Geforce3 ti200 vs. nvidia fx 5500

[Craig234]

It's almost embarrassing to ask, but while I procrastinate on a new system, how much better would an nvidia fx 5500 be than a geforce3 ti200?

The former is on sale for $20, so if it'd be much of an upgrade, it's practically free. Use: gaming. I didn't seen any useful apples and apples benchmarks available.

 

[Dman877]

Neither of those cards will "game" today I'm afraid. Have fun playing quake 3 and CS .

 

[F1shF4t]

u can still play games with them, at 640 * 480 at low settings the fx5500 should be able to play everything.

 

[JPB]

Originally posted by: Craig234
It's almost embarrassing to ask, but while I procrastinate on a new system, how much better would an nvidia fx 5500 be than a geforce3 ti200?

The former is on sale for $20, so if it'd be much of an upgrade, it's practically free. Use: gaming. I didn't seen any useful apples and apples benchmarks available.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=133&card2=158

 

[Craig234]

Thanks.

1st poster: On usability: ya, neither are at all suitable for today's demanding games. But you overstate their limitations; I play EQ, World of Warcraft, and other games fine at decent resolutions (I play on a 21" CRT, so decent resolution is especially important) in the geforce3 ti200. Even games like Doom 3 scale down and play ok.

What I'm really trying to do is confirm whether I'll get enough benefit - say, 40%+ - to justify a quick and dirty $20 spend for now while I pick something else.

2nd poster: yes, and even 640x800 and 1024x768 generally work ok.

3rd poster: neat link; unfortunately there are no benchmarks listed. It's a bit hard to tell the difference in performance; do I look at the near-couble core CPU of the 5500, or the *higher* texture fill rate of the geforce ti200 over the 5500 (1400 vs 1080)? hard to get a feel for the overall difference.

On a related note, I wonder whether the cards' directx 8.0 vs 9.0 support makes much difference.

 

[Munky]

A gf5500 is the same core an an gf5200, except it uses slightly higher memory clocks. From what I can remember, both the gf5200 and the ti200 were slower than a certain budget card I had back in the day, so it's not worth switching from a ti200 to a gf5500. I also sold that budget card i had a year and a half ago for $35. So, if you really want a cheap upgrade, plan to spend about $30-40 on a used gf4200. Anything less than that would be just a waste of money.

 

[evenmore1]

Originally posted by: munky
A gf5500 is the same core an an gf5200, except it uses slightly higher memory clocks. From what I can remember, both the gf5200 and the ti200 were slower than a certain budget card I had back in the day, so it's not worth switching from a ti200 to a gf5500. I also sold that budget card i had a year and a half ago for $35. So, if you really want a cheap upgrade, plan to spend about $30-40 on a used gf4200. Anything less than that would be just a waste of money.

Yeah, you can get a new Ti4200 at the Geeks for $33 shipped. Or you can try ebay to try and find a cheap 9800 or 5950. Though for me, the Ti 4200 is good enough

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Craig234
It's almost embarrassing to ask, but while I procrastinate on a new system, how much better would an nvidia fx 5500 be than a geforce3 ti200?

The former is on sale for $20, so if it'd be much of an upgrade, it's practically free. Use: gaming. I didn't seen any useful apples and apples benchmarks available.

The Geforce 5500 would allow you to run dx9 software (although slowly) but I don't think it would be much faster than a Geforce3 Ti200. If you look at this review you will see the Geforce4 Ti4200 beat the Geforce 5500 quite badly especially with newer games like Doom3 and Xpand Rally etc!

 

[Craig234]

Thanks.

For the 'quick and cheap' upgrade, I'm going to just get an ebay 6600gt I think, which can be had for under $100 I think.

The other really low end component is the CPU, the 2200+; I'm not sure what the point of diminishing returns is with it in a graphics card. No doubt the 6600GT is overpowered for it.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Originally posted by: Craig234
It's almost embarrassing to ask, but while I procrastinate on a new system, how much better would an nvidia fx 5500 be than a geforce3 ti200?

The former is on sale for $20, so if it'd be much of an upgrade, it's practically free. Use: gaming. I didn't seen any useful apples and apples benchmarks available.

The Geforce 5500 would allow you to run dx9 software (although slowly) but I don't think it would be much faster than a Geforce3 Ti200. If you look at this review you will see the Geforce4 Ti4200 beat the Geforce 5500 quite badly especially with newer games like Doom3 and Xpand Rally etc!

Yep, a ti4200 has nearly twice the power as it has two TMU's(texture units), while the fx5500 only has one. So clock for clock, ti4200 can pump out twice the fill rate of the fx5500, which matters A LOT in non shader games.
The FX5800/FX5900 was greatly hurt in shader games because of this. It has a 4x2 to compete with ATI's 8x1. So in shader games where texture units didn't really matter, ATI nearly had twice of the advantage, while in older games, the FX5800's 4x2 can compare with ATI's 8x1.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: Craig234
Thanks.

For the 'quick and cheap' upgrade, I'm going to just get an ebay 6600gt I think, which can be had for under $100 I think.

The other really low end component is the CPU, the 2200+; I'm not sure what the point of diminishing returns is with it in a graphics card. No doubt the 6600GT is overpowered for it.

yes it will be limiting that max performance of the card. A athlon xp limits the fx5700, so ur cpu will limit the 6600gt. But dont worry about it, when u swich on the high reso and AA/AF u will mostly be gpu limited anyways. All this will translate is that ur comp will not be as good in the more cpu limited games ie Half Life 2 etc.

Originally posted by: virtualgames0

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Originally posted by: Craig234
It's almost embarrassing to ask, but while I procrastinate on a new system, how much better would an nvidia fx 5500 be than a geforce3 ti200?

The former is on sale for $20, so if it'd be much of an upgrade, it's practically free. Use: gaming. I didn't seen any useful apples and apples benchmarks available.

The Geforce 5500 would allow you to run dx9 software (although slowly) but I don't think it would be much faster than a Geforce3 Ti200. If you look at this review you will see the Geforce4 Ti4200 beat the Geforce 5500 quite badly especially with newer games like Doom3 and Xpand Rally etc!

Yep, a ti4200 has nearly twice the power as it has two TMU's(texture units), while the fx5500 only has one. So clock for clock, ti4200 can pump out twice the fill rate of the fx5500, which matters A LOT in non shader games.
The FX5800/FX5900 was greatly hurt in shader games because of this. It has a 4x2 to compete with ATI's 8x1. So in shader games where texture units didn't really matter, ATI nearly had twice of the advantage, while in older games, the FX5800's 4x2 can compare with ATI's 8x1.

When it comes dx9 pixel shader the fx 5500 card will function as 2*2 part, at other stuff it will be 4*1. Thats true FX5800 always functioned as 4*2, it was supposed to be 8*1 in no shader stuff, but never worked, i think they fixed that bit up in the fx5900.

 

[firewolfsm]

Originally posted by: Dman877
Neither of those cards will "game" today I'm afraid. Have fun playing quake 3 and CS .