need videocard advice please

[ramazorg]

Hi,

I have p4 1.8 ghz with 256 rambus and Radeon 8500 64 mb. It does fine for quake 3 for example, even with maximum anisontropic filtering. Vice city, warcraft 3 and counter strike run good as well. If I try to play Unreal Tournament 2003 or Raven Shield (I think they use the same engine, Im not too sure) then it chokes big time. In Raven Shield I get like 30 fps at 800 x 600 with lowest settings and stuff. Even the new RTCW beta doesnt do so well, usually running at 40 fps or so when the battle gets intense.

My question is, which not too expensive video card should I get? I do not want to buy a Radeon 9700 pro because it still costs quite a bit. I am not sure when it will go down in price.

I am considering ASUS gf4 ti4200 128 mb and ATI Radeon 9500 pro. The ATI would cost me a bit more (gf4=200 canadian dollars, r9500pro=250 canadian).

I just want to get solid 60+ fps in Raven Shield in high settings, like with 1024x768.

So what would be your advice?

 

[Trashman]

I'd consider upgrading your memory to 512mb if ya can, that might help. I had a P4 1.4GHz w/256mb RDRAM runnin a GeForce3 Ti200 and uppin it to 512mb helped out alot in UT2003.
Just a thought.

 

[Bantam]

If you get a new card, I'd suggest a Radeon 9500 Pro. Full DX9 capabilities and the same chip as the 9700