Performance increase from GF2 GTS to GF3 Ti200?

[Xernex]

Was just wondering whether such an upgrade would give me much of a performance increase? I ask because I'm looking for something to give me a bit of a performance lift before I get an all new comp early next year. I am running an Athlon 800 with 256mb of SDRAM and a 32MB GF2 GTS. I figured a GF3 ti200 would be good because they are cheap and won?t be greatly bottlenecked by my CPU. If your asking why I don?t upgrade my CPU and Mobo, is because I want the upgrades to last me only about 5-6 more months, before I get an all new rig (waiting on Hammer/NV30 maybe 35) and don?t really wanna get caught up in wasting money on a short lived CPU/Mobo upgrade.

So is it worth it? I currently score about 3000 in 3dmark, what sort of increase do you think I?d get at a rough guess?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RanDum72]

You will notice a difference so if you're in a budget upgrade, then its worth it.
On the otherhand, a Radeon 8500/LE is almost the same price and is faster than the GF3 Ti200. A lot of people here in the forums are also unloading original GF3's (which is clocked faster than the Ti 200's) for cheap so browse around the For Sale/Trade forum.

 

[Xernex]

Thanks Randum, also can anyone recommend a good brand at all?

 

[tsnyder]

how cheap is cheap?

 

[RanDum72]

All video card brands are more or less equal these days so just go on the basis of price and warranty length ( some have lifetime warranties). However you might want to stay clear of Visiontek as they are currently going to be either dissolved or bought by another company. If you plan to OC, some brands distinguish themselves by being more OC'able than others. Gainward comes into mind.

 

[Goi]

IIRC, according to pricewatch, the 64MB ATI Radeon 8500LE's are faster, and cheaper than the GF3 Ti200's.

 

[Xernex]

Yeah OC'ing is fairly important to me, might have to look into a Gainward then. And don?t 8500LE's lack some of the direct x 8 features? It was something like that if I remember correctly that makes them less appealing.

 

[jacktesterson]

Where I live (canada) the Radeon is $40 cheaper than a ti 200 and faster, and the GeForce 4 4200 is only $20 more. Prices in Canadian funds.

Canadacomputers-

ATI Radeon 8500 128 MB DDR- $159
MSI GeForce3 Ti 200 128 MB DDR- $209
Abit Siluro Geforce4 4200 64 MB DDR- $229


Personally, if your going to buy a new PC in the future, go with the Radeon 8500 128 MB

 

[Goi]

Nope, the Radeon 8500LE is almost exactly the same card as the Radeon 8500, it uses the same GPU, except clocked slower, and with memory size/speed differences. Iti s a fully DX8.1 compliant card.

 

[ToXiCRaGE]

If you don't have to shed too much money on the Ti-200 then go for it, but if you do, then don't bother. I'd still say the 8500 series are better then even the Ti-200 or better yet get the Ti-4200 - but, wait a bit (a month or 2) for the prices to drop a bit more. Have you seen this? Link

 

[FuManStan]

I picked up a GF3 when there was a hot deal as an upgrade to my GF2 GTS on my P3700@933 and it helped a bit, mostly on newer games like GTA3 and Spiderman which played a bit smoother.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: tsnyder
how cheap is cheap?

I would unload my Gf3 for about 80$ shipped...

It hits nice speeds...

Check my sig..

 

[Xernex]

Yeah I was thinking of getting an 8500 but the thing is, as I said before I don?t think it would provide much more of a performance jump over the Ti200 because of the bottlenecks of the rest of my system, the 800 would slow it down. Also buying a second hand GF3 from these forums would be a tad difficult, unless you?re willing to pay the shipping to Australia for me . A GF3ti200 is, at its cheapest about $250 Aussie while a 8500 is about 280. (Pretty low prices considering a GF4 ti4600 is about 750 and a Pentium 4 2.53Ghz is $1300!!)

Would the rest of my system really bottleneck something like the 8500?

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: Xernex


Would the rest of my system really bottleneck something like the 8500?

Yes. The Ti200 and 8500 would be bottlenecked...

Go with the Ti200, or R8500. Choose based upon price... which ever is cheaper over there is you best bet.

 

[Goi]

Well, in your case your CPU will probably be the bottleneck, but if you did upgrade to a new system in the future and decided to keep the video card, the Radeon 8500LE would probably perform better in most cases than the GF3 Ti200, so if you can get the former for the same price or cheaper than the latter, why not?