Help buying a graphics card

[CotswoldCS]

I need to replace a fried GeForce2 MX-200 (64Mb) which died on me a couple of days ago. I am on a tight budget and live in UK (so please don't tell me that I can buy a GeForce 4 for $3 in USA!!!) I do play a few games but 2D quality is primary concern. I have a 19" Iiyama 454 CRT so DVI is not important.

Below is a list that I have shortlisted, ranging in price from low to high (prices UK Sterling, excluding delivery). The ATI Radeon 9000 is a little pricey for me but may be tempted if someone were to convince me that I would benefit. As for the rest, the GeForce 3 Ti seems a good buy for the money, but should I be buying a GeForce 3 when I can get a GeForce 4 MX440 or Radeon 9000.

I guess you are all going to suggest I go ATI - but if I really had to mug an old lady to be albe to pay for it would it be worth doing??? (I'm not serious about the old lady by the way). What's the difference between an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Retail 64mb and 9000 OEM 128Mb ??? (the price is v similar).

If it was YOUR money, what would you buy?????????????



64Mb Abit Siluro GeForce 4 MX420 SDR + TV Out 59.92

64Mb ATI Radeon 7500LE SDR AGP TV Out 63.45

64Mb MSI GeForce 4 MX 440 with TV out 68.15

64Mb *PCI* Gainward GF4 Pro450 TV Mx420 69.32

64Mb Asus V8170 GeForce 4 DDR Mx440 with TV Out 69.32

64Mb Abit Siluro GeForce 4 MX440 DDR + TV Out 69.91

64MB Leadtek WinFast GeForce 4 MX440 DDR RP VO 76.37

64Mb ABIT Siluro GeForce 3 Ti-200 Pure 81.08

128Mb ATI Radeon 9000 TV Out OEM 84.60

64Mb ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Retail DVI/TV Out 85.78

 

[TimeKeeper]

hey! you got something against 8500LE? :Q

 

[bluemax]

If you can't get a Radeon 8500LE on the cheap (they're better than the 9000's) then that GF3 Ti200 is the best of that bunch. It's also the only one DX8.1 compliant.

The Radeon 8500 should cost about the same though, and has all the features + more speed.

8500LE or the GF3 Ti200. You'll be quite happy.

 

[BuddyAtBzboyz]

Below is a list that I have shortlisted, ranging in price from low to high (prices UK Sterling, excluding delivery). The ATI Radeon 9000 is a little pricey for me but may be tempted if someone were to convince me that I would benefit. As for the rest, the GeForce 3 Ti seems a good buy for the money, but should I be buying a GeForce 3 when I can get a GeForce 4 MX440 or Radeon 9000.

Don't get the mx. Any of the other cards would beat it. I would personally probably go for the 128Mb Radeon 8500 LE. I didn't see it in your list but that is what I would get if on a tight budget.

 

[pitupepito2000]

I would definetely suggest that you go with the Radeon 8500LE, I recently put my system together and it is a great video card for the price. If you are more interested in gaming and 3D I would say go for the GeForce4 Ti4200. This is a little bit more expensive than the Radeon 8500LE, but if offers better overclockabilty. If you decide to go with a GeForce card ", DO NOT GET A GEFORCE4 "MX the "mx" video cards perform poorlier than the Geforce3 cards.

In conclusion, I bought two weeks ago for my system a Radeon 8500LE, and it is the best bang for the buck, but if you decide that you want to spend a little bit more money go for the GeForce4 Ti4200 since all the Geforce4 Ti cards are created equal, and you can overclock it to get to speeds of Geforce Ti4600.

I hope this helps

 

[Bovinicus]

If 2D quality is your primary concern then I would go with the Radeon 8500LE. The RAMDACs on this baby are top notch. In addition, it partially supports DVD playback in hardware for smoother playback. As well, the anisotropic filtering method it uses hardly decreases performance.

 

[CotswoldCS]

Thanks for all your comments so far.

I am tempted by ATI. I have found a price for an 8500LE but it is a little more than I was hoping to pay for a graphics card.


64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE Dual Heat with DVI/TV Out (OEM) AGP £99.88


Is it worth me paying extra for this or should I go for the 9000 (the 9000 is about £15 cheaper)?? I have two options if I go for the 9000


128Mb ATI Radeon 9000 TV Out OEM 84.60
64Mb ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Retail DVI/TV Out 85.78


The price is very similar - am I better with 64meg and the Pro or 128mb and the plain 9000 card? Does anyone have any benchmark results comparing the two cards?

 

[bluemax]

The Radeon 9000 Pro is a retail box and clocked 40% faster than the "regular" OEM card.
For the same amount of money, the Radeon 9000Pro is a great deal. It's not as fast as the Radeon 8500LE, but if money's tight (I know that feeling) it's a good deal. The speed will be appreciated more than the extra 64MB of RAM.

Sure, Doom3 will possibly use 80MB of textures, but with texture compression enabled, you'll still be able to play the game and it'll look just fine. A Radeon 8500 128MB might look a tiny bit nicer and run a bit faster, but only you can decide if that's worth the 15 L
If you don't want to buy another video card for a very long time, consider that the 8500 with 128MB will last longer. Look for OEM cards that should be cheaper.

In any case, it's better than the GF3 Ti200 you had listed for about the same 80-85.00 L

If you ever use RealVideo for downloading videos, the improvement that only the Radeon 9000 offers is pretty nice too. VASTLY better than a GF4MX!

And it's retail box so you'll never have to worry about the warranty or support (well, for 3 years.)


I vote for that Radeon 9000.
I'm getting one myself tomorrow.

 

[MournSanity]

I personally would go for the Radeon 9000 or the Ti200. The Radeon 9000 has 64 more megs of ram than the ti200 so it might last longer and stuff. And the performance of the 900 is not that far off from the ti200 I think.

 

[CotswoldCS]

OK. Now I'm totally undecided....

Radeon 8500LE (64mb), 9000 Pro (64mb) or 9000 (128mb). Prices are fairly similar.

Reallly have appreciated all your comments. Just need a few more posts before I make my decision. Keep 'em comin'!!!

 

[Athlon4all]

Radeon 8500LE (64mb), 9000 Pro (64mb) or 9000 (128mb). Prices are fairly similar.

Take a look at Anand's Radeon 9000 pro review. Now it doesn't benchmark the R9000 but it does the Pro and 8500LE and you can expect the R9000 to be a good amount slower than the pro cause its memory is clocked 75MHz slower. Personally, I'd take the 8500, but the 9000 Pro is a fine card too.

 

[pitupepito2000]

Hi,

Since now you are fairly undecided what I would suggest is either try to find places online where they have compared both video cards. That's the best solution that I can come up with, or wait and let the prices drop. In my opinion I wouldn't buy anything that is newer than six months because by that time prices have dropped and also there is a lot of information on the internet about the product.

Take a look at this links review of GF4 MX, GF3 Ti4200, and 8500LE,
another link, more info, comparison of 8500LE, 9000Pro, and GF4 Ti4200.

I hope this helps you! This were a couple of the sites that I got from doing a search in google! Read as much as you can about the video cards that will be the best help you can get!

In my opinion th 8500LE is the best card of all in the round.