Gainward Geforce2 ti/450 vs. ....what?

DougK62

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2001
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So I'm in the market for a new video card. I want to buy a NEW video card - not a used one off of someone (so don't tell me to shop the FS forum). I want to spend a max of $100 shipped to my doorstep. The frontrunner in my mind right now is the Gainward Geforce2 ti/450 which I can get for $88 shipped from Newegg. What else can compete with this card in my price range? I was thinking of a Radeon 7500, but I can't find a "Built by ATI" card for anything near my price range. Is there any other card I should look at? I know the Gainward card is very good, but I'm a little hesitant to buy it because I've heard that 2D is not as good as the Radeon - and since I'm only a casual gamer 2D is very important to me. Is the 2D on a Geforce2 really that bad? Just for reference, the video car I'm using now is a Voodoo3 2000 which has very crisp 2D and I've been very happy with for years. My monitor is a 19" KDS flatscreen with a Trinitron tube.

Input, please? :)

P.S. Please no "you should save up and get a geforce4/8500" replies - if I had the money and desire to do so I would.
 

Actaeon

Diamond Member
Dec 28, 2000
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Gainwards have superior 2d Quality compared to other brands Nvidia has there cards made.

But from what i see from your CPU (K6-2 550) I dont' think anything faster than a radeon would help much.
 

DougK62

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2001
8,035
6
81
I guess I should've specified what computer I was putting it into. It's going into an Iwill KK266+, Duron 1200, and 640MB RAM computer. The 550mhz rig in my sig is just the one I fart around on most.

Actaeon- thanks for the feedback. I had not heard that Gainwards have good 2D compared to the other brands. Any idea on how the 2D will compare to my old V3?
 

Actaeon

Diamond Member
Dec 28, 2000
8,657
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Honestly, I'm unsure of how the 2d Quality between the two matches up. From what I hear, both are excellent, and will suit you well.

I tried looking on the net for 2d Quality of that specific card, Havn't found a thing. I decided to check out the reviews on newegg.com, One guy claimed 2d is great, but not as good as his Voodoo3.

I would recommend this card, because no other card comes close in benchmarks, for the price. Even though I'm not the biggest ATi fan (I'm a Nvidia guy), I cannot doubt there performance, espically for there price. But I suggest if the 2D means that much to you, try to find an inexpensive Radeon.

You said you were looking for a Retail "Built by ATi" Radeon7500 (I believe this is a built by ATi Card, But I suggest contacting the dealer to be 100% Sure) , I found this site that offers a 7500 for $84.

Site 1

But if you decide to go with either the ATI 7500 or the Gainward GF2 Ti, Both are VERY good cards, and you cannot go wrong with either of those prices.
 

Rand

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,071
1
81
Gainward's 2D quality is among the best one get from a nVidia board, not quite up to par with ATi but still extremely good.
IMHO, neither the ATi nor the Gainward card will quite match up to your current V3 for pure 2D thogh. 3dfx was generally extremely good for 2D visual quality.
A lot of it will come down to your eyes though, many people can't manage to see a difference between the worst of nVidia boards and a Matrox calibar 2D, whereas some can see a clear difference between even ATi and Matrox 2D quality.
Still, for the average person I'd say Gainward's 2D is more then suitable.

Both the GF2 Ti/450 and the R7500 are solid cards, you'll probably be quite happy either way.
IMHO... when it comes to the R7500 it makes very little difference whether it's a "built by ATi" or "Powered by ATi" model. With ATi still manufacturing the majority of the third party boards your assured quality of manufacture will be identical either way. The third party boards are clocked slightly lower at 270/230 compared to ATi's own 290/230 but as the R7500 is primarily bandwidth limited the real world performance differential is extremely minimal.

If it was the R8500 you were referring to I might understand avoiding "Powered by ATi" models, as some are clocked considerably lower... but with the R7500 your perfectly safe either way in my opinion.

Personally, I'd tend to favor the R7500 over the GF2 Ti/450, as it can offer comparable performance with better 2D, and DVD playback, and a slightly better 3D feature set.
Both can overclock very well usually, so you've got room to overclock should you choose to.
 

brianp34

Golden Member
Sep 9, 2001
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I have a v3 in another machine and the gainward gf2 ti in this one. The 2d on the gainward is definately not quite as good as on the v3, it looks sort of washed out. You can compensate for this by playing with the contrast/gamma/brightness settings though and get 2d that is fairly comparable to the v3. The 2d on the gainward cards is definately better than that found on most of the gf line.

brian