GF2 GTS 32mb vs Radeon 9000 64mb?

[dougand3]

I have an Nvidia GF2 GTS 32mb. I can get a Radeon 9000 64mb for $20. Is it worth the upgrade for game playing...Max Payne 2, HalfLife, Deus Ex, No one lives forever, etc? Thanks much, Doug

 

[canadianpsycho]

Video Card Comparison.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

<sarcasm> No, nothing at all has been changed or improved in the several years between the release of those two cards. Nothing at all. </sarcasm>

Radeon 9000 >>>>>>>>> gF2 GTS

- M4H

 

[Tetsuo]

One word: Yes

 

[dougand3]

canadianpsycho, thanks for the chart.
Tetsu, thanks

 

[QAGuy]

That's a good deal for that card. It would be a large improvement over the GTS. So get it.

That being said, I think games like HL and NOLF play just fine on a 32MB GTS.

 

[dougand3]

QAGuy, thanks...this is for my son's gaming...he never complained w/ HL or NOLF but does this week with Max Payne 2.

 

[venk]

hell, i just beat Max Payne 2 @ 102x768 on a 32 MB GTS with only an occasional slow down.

 

[QAGuy]

I can imagine that he would complain about the frame rate of a new game like Max Payne 2 with an older card like the GTS. I will be upgrading my GTS shortly for that very same reason.

 

[QAGuy]

Venk,

I have never played Max Payne 2, but I cannot get any kind of decent frame rate in NOLF2 using my 32MB GTS unless I run at low resolution and with AA and AF off. MP2 is newer, too.

Weird...

 

[Captante]

My first thought is that for $20 how can you go wrong?.... my second thought though, is that you would do much better spending a bit more
money on a GeForce 4 Ti4200, which should spank the Radeon 9000, which is really just a stripped down (& slower) Radeon 8500,
& despite its 9000 model number is really also a DX8 card, NOT DX9 in any way, so it won't make much, if any differance in "Max Payne 2"
which uses some DX9 features none of the aforementioned cards will support.

See link: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1655&p=2 (copy & paste link if not clickable... this is "Anands" test of 9000)

Bottom line.... if you just want to spend as little as possible, go for it... at the very least the 2-d image quality will be much improved & 3-d
will be a bit faster (your sons current card is roughly equivalent to a GeForce 4 MX 440).... however if you want to really improve performance
noticably, (Like twice as fast) go with the GeForce 4 Ti4200 (64mb approx $70, 128mb approx $90), or better yet, go with an actual DX9 card
... I would suggest the Radeon 9600 Pro as the best "bang for the buck" at about $130... if you go with the 9000, you will be right back where
you are now in a month or two at most, and don't forget the hassle/$ equation.... you may not even need to change video drivers to pop in the
GeForce 4, as opposed to the possible tragedy of switching to "ATI" drivers in Win 98se... trust me it could get ugly fast.... "ATI" drivers are
much better then they were, but in my experience work better in "Win XP/2K" then in 98.
BTW: My main system uses a Radeon 9800 Pro & I
also have a Geforce 1 DDR 32 mb (slower clocked version of your sons card), HAD a GeForce 2 64mb (I sold it... it was no faster then Geforce 1)
a Geforce 3 (Original, running like a champ on a P-3 1300mhz system), AND a Geforce 4 Ti4600 (Higher clocked version of Ti4200) in my backup
system, which is still totally playable in all games w/o DX9 features & will absolutely HAMMER the 9000... its not worth the price premium over the Ti4200 at approx $170. (Both my main rigs are AMD/Via based)

Hope this helps & good luck! 🙂

(Prices from www.pricewatch.com) ..... Cap

 

[dougand3]

Cap, thanks much for all the info. Doug

 

[venk]

Originally posted by: QAGuy
Venk,

I have never played Max Payne 2, but I cannot get any kind of decent frame rate in NOLF2 using my 32MB GTS unless I run at low resolution and with AA and AF off. MP2 is newer, too.

Weird...

NOLF 2 ran fine for me, 1024 with AA off.

 

[McArra]

Wellcome to the forums 😀