Radeon 32MB SDR or Radeon 7000 32MB DDR? From Hot Deals

[QueHuong]

Linky from Hot Deals.

In short, CompUSA is offering two ATI Radeon cards:

Radeon PCI, 32MB SDR $30
and
Radeon 7000 AGP, 32MB DDR $50 - $20 mail-in rebate (heard this rebate house is HORRIBLE...people are saying not to even expect the rebate to come)

I'm not much of a gamer so I'm a newbie with video cards and related stuff; and since my Voodoo 3 3000 AGP is pretty old, I jumped on this deal. I didn't know there were two different cards on sale, I just assumed the only differences between the $30 and $50 cards were one is PCI and has SDR memory and the other is AGP and has DDR. So I opted for the $50 Radeon 7000. But now I realized they're two different cards totally. I heard the Radeon 7000 is based on the Radeon VE chipset (whatever that is) and that isn't ideal for gaming. So I need your opinions:

I haven't opened the box yet so I can still return it for a full refund without restocking fees. So should I:

1) Return the card and stick with my current Voodoo 3 3000 AGP card - I'm not into gaming much but I do play Medal of Honor, Quake, Counter-Strike occasionally and they seem to be working fine on my Voodoo, but I don't know what I'm missing with the Radeon. I run WinXP on an 700mhz Athlon with 256MB RAM.

Or the upgrade is significant enough that I should shell out $30 or $50 (depending on which card) and:

2) Keep my $50 (with a slim chance of getting a $20 rebate) Radeon 7000 32MB DDR AGP card; Product info from ATI's website

or

3) Return the 7000 card and go for the $30 Radeon 32MB SDR PCI card? Product info from ATI's website

Please help promptly.

 

[spanky]

the pci radeon is a pretty good PCI card. the radeon 7000 is a pretty sh!tty agp card. of course i am speaking in terms of games. so if u have an agp card... for $30... get a gf256 or something. but if u need a pci solution for playing games... radeon pci isn't too bad (tho the gf4 mx & voodoo5 r better).

 

[BFG10K]

Both cards suck for gaming and won't be much of an upgrade from your Voodoo3. Save your money and get something better.

 

[tenoc]

GF2 gts-v @ $47 here, $52 shipped.

Better deal than either of the others, still in your price range.

 

[spanky]

or how about a stock gts for $35 shipped

 

[hans007]

the radeon sdr is a better card.


now if the radeon 7000 agp were a radeon 7200 agp, that would be good.


the 7000 is the radeon ve, chip. its probably about as fast as a tnt2 ultra. it has no T&l engine either. the 7200 and the radeon sdr pci have the same chip the r100. the ve is the rv100. anyways the sdr pci radeon is faster and well cheaper apparently.

 

[techwanabe]

Where do the Radeon 32DDR cards fit into this scheme? The Radeon 7000's must be significantly worse because y'all used to say that the Radeon 32DDR was a significant step up from the old Voodoo 3 3000 line.

 

[Idoxash]

You know i have a pci radeon 7000 64ddr in one of my other computers.. and i used it before to play some games just to see how they run and games like tribes 2 played almost maxx out! and looked very nice... so does QIII and all my other games... thats not to say i use it for dvd playback... and must say I never use a tv again...

 

[BFG10K]

Where do the Radeon 32DDR cards fit into this scheme?

Radeon 7000 < Radeon 7200 < Radeon 32 MB DDR < Radeon 64 MB DDR.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Where do the Radeon 32DDR cards fit into this scheme?

Radeon 7000 < Radeon 7200 < Radeon 32 MB DDR < Radeon 64 MB DDR.

thats wrong


radeon 32mb DDR = radeon 7200 DDR.


they just renamed it for their stupid numbering scheme.

the radeon VE 32mb DDR = radeon 7000 DDR.