Preformance between a Radeon PCI and a Geforce 2 MX400 PCI?

[Armageddon415]

One is a Radeon PCI 32SDR and the other is a GF2MX400 PCI 64SDR. Which one would preform better for games?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I would think that it would depend on the games you play, they are both bandwidth limited due to the pci buss, but personally, I'd go with the MX400 just because it has more memory and I think it's even higher clocked.

 

[AnAndAustin]

The GF2MX400 is definitely faster. RadeonDDR is more equivilent to a GF2MX400 while Rad7500 (which can also be found in PCI form) offer perf about 50% faster and is equivilent to a GF2GTS. GF4MX cards are also very worthy considerations as outperform all the above cards, these are still found in PCI form. The master of PCI will certainly be the Rad9000, you get MUCH closer to GF3 type speeds as well as getting DX8 hw just like GF3 which none of the above cards have. You will lose about 20% perf going to PCI rather than the same card in AGP, do consider upgrading your mobo to take a faster CPU and an AGP gfx card, it may not be as expensive a you think. RAM is vitally important in a PCI gfx card, do NOT consider anything less than 64MB.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Radeon 7000 PCI can be had in 64mb I believe. My friend is able to run NWN on this card at lowest detail settings, no hitches though. It's on a powerleaped old Compaq now using Celeron 700 on a 66mhz bus.

ATI RADEON 7000 64MB PCI DDR W/DVD PLAYBACK VGA CARD (Retail) Detail Specs $65.00

 

[alkemyst]

please don't take this as a flame, but before investing in a video card, think about a new motherboard with agp, prices are reasonable now and an inferior AGP card can usually smoke an expensive PCI one.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Originally posted by: AnAndAustinYou will lose about 20% perf going to PCI rather than the same card in AGP, do consider upgrading your mobo to take a faster CPU and an AGP gfx card, it may not be as expensive a you think.

Pricewatch:

AthlonXP1800+ $70
AthlonXP2000+ $90
Decent HSF $20
SktA mobo $50-60
256MB DDR-PC2100 $45
256MB DDR-PC2700 $55

You may need a new PSU, pref 350W+ and ideally Antec, Enermax, ToPower, SFlower or Sparkle ($30-60). You'll need to check all your current add-in cards are PCI, they should be, if not replacements are very cheap ($10-20). You'll need to check your case has decent ventilation and pref a case fan mount or two, if needed you should find a good bundle deal with a new PSU. You should be okay with all this, but it could be a factor. Some SktA mobos supply SDR (PC133) as well as DDR RAM slots which can really keep costs down and will only hit perf about 10%. So XP2000+, HSF and mobo would cost about $165, if you want DDR, PC2700 gains very little in SktA but is wise for o/c'ing headroom, fast RAM timings and future usage. You'd still need a gfx card, GF3 or Rad8500 would more than do for under $100 although a GF4TI4200 would be nice. The perf boost would be very considerable.

 

[mindwarp]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
please don't take this as a flame, but before investing in a video card, think about a new motherboard with agp, prices are reasonable now and an inferior AGP card can usually smoke an expensive PCI one.

FYI last I checked there were no dual or tri agp slotted boards. For those of us running tri-head and who don't want to shell out the cash for a matrox then pci is the only solution.