Help a video card n00b??

[pyonir]

So how do i know a vid card is compatible with my machine? I currently have a 32mb nVidia GeForce2 MX card and want to upgrade to a 64mb card. I really want to spend less than $100 but i have no idea how to choose.

my comp is a Dell Demension 8100 series.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated...

 

[Quixfire]

According to Dell website you have a 4X AGP slot with a Intel 850 chipset. If I was to choose a card around $100, then I would recommed either a R9000 or R8500 or GeForce3 Ti Video card. My perferance is ATI for the better image quality in 32bit.

 

[pyonir]

I found this one for a good price. What would be the difference between a GeForce3 and this GeForce4 card?


btw: Thank you for the reply....!

 

[razor2025]

or.. you could browse around the FS/FT forum and get a Ti4200 64mb. They're tad bit more faster than 8500 series (or the renamed 9100 series), but of course, they're "not new".

 

[Slappy00]

Id go with a $50 GF3 (non-ti) and have $50 in stripper money.....

I assume that by "less than $100" you mean shipping and some money left over....

the GF3 will be faster and support DX 8.1, dont count on it running doom 3 though, any game released last year should not have a problem running on this card (with nominal settings)

 

[Quixfire]

Originally posted by: pyonir
I found this one for a good price. What would be the difference between a GeForce3 and this GeForce4 card?


btw: Thank you for the reply....!

If you do any gaming at all, this would not be the best choice. The MX series video cards don't support DX 8.0 or higher, plus they only use two pipelines for rendering. The GeForce 3 and the R8500+ cards use 4 pipelines and support DX 8.0+

I would recommend a video like this Tyan 9000 Pro 64MB or Gainward GeForce 3 Ti 200 64MB

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: Quixfire

Originally posted by: pyonir
I found this one for a good price. What would be the difference between a GeForce3 and this GeForce4 card?


btw: Thank you for the reply....!

If you do any gaming at all, this would not be the best choice. The MX series video cards don't support DX 8.0 or higher, plus they only use two pipelines for rendering. The GeForce 3 and the R8500+ cards use 4 pipelines and support DX 8.0+

whew! thanks, that was important. i do do gaming. I think i will keep my eye on FS/FT forum.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Ignore the GF4 MX line at all costs, then. Stick with the Radeon 8500, or (even faster) the GF4 Titanium series (any of them will be very fast: Ti4200 Ti4400 or Ti4600 are all quite good).

 

[pyonir]

Thanks a lot for all the help guys. It is VERY much appreciated.