New Radeon LE VS. Used GTS

[bluemax]

I have the choice between a brand new Radeon LE from a local vendor (plus at least a 30-day warranty...) or a USED GTS from an Anandtech trader. WinFast GTS, to be specific. I hear they're good...

I'm more concerned about image quality than speed, I also want NO NOISE! My secondary hard drive produces too much sound as it is aleady... I don't want a loud video fan making it worse. :|
The LE has no fan... One for ATI.
I have to flash the LE to another BIOS. One for nVidia.
I hear LE has better image quality in 2D and 3D. One more for ATI.
The GTS is probably a little bit faster. One for GTS.
The drivers are probably a little more reliable for compatibility on the GTS, so another point there.
The GTS USED would be cheaper, but not by much. The guy selling the LE would probably take my old card in partial trade... I'd call it even on price.

What do you think, guys... what'll be the one thing that pushes me over to one camp or the other?

 

[GT578]

you don't have to flash the LE bios....it does nothing except put the stock speed to 164mhz......and doesn't turn on hyper-z as people think. Mine is flashed with a retail 32DDR bios.....I still use rage3d tweak to turn on hyper-z and o/c to 191/191.

 

[rogue1979]

I have use several Geforce2 GTS & Pro, I have never been bothered by the GPU fan, they really aren't that loud. I have had several Radeons LE & 64MB Vivo, and while the 2D image quality is better than some Geforces, the Inno3D and Gainward cards easily match the Radeon quality. I have heard Leadtek has good 2D quality, But I haven't used one personally. I can tell you that the drivers for Geforce2 are better, and the speed of an overclocked GTS (220/360) is quite abit faster than the Radeon LE (180/180). These are the average overclocked speeds of the two cards, but there is another possible option. It is out of stock at the moment, but newegg has the Leadtek Winfast Geforce2 Pro 32MB 5ns ram for $79 shipped. Flash the Bios to the Nvidia reference bios (faster) and overclock to 220/450. Since the Geforce2 chipset is memory bandwidth hungry, this gives a very large boost in performance.

 

[bluemax]

There are only a few times it ever sucks to be Canadian. Knowing that the USA has 10x the population and more consumers pushing the economy, there's cheaper deals to be had.
I can't get anything from NewEgg - to the best of my knowledge.

Even so, a $65US Radeon LE locally with no taxes added and a 30-day warrantee isn't bad...
Still looking for a clear choice. Local LE or go through the mail-order stuff for a slightly cheaper Winfast GTS.

 

[SamuraiSludge]

It depends on what you primarily use your PC for.

If your into 3D gaming to any serious level, I'd say go with the Geforce2. If not, go with the Radeon LE. Both are great cards, and you can't really go wrong with either one.

 

[Beater]

Hey bluemax I'd definately go with the GF2 cause Beater's an excellent trader, ya can't go wrong ! LOL, JK, JK go whichever way suits ya, I won't be crushed, and asking here is likely an excellent idea ta help ya decide!

 

[bluemax]

Please don't take any offense, and I'm still leaning just a tiny bit towards the GTS.
any long-time video-forum readers should know me as the guy who can't choose a damned video card.
If I had the moolah, I'd just get an 8500 or TI200 and be done with it... it sucks that every penny has to count.

If I can just sell off my sound card and/or Rage128pro card, I shouldn't have any trouble with the remainder.

More importantly, I can't afford mistakes! Whatever choice I make has to stick because there's no cash to change my mind and go with something else.
I think I'd be very happy with either card, but when it comes to FSAA, general usage, average speed and quality - I doubt I could complain about the GTS.... but then there are those that talk about the better rendering quality and colour of the Radeon.... oh....
My head hurts.
And around the circle we go again....


I'm leaning to the GTS camp here folks. Any reason why on earth I wouldn't want to stick this into my i845/SDR/P4 machine?
1024x768 will be the running res 95% of the time. Monitor is "good" but not a Trinitron...

Just smack me with The Salmon Of Correction if I'm wrong here. [groan] If only my Dell system offered the Ti200 a week sooner...
$200 extra doesn't seem so bad when it's $3-5 per payment.

 

[Xtasy]

Take advice from me, i have both cards lolz! Go for the geforce 2 gts for betta compatibility in winxp/ 2k n much noticeable advantages in gaming. I really didn't like my ati radeon le n thought it was a waste of money cause doesn't mix well with xp (lack of real quality tweakers n other fixes). Couldn't even install a winxp dvd software cause it can't detect previous versions or use the serial key i got on my legit ati cd! go with the gts.

 

[GT578]

The driver problems mentioned are total BS.......if you know what you're doing you won't have driver problems....

I'd take whatever is better for your needs....I've used both extensively and I'd still stick with my Radeon LE because I value 2D more so than gaming.....and gaming on my card seems fine....except for serious sam 2 demo....that game makes me want to buy a new card~!