Gainward GeForce2 Ti/500 XP or GeForce3 Ti/450?

[KornyHop]

I would like some opinions to help influence my graphic card upgrade decision. It's only fitting, considering it was the review I read here at Anandtech that pushed me away from the Leadtek Winfast Titanium TH and towards the Gainward GeForce2 Ti/500 XP VIVO Golden Sample. The only problem now is that I'm looking at the GeForce3 Ti/450 (which is about $34 more at newegg) and I'm wondering if that is the better deal. I looked at the CPU scaling comparison at RivaStation and found the G3/Ti200 improved well with a faster system over the G2/Ti200. Since I'm running an Athlon XP1800 with 512mb of DDR, I had to take this into consideration.

The VIVO chipset is a curious dilema too. Gainward uses the Philips SAA7108E in the G2, and the Conexant CX25871 in the G3. I found that the CX25871 has more capabilities, but all resolutions are in a black frame, where the SAA7108E fills the screen. I could find nothing in the form of a quality comparison with the two VIVO chips. Video-In isn't a big issue for me because I use firewire to load video from my digital cam anyway.

So I'm ready to pull the trigger on the G3, but I really want to read a few highly respected opinions here before I do. I would also like to know more about NewEgg before I get it from them. I've never ordered from them before, but they have a good shipping plan, and California is only one state away.

I'm currently using a Diamond Multimedia 770 Ultra (TNT2) which has been a good card for the past two years, but it's time for it to go into one of my lesser machines.

Any opinions would be highly appreciated! THANKS!

- Hop

 

[tornadobox]

if you can possibly wait at all, i'd really urge you to wait for the GeForce4 Ti4200 card. it has the performance of the GeForce3 Ti500 (sometimes performs even better), and with a retail price of $199 you can't go wrong.

anyhow, that's my 2cents on the matter.

 

[Hop]

Thanks for the heads-up. I don't want to wait though. I'll just have to get the G4 when it comes out and pass the G3 to one of my lesser systems.

BTW... I had a bad encounter with the profile editor here, and it's my own fault. I put in a bad email addy and now I can't access my account as KornyHop at all, so now I'm "Hop" I guess. At least until the moderator (if) can fix me up.

Hop

 

[Hop]

I?m a little disappointed actually. I figured this subject line would generate a little more feedback, yet I only received one response, albeit an important response. I guess I?ll just pull the trigger and buy the card, and hope for the best.

Hop

 

[jfunk]

Why you would want to save $35 to put an about-to-be 2 generation old card into your smokin' 1800+ is beyond me.

Certainly go for the GF3, man!



j

 

[loafbred]

I'll predict that the GF4 4200 will be scarce until the bulk of GF3's are sold.