more memory? And do any of you out there think that Chaintech is a reliable and stable brand as far as video cards are concerned?

 

[Soran]

Is the 15 bucks worth it? Well, for games out right now using directX7 you won't see much of a difference. But it seems like alot of the newer games are packing alot higher quality textures. So for future games I think you'll find in a year that 64mb will be the standard. We already have a 128mb Radeon card out, and there the Geforce4 128mb is on the way.

If your planning on buying games in the future and want to take full advantage of hi-res tectures, spend the extra $15 bucks now so you don't have to worry as much later on down the road. Pricewatch has a Geforce2ti listed for $79. You should also consider looking at a Radeon 7500, also at a low $79.

 

[Nexus6]

Does the Radeon 7500 have DDR memory and TV-out options?

 

[UncleWai]

64 DDR.
There is a version has no TV-out, just make sure you don't get that.
IF you use tv-out, definitely get a Radeon 7500 or 8500.
GF cards suck at tv-out.

 

[spanky]

radeon 7500 down to $80? i bet shipping is like $20...hehe

 

[Nexus6]

So, the GeForce cards suck at TV-Out huh...well, that could be a problem for me then...the only things i'd be using the TV-Out for is playing a few games, i have a Creative Labs MPEG Decoder card that i playback my DVDs and such with...So, Radeon 7500-64MB DDR-TV-Out is my best option for around $80 then, as opposed to the Chaintech GF2Ti200?

 

[UncleWai]

The rage theater chip is really good.... i don't think you need the creative mpeg decode card. in your case, definitely go for a R7500, playing game on tv is ultra sweet with s-video. I played NHL2k2, fifa2k2, soul reaver 2, no jagged at all (well with 6x smoothvision-r8500, 16x anistrophic filter).

 

[nemesismk2]

Get a 64mb Kyro 2 instead!