Help with ATI Selection

[ITGL72]

Hi all, hope to get some help from the more experienced.
I am assembling a P4 2.53 machine for a friend of mine. I have nearly everything done except for his video card. Because of what's available to me, and his budget, I would like to see suggestions as to which of the following video cards you feel would give the best performance:

ATI Radeon 8500 AGP w/64MB DDR DH/w/VIVO
ATI Radeon 9000 AGP w/128MB DDR
ATI Radeon 9000 AGP w/64MB DDR

The price difference on these are no more then $20 or so apart from each other so from these 3, I have to make a choice. This is going to be a gaming machine. Its loaded with RAM and CPU, but he just can't swing for a $200+ video card after all is said and done.

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tobias]

If its a gaming machine, then drop the CPU from a 2.53 to a 2.26 Gig@533MHz and use the extra $50-$60 to get a GF4Ti4400 or better yet, an ATi9500, you're gonna need more video card than CPU anyway

Of those cards the 8500 is the best performer, really.

Your video card is the most important part! Give up some RAM or CPU!

 

[MithShrike]

Ignore Toby there and go with the 8500. Now, is this the LE or regular version? The reason I say go with the 8500 is simply because the 9000 is a slower and scaled down version of the 8500 with the FullStream techonology (it's practically useless for most gamers) and its memory is not usually as fast so the 128MB version wouldn't be my choice. But yes the 9500 would be better or even a 128MB 8500. Alright mate hope that helped you some.

 

[spanky]

ti4200 prices are falling... can u consider that?

 

[bikinistud]

Of those 3 the 8500(non LE) is the best but, if you can stretch it, try to get the 128mb version instead of the 64mb version. Hope that helps.

 

[Tobias]

Ignore Toby there and go with the 8500

Whoa! That wasn't very nice! I'll have you know that I have an 8500 and LOVE it! I DID recommend it.

But yes the 9500 would be better

Umm... wait a minute, isn't this all what I said?

But, I stand by my statement, video is the most important. If you are on a budget and building a gaming machine, I suggest going for the lower end CPU and a better vid card (and quality RAM is always important, too), although it sounds as if it's too late. Now if you had said you are building it for multi-purpose use, I would have suggested something else...

 

[ITGL72]

Well its going to be the computer he uses fro everything, going online, email, ms office, etc, but gaming is a major part of what this machine will do. I just didn't want him to start off with the geforce2 if for only a few bucks more overall he could get something like the 8500 (which I have myself) I also would rather he get a machine with a faster CPU now. A video card can be easily updated later (I guess a CPU can as well but that's not the direction I want to go in) I know in the future if he wants another video card he can probably do that much himself or get one of the boys back home to help him with it. I think the way its setup now - especially with the 8500, he wont have many issues at all and it will run just about anything within good standards for some time to come. He's not the type of guy that buys a new computer every year, or even every 2 years, LOL.

he could always double the ram and get a better video card in a year or so if he feels like he wants more. I'm pretty happy with the system for him as it stands.. fun fun fun

 

[Slappy00]

But, I stand by my statement, video is the most important. If you are on a budget and building a gaming machine, I suggest going for the lower end CPU and a better vid card (and quality RAM is always important, too), although it sounds as if it's too late.

If you are going that path remember that if you get a R300 and slap in a celeron, that the CPU will be a limiting factor and for that matter even the newest CPUs dont seem to reach the logrithmic plateu that the R300 core can pump out. Although ITG might not have a prob with a 2.5gigHz CPU being a limiting factor for a 8500 that kind of thinking could be a waste of money when making a computer.

But im ugly so what do i know... i go cry now