Choose between SiS 305 or TNT2 M64 for ultra low end machine.

[vikash]

I was building an ultra low end machine for plane jane web surfing and accounting for my uncle who's on a shoe string budget:

Duron 600
KT133 board
128 MB SD Ram
20 GB Maxtor 5400rpm
52x CD Rom Drive
1.44 Floppy
Generic PS2 Kbd
Generic PS2 Scroll Mouse
Generic Speakers
14" LG Monitor

I Have narrowed down on the foll AGP cards which are available here:

1) SiS 305 128 bit AGP 32MB SD Price US$ 24
2) TnT2 M64 64 bit AGP 32 MB SD Price US$ 34

Please sugest which would be the better of the two? The rest of the items are old used stuff and are already lying on his dining table, hence please don't suggest changes here.

Please keep in mind...No gaming needs at all....


VIKASH

 

[alluu]

I was doing the exact same thing and saw the sis305 at fry's. Never heard of it and couldn't really find any info. But the card is cheap. Fry's said they just got them in.

 

[ElFenix]

sis 305 is about mx200 in performance i think. yep, its a POS, but if its just in 2D i don't see how the most generic card on the planet won't work. as long as it plugs in and goes i figure it'll work. wouldn't expect much in the way of driver revisions but for 2D work, who cares?

 

[TimeKeeper]

I thought it might be cheaper just get a KM133 mobo?
S4 seems to be quite adequate for most Business app and web surfing.

 

[vikash]

As, i'v already mentioned that i have a KT133 board with me so i'l have to skip the KM133 board....

Any more suggestions regarding preference in Video CD playback quality, flash 5 animations playback, or overall 2D quality in general..

Also from a performance point of view, will the 128 bit memory bus of the SiS give it some edge over the 64bit TNT M64??

more bumps please...

 

[arcenite]

Well is the SiS 350 is comparable to an MX200 which came after the GeForce, and the TnT m64 came before the GeForce, i'd think the SiS would offer some edge.

 

[veryape]

Well if it's a stable card that will give you no problems, and run ok on games, then the M64 is ok. I have one. Just don't expect awesome frame rates because you won't get them. It's a decent card for the price concious but if he can afford the extra couple of bucks it might be better to go for one of the older GForces. All the M64 is is a cripple TNT2.

I don't know too much about the SIS 305 and that is why I cannot really say much about it.

 

[FishTankX]

If I were you i'd definatley get the SiS card. The only thing to be wary of is the drivers. I can't comment on the 2d quality but they'd probably be equal. And SiS is not only cheaper, but quite a bit faster. You see, the TNT2M64 is extrmley memory bandwidth limited. It has like 1GB/S memory bandwidth. As for playback quality or 2d i'm really not sure, but as for preformance it'd be like comparing a Duron 900 to a celeron 800.

 

[Athlon4all]

SiS 305 is not near MX200, SiS 315 is. If u want MX200 performance, then MX200's can be had for $40 on Pricewatch, if not, then get the TNT2 M64.

 

[holdencommodore]

Athlon4all is absolutly correct! The SiS 305 is DOES NOT PERFORM AT MX200 LEVEL it comparable with (maybe) a TNT1 or 2. Here is a section from a brief review that I found here

"In a nutshell, if you are after even moderately competent 3D gaming performance then look elsewhere. The 305 was very weak, in fact we could not even run most of the 3D tests--Quake III was a total washout. This card will sit happily in your PC displaying 2D business applications with very snappy screen updates and, if you come across the occasional light 3D task, it should cope with this as well. "

Drivers may have changed to offer more compatibility by now though.

Cheers.

 

[theplanb]

OOPS, you already have the board.

 

[dszd0g]

I would go for the TNT2. That way you have access to Nvidia's unified drivers. My experience has been that Nvidia has excellent driver support.
I really do not see that the issue between the two is performance. I would bet the TNT2 has better stability and OS support.