Graphics Card advice, to replace geforce 4 ti 4400

[acidvoodoo]

Hey, i'll start off by saying i'm abit out of touch with graphical technology post geforce 4 era.

My current system is an Athlon Xp 2600 [barton core? not sure], 768mb pc2700 ddr ram, and a geforce 4 ti 4400.

I need to upgrade graphicaly, as i want to play battlefield 2, which as you may know, can not run on the geforce 4. Ideally i think i'd get a geforce 6 6600GT and an extra 512mb of ram, this would cost me around 150 pounds i think. Problem is i'm going to prague and amsterdam soon so am saving money for that, and dont want to blow a huge amount of computer parts in favour of beer money.

I was thinking maybe, for now, just getting a PNY geforce fx 5500 128mb, for 40 pounds, to allow me to play bf2 and other games. When the time comes to upgrade i could then donate this card to my little brother, who plays games, including th bf2 demo, on a 3 year old athlon xp 1900, 512mb ddr, ati 8500le 64mb system, which is dam slow.

Questions are: How does the fx5500 compare to the geforce 4 ti 4400 ; i know it supports more shaders, but, is it a faster card? like say i was to compare an older game on the thing, like call of duty, would it offer the same or better performance as the gf4?
And if i donate this card to my lil bro, will it it make alot of difference to his system, he could probably use some more ram aswell i think.

thanks alot


PS: can anyone explain to me what this re emergence of PCI cards working in SLI is all about?

 

[daveybrat]

the FX5500 would be slower than your TI4400 but does support (very poorly) directX 9 hardware.

So basically it would now support the newer games but would be too slow to actually play them. :thumbsdown:


You don't need to buy new ram and a new video card, just buy a 6600GT for now and get ram later. 768MB will get you by for now.

 

[dguy6789]

You can purchase a brand new Radeon 9800 Pro for $90 now, so that would be a good option. For 150 or so, you can get a Geforce 6800.

 

[Kogan]

Check this out:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-06.html

The fx5600 is listed in this benchmark for call of duty and it's slower than the gf4 ti4200. Check out the other benchmarks in the review. Theyr'e quite different depending on what game is being played.

PCI isn't really re-emerging, there's a new bus standard better than AGP and they just decided to call it PCI-E. So far, it's no better than agp, other than you can put two nvidia 6600 or greater cards in the same system (with pci-e slots) and get effectively twice the 3d video speed.

 

[acidvoodoo]

Originally posted by: Kogan
Check this out:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-06.html

The fx5600 is listed in this benchmark for call of duty and it's slower than the gf4 ti4200. Check out the other benchmarks in the review. Theyr'e quite different depending on what game is being played.

PCI isn't really re-emerging, there's a new bus standard better than AGP and they just decided to call it PCI-E. So far, it's no better than agp, other than you can put two nvidia 6600 or greater cards in the same system (with pci-e slots) and get effectively twice the 3d video speed.

so PCI-E is a different 'slot' to PCI, and is only on newer motherboards?


thanks for the info on the fx5500, i shall reconsider

 

[acidvoodoo]

alrite, i still considered getting an fx but then it'd be abit of a waste of money, so i'm gonna wait till i get back from prague at the start of july, and get a good card.

to a poster above, thanks for the suggestions, but i live in england where everything is more expensive [especially ati], and we do not have rebates. It's a shame i dont have any america trips planned because the pound is strong against the dollar and i could get some bargains!

anyway, from my prefered vendor in the uk [www.ebuyer.com ], here is some prices of different geforce 6 variations, if anyone could reccomend which would give the best performance.

PNY Geforce6 6600 128MB DDR AGPx8 VGA + DVI + TV-out £77.59 [cheapest gf6 card on this site]

Gainward nVidia GeForce 6200A 512MB PowerPack! Pro/1490 TV-DVI AGP £93.91

Gainward 6600 256mb PowerPack! Ultra/1780 TV-DVI AGP £98.99

PNY Verto GeForce 6 6600GT AGP8x 128MB GDDR3 Retail Box £113.80

Gainward Powerpack! Ultra/2100LE 128MB 2.8ns DDR 6800LE 128MB TV-Out DVI £126.18

and then the cheapest vanilla 6800 is way up there

MSI NX6800-TD128 Geforce 6800 AGP 128MB DDR TV-Out DVI With Games pack Retail Box £184.97 inc VAT


I included cards with different clock speeds and memory. Back when i got my gefoce 4, people always banged on about how 256mb video memory was not neccesary. But with these games like bf2 with huge maps, is it usefull now?

PS: I have not included any PCI-E cards because i do not know what slots on the motherboard you need to run them?

 

[Sentential]

Originally posted by: acidvoodoo

Originally posted by: Kogan
Check this out:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-06.html

The fx5600 is listed in this benchmark for call of duty and it's slower than the gf4 ti4200. Check out the other benchmarks in the review. Theyr'e quite different depending on what game is being played.

PCI isn't really re-emerging, there's a new bus standard better than AGP and they just decided to call it PCI-E. So far, it's no better than agp, other than you can put two nvidia 6600 or greater cards in the same system (with pci-e slots) and get effectively twice the 3d video speed.

so PCI-E is a different 'slot' to PCI, and is only on newer motherboards?


thanks for the info on the fx5500, i shall reconsider

Yes PEG is the new standard in terms of sockets. AGP/PCI Legacy is going the way of the dinosaur.

 

[acidvoodoo]

Originally posted by: Sentential

Originally posted by: acidvoodoo

Originally posted by: Kogan
Check this out:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-06.html

The fx5600 is listed in this benchmark for call of duty and it's slower than the gf4 ti4200. Check out the other benchmarks in the review. Theyr'e quite different depending on what game is being played.

PCI isn't really re-emerging, there's a new bus standard better than AGP and they just decided to call it PCI-E. So far, it's no better than agp, other than you can put two nvidia 6600 or greater cards in the same system (with pci-e slots) and get effectively twice the 3d video speed.

so PCI-E is a different 'slot' to PCI, and is only on newer motherboards?


thanks for the info on the fx5500, i shall reconsider

Yes PEG is the new standard in terms of sockets. AGP/PCI Legacy is going the way of the dinosaur.

ok, well this upgrade i make will be the last for awhile, before i build a whole new computer for college in 2006

 

[BobDaMenkey]

6600GT man. That's not a terrible price on it either. It's gonna be your best bet for an upgrade path.

 

[Lonyo]

6800 for £147
9800 Pro (HIS) for £83

 

[GratefullySaved]

Unfortunately, the people posting here so far about the 600Gt probably mean well..but they're wrong.

I have a 6600GT, Athlon64 2800+, 1 GB Crucial RAM, 120 GB HD on a Chaintech VNF3-250 motherboard and the Battlefield 2 can't run smooth on anything higher than 800 x 600 with details set to MEDIUM. Dnamic lighting and three other settings are set to OFF.

I just bought the card and am already looking to return it and try something else, but I don't know yet what would really allow HIGH details. On MEDIUM the game just doesn't look anything like the game reviews we've all read.

GS

 

[acidvoodoo]

well i think i'll shoot for the vanilla 6800 @ 150 pounds

 

[acidvoodoo]

i found a battlefield 2 benchmark comparing the ati 9800 to the 6800, on a test system of similar spec to mine [athlon xp 2600, 1 gig of ram], the the cheaper 9800 dominatesat higher settings. Could this be an optimization issue?

 

[happy medium]

http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-x-2147-x-x-x&body_pagenum=3
check this article out should answer all your questions
6800 smokes the 9800 pro

 

[acidvoodoo]

thanks for the info, will shoot for the vanilla 6800, unless prices suddenly change by next month when i plan to buy it