need help buying a video card.

[rob3rt]

thanks guys for all your help so far. i'm going to the computer show this weekend to buy parts for 2 computers for some friends, but now i want to buy something for myself

i recently bought tribes2 and well it doesnt run well with my v3 2000 agp, so i think its time to upgrade

what do you guys recommend? i tried out my friends hercules gf2 MX but it still ran pretty slow. i guess the SDR rams were not enough. i was thinking about getting a 32mb GTS, but i'm not sure on the brand. what do you guys recommend?

system specs
P3 600@800
128mb ram (soon to be 256)
win2k
sb live
wd 20gig ata 66 7200rpm

unfortunately, my budget is only $150

 

[Rage187]

GF3 all the way

Get a visiontek and save a little..

 

[dfloyd]

With a $150 budget I would probably pick up the MSI 64MB Geforce II Pro from Newegg. That or check out the 3D Prophet 4500. Not sure how it plays with Tribes II though.

 

[Archknight]

The 3D prophet 4500 might be not that satisfactory if you wants to play it at some high resolution because of your proceesor. Otherwise the 3D prophet 4500 can be found at newegg.com too for about ~$110.

 

[DoubleL]

If it will fit in your case their is only one card in that price, Voodoo 5500, If you get one of them you will not ever think of a GeForce 3, Tried about ever card out their and keep coming back to the 5500

 

[whitelight]

msi's 64mb geforce2pro from newegg is a steal at $145. you can overclock this baby to ultra speeds.

 

[Simulat]

Used to have the MSI 64mb Pro card and I would second that recommendation. Ran Tribes II very well and its cheap right now.

 

[Wingznut]

"unfortunately, my budget is only $150"

Rage, you can get a GF3 for less than $150? Sweet!!! Hook me up!

Anyway, do some research on both the GF2 and Radeon 64mb DDR. The Radeon is a very, very nice card also.

 

[nuclearB]

hey guys, i'm putting together my first rig and I dont know which video card I should get ( my budget is pretty tight, $80, just lost my job ) and I'm not a gamer, if not at all. All I want is to watch videos. Any suggestions ? and where can I get it ?
Thanx a lot.

nuB

 

[nuclearB]

I forgot to mention that the mobo is Iwill KK266-R, AMD 1.0 Ghz 266
Thanx

nuB

 

[OmegaXero]

only $80? OUCH! I'm not 100% on this one but I think you might be able to find some old voodoo3 boards for around that price. You can also pickup a TNT2 or maybe a GF2MX200. You said you just wanted to watch vidoes? Do you mean like .avi videos or are you talking about running a TV input into your computer?

 

[tjdavis1138]

With a budget of $80 you can't go wrong with the ATI Radeon LE from newegg.

 

[dfloyd]

I second that. For watching vidoes the Radeon LE will rock and give decent 3d performance and very nice quality.

 

[nuclearB]

only $80? OUCH! Text
OmegaXero, i know it's a big OUCH, but I have everything but a vid card to get my rig rolling. I have to wait a few more weeks to get more cash, but i just cant wait to get my rig rolling.
by the way, how much's the card with TV input (something like watching a movie from my VCR)?

I'll look into the Radeon LE. Thanks a lot guys.

 

[AppleTalking]

A VIVO (Video-in/Video-out) card will be over your budget, unless you're willing to consider the 3dfx Voodoo3 3500TV card. Other than that, there aren't any current cards with VIVO capabilities under $150. You can always buy another card later on that provides video-in though.

With only $80 to spend, I would also recommend the Radeon LE. At that price range, it's good bang-for-your-buck, so long as you don't mind having to flash the BIOS and overclock the card to get the performance of a retail Radeon. See Anandtech's article on this subject.

BTW, for the original poster, I would recommend the GF2 Pro as well. The Kyro II just doesn't quite cut it yet in Tribes II. Hopefully future driver updates will fix these issues.

Good luck!
Nick

 

[powervr2]

I think that you got a problem if you want tribes to run flawless you must buy a new good cpu...
tribes 2 is too much processor intensive...

they are launching this week a new patch (there are many bugs with tribes 2, and improving performance for some cards) so we will see what is the best card then...

I have myself a kyro 2 but I don't have that game (I have a similar cpu than yours duron 800 oc to 900), I might buy it and test it with directx8.1 build 620 too see what is kyro performance (next week maybe?)

in planettribes the forum manager tested kyro 2 with an athlon 1,2 and said that even geforce 2 pro would not touch kyro performance with tribes 2 then he installed direcxt8 and never again was able to replicate those results...(he start saying that minimum fps are close to geforce 2 pro, but average was a little worse... big drop in performance from the previous tests... I don't know if it was because of directx8...)


I don't know what happened...
I hope that the new directx8.1 beta was able to correct that..

 

[nuclearB]

I found the ATI Rage Fury Pro 4X 32MB Retail Box with VIVO on newegg for $65, but they have none in stock now.
what'd u think about this card and where else can I get it if u think it's a good one for my budget (I've got more cash now, have about $100 to spend ) and my need ?
and how much does the 3dfx Voodoo3 3500TV card cost ?
thanx folks

nuB

 

[DClark]

Nuclear8, the Rage Fury Pro is an old card; if you won't be playing many games, but will be doing stuff concerning video editting, then it may be an inexpensive alternative.

The Radeon has a more refined version of the Rage128Pro's hardware assisted MPEG decoding, so if you're looking just to play DVDs and the occasional game then the Radeon LE with TV out (being sold at Newegg.com) should fit the bill nicely. Not all of the Radeon LEs have a TV out though, so make sure before you buy.

In terms of speed between the Radeon and the Rage128Pro cards, I own a Rage Fury Maxx (two Rage128Pro cores on one board) and a Radeon LE; Using Video2000, I found CPU usage for the Maxx while playing an MPEG file was 18%; with the Radeon it's 14%. In games, the Maxx is faster in non-hardware T&L situations, but in hardware T&L benchmarks/games like 3DMark2000 and 3DMark2001, my Radeon handily beats the Maxx (and remember, that's with two Rage128Pro cores working together). In addition, the Radeon has features that the Rage128Pro cards don't have, such as FSAA and EMBM.

 

[nuclearB]

Thanks for your very helpful info, DClark
to other folks, thanks for your suggestions and info as well. They really helped.
I rarely play games eventhough I've quite a few of them. I'm more into video edit and such.
AppleTalking mentioned 3dfx Voodoo3 3500TV. Please tell me more about it, anyone?
Thanx

nuB