Fastest video card for a P2-450?

[sMashPiranha]

Hi,
I'm looking at getting a new video card for my sisters machine. I'm thinking a Geforce2 MX-400. Is this overkill? Can a P2-450 keep up with that video card? She currently has an old TNT2 in there that just isn't keeping up with some of my newer games.
I'm thinking that a GTS would be too fast as even in my old celeron 733 system there was almost no difference between an MX and a GTS, the processor seemed to be a bottleneck.
Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Daovonnaex]

Actually, a Kyro II based card would probably be better--it's more efficient thanks to deferred rendering.

 

[eckh]

If 3dfx were still alive I would suggest Voodoo 4 or 5, but now I guess that GF2MX or MX400 is best for this system. Kyro II doesn't have hardware transform and lighting engine IIRC.

But anyway most new games require 500+ mhz processor and if you are going to use your sister's computer for gaming in the future then you have to upgrade motherboard and processor also. And if you plan to do that in near future it makes some sense to buy a better video card now, like gf3ti200 maybe.

eckh

 

[nemesismk2]

<< Actually, a Kyro II based card would probably be better--it's more efficient thanks to deferred rendering. >>



I've not tried a Kyro 2 with such a slow processor but I have tried out a Geforce2MX with an AMD K6 2 550mhz processor and I was badly cpu limited with most games

Quake 3 for example gave me:-

fastest=55
normal=40
high quality=36

Using the same quality setting I was able to go from 640x480 to 1024x768 without dropping many fps, yeah I'd recommend the MX for a 450mhz processor, the Kyro 2 is a great video card but to get great performance you really need a much faster cpu.

 

[sMashPiranha]

Well if I lived in the US I'd probably go for a kyro2 or a Radeon, but over here those sort of cards cost about the same as a small car . nVidia kind of has a monopoly over here.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< If 3dfx were still alive I would suggest Voodoo 4 or 5, but now I guess that GF2MX or MX400 is best for this system. Kyro II doesn't have hardware transform and lighting engine IIRC.

But anyway most new games require 500+ mhz processor and if you are going to use your sister's computer for gaming in the future then you have to upgrade motherboard and processor also. And if you plan to do that in near future it makes some sense to buy a better video card now, like gf3ti200 maybe.

eckh >>

Very few games can use hardware T & L, and all the games that can or will be able to should not be run on a PII-450.
BTW--if she's not gaming, get a Matrox.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Well if I lived in the US I'd probably go for a kyro2 or a Radeon, but over here those sort of cards cost about the same as a small car . nVidia kind of has a monopoly over here. >>

International shipping is pretty cheap these days. She speaks english, right?

 

[sMashPiranha]

<< Very few games can use hardware T & L, and all the games that can or will be able to should not be run on a PII-450. >>


Well I have 5 computers, my main machine (XP1600) will run anything and I like to put my games on all the machines for when I have friends around. She mostly plays TFC (kicks butt as well) so that computers fine, but the TNT2 is having trouble pushing 40 fps and that just doesn't cut it.
Well I've just found a place nearby that has cheap (for NZ) Leadtek Ti200 so I might just get one of those and hand down all the video cards so she gets the MX.

OT - Wow man we're having a massive thunder storm here, it just felt like an earthquake then. It's 12:57 AM and I can't sleep with all this noise. Damned summer weather

 

[Rand]

Definitely pass on the Kyro series, despite their deferred rendering archtecture the Kyro line of cards is very processor dependent and it's performance really scales with processor speed. It doesnt tend to perform very well with anything much below a Duron 750MHz.
I'd probably go with a GF2 MX, anything faster would be wasted with such a slow processor, and the MX tends to be slightly more suitable to low performance systems then the Radeon line.

 

[EglsFly]

GeForce2 MX-400 would be a good choice.