Help picking one of these Video Cards

[Touchdown]

I currently have a Diamond Monster Fusion Video card that is about 3 years old and probably should be replaced. I found that out when I tried to play Wolfstein today and it wouldn't let me.

I'd like the total cost of the card to be no more than $130. I have a credit at the Gateway store so I'd like to purchase it from there Any recommendations on which card I should get? I'm not a hard core gamer but do like to play the occasional shoot em up game and sim games. Here is the link to Gateways' cards.

Gateway Accesory Video Cards

 

[Shack70]

Well, this depends on if you are willing to add money to that $90 credit. For a games that plays once in a while, I would get this one:

XTASY 5864 GEFORCE2 TITANIUM 64MB DDR by Visiontek

If you want to stay below that $90, I would get one of the Geforce2MX cards they have. Once you get a card, get the newest drivers from Nvidia.

 

[thejammy]

depending on you credit how much it is for you might just wanna get it here LINKY

 

[Touchdown]

Thanks for the replies. I have a $90 credit at the Gateway store. I'd like to spend no more than $30 out of pocket so I should be in the range of the one Black Flagg recommended.

 

[Jethro666]

Don't not be foolish and buy an MX. Buy the Xtasy Ti200 for $136.95.
If you cheap out and buy an MX, you'll have $30 in your pocket, but you'll have a video that's fast on it's way to becoming your next "I have this POS vga I need to replace" post.
You will be MUCH happier with the GF2 Ti, it will last you MUCH longer, perform MUCH better. I had a GF2 Pro until I bought a GF3, there was really no reason for me to upgrade, the Pro was plenty fast.
Cheap out if you want, but remember this post when you try running modern games at 10X7 and your MX chokes and stutters. Wolfenstein isn't fast on any card, it will drag on a MX.

I have spoken, so shall it be. LOL

 

[HappyGamer2]

what's your system spec's, mainly cpu power?

 

[gtd2000]

Don't get any of those cards from the Gateway store - buy the GTS-V from Newegg for $70 shipped!

Then spend your credit on something else that is reasonably priced

 

[Jethro666]

Err, HappyGamer2, what do his system specs have to do with this question?
He has a feeble, POS, single tmu Banshee that probably runs most games at about 13fps. No matter what he buys, it will be 1,000,000X better than a Banshee.
If he doesn't have the cpu to drive a modern card, he may well need that too, but a man with $130 in his pocket isn't shopping cpu/MB/vga.
And a man with a 2GHz P4 and a Banshee still plays at 13fps.

 

[Touchdown]

Thanks so much for the replies so far.

My current system specs are a AMD Ahtlon 700 on a Asus K7V Motherboard. 256 memory. It's obviously not a power machine and I'm not really a huge gamer. But like to sit down for maybe 15 minutes a night and blast some monsters or take a cruise on Flight Simulator.

I'm realizing the cards at the Gateway store are way overpriced. But with a new baby on the way, using my $90 credit is the only way the wife will let me justify gettig a new card!

I'm really liking the <a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.necxdirect.com/hai/prod_page.html?key=0000163629&nonce=guest_gate" target=new><FONT face=Tahoma color=#000080>XTASY 5864 GEFORCE2 TITANIUM 64MB DDR by Visiontek</FONT></A> so far.

 

[gtd2000]

OK, here is the arithmetic - maths for all you yanky peeps

Xtasy 5864 = $90 + $48.95 (of your own money) + shipping (maybe $10?) = +$58 of your own cash?

See if you can sell your credit to somebody for say $50 (try the for sale section of the forums or auction it on e-bay) add $20 and get the GTS-V delivered to your door you can still keep $38 in your back pocket ...*cough* the wifes back pocket

 

[hex65000]

I am going to agree with some of the others here about getting a GF2ti 200. I dropped one into my Slot-A 850 TB and it rocks. Not to mention you can easily get a bit more performance by jacking up the memory speed.

While not terribly impressive, the stock is 250core/200(x2)DDR mem, So far I've bumped the memory up to 250/210(x2) with no problems. It did give me an acceptable performance gain across the board.

Your other option is to grab a Kyro2 board. Which costs a little bit less that the GF2ti. The current Guillemot drivers come with an overclock util in the control panel; I haven't played with it much and the machine it is running on is the bottleneck. (dual p3-500)

Just stay away from the GF2-MX boards, the more I look at them, the more they seem like a waste of cash.

 

[Jethro666]

Would your baby want you to have a crappy VGA?! He!! no! The other babies will be saying stuff to him like "Your old man's vga is weak! My dad has a GF3!"

LOL

Use your credit, get the GF2 Ti, thank me later.