Recommend a video card for me please

[johnjk]

Okay, I've been out of the "loop" for awhile. I've got an Asus A7V333 and an XP1600 on the way. I need a good video card to go with this. I'm not really into gaming, but would like to have the ability to play some games if the urge hits. Price is more of a factor. TIA.

 

[Spleenus]

I've just ordered GeForce 4 Ti 4200 with 128Mb of Ram for £118. They're good video cards and will last for a while, just don't expect all the latest games to be played with every single option set to maximum.

If not get a cheaper Geforce 3.

Just be wary of Ati cards as Ati have poor gfx card driver support.

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

i 2nd the geforce 4 ti4200

plus who has time to look at the details when playing quake3 or ut2k3 and even the upcoming doom 3

i havnt read anything about ati 9500, so maybe see if you can find a comparison between the 2

 

[OulOat]

ATI 9700 Pro rapes every other card, but it's price tag will rape your wallet. So you probably want to just get a GeF4. Whatever you do just don't get any of the MX series

 

[Syborg1211]

Just be wary of Ati cards as Ati have poor gfx card driver support.

It's really annoying that nvidia zealots still spit out that rubbish. ATI's graphics support is muuuuuch better than it was years ago. The support still isn't up to par with nvidia, but it is aproaching that level. Both companies are going to run into their fair share of problems and issues so basing a decision on cards solely on the difference between the two's driver support is not warranted here.

A good reason to get the geforce 4 over a radeon 8500 would be because the geforce 4 performs better, but a good reason to get ther radeon 8500 over the geforce 4 is the lower price and better picture quality. Another difference you may run into between the two is that the radeon 8500 comes with tv-out while the geforce 4's don't always do.

 

[Jhhnn]

I'm with Syborg 1211, one of the radeons would work well. I personally dislike the 2D on Nvidia cards, the Radeons are much better at that. A 9000 or 8500 will play any game out there, you just need to back off on the settings. An occasional gamer won't mind, and might find that even a 7000 would do fine for most games....

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: EKAtBzboyz
i 2nd the geforce 4 ti4200

plus who has time to look at the details when playing quake3 or ut2k3 and even the upcoming doom 3

i havnt read anything about ati 9500, so maybe see if you can find a comparison between the 2

I 3rd it..
they are cheap, and perform great.

 

[everman]

Ti 4200 would be perfect.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: everman
Ti 4200 would be perfect.

I like my PNY GF4 ti4200 64DR ..

 

[Hanpan]

I personally feel the Radeon line of cards offers a more balanced feature set and is therefore more desirable.

I would suggest a radeon 8500LE 128MB especially if you do not mind overclocking.
The benefits of the Radeon inlcude (my subjective opinion) slightly nicer 2d and more acurrate dvd performance.

The Ti4200 on the other hand has a slight edge in 3d accerleration prowess.

However the LE can be found for a little as 80USD in some cases, which is a little less than most ti4200's i've seen.

 

[StanTheMan]

Geforce 4 Ti 4200 would be an interesting option for you. but if you want a cheaper one, choose either Geforce 3 Ti 200 or Geforce 4 MX.
ATI driver support is getting better NOW, especially for their newest radeon 9700. however in the next 2 year, if the new OS comes out, will it still be supported? I'll let you be the judge. I was left in the dark with my ATI card when MS decided to introduce win2K. However with nvidia, my old PCI 16 MB Riva TNT is STILL SUPPORTED up to now. geez, if you imagine, Riva TNT has almost been 4 years old )

 

[Markfw]

My vote is for the Radeon 8500. And I ditto the comments against the ignorant people that continue to talk about bad ATI drivers. Join the present, ATI is fine today.

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

i would hold off on the geforce 4mx mentioned above
it is no more than a geforce 2mx in disguise

a geforce 3 ti200/ti500 would be much better off

i also am all for radeon 8500 (LE or not LE)
if you get the LE, it is easily overclocked to the regular 8500 levels, and you pay less

it all comes down to personal preference imo

 

[DanFungus]

Originally posted by: Syborg1211

Just be wary of Ati cards as Ati have poor gfx card driver support.

It's really annoying that nvidia zealots still spit out that rubbish. ATI's graphics support is muuuuuch better than it was years ago. The support still isn't up to par with nvidia, but it is aproaching that level. Both companies are going to run into their fair share of problems and issues so basing a decision on cards solely on the difference between the two's driver support is not warranted here.

A good reason to get the geforce 4 over a radeon 8500 would be because the geforce 4 performs better, but a good reason to get ther radeon 8500 over the geforce 4 is the lower price and better picture quality. Another difference you may run into between the two is that the radeon 8500 comes with tv-out while the geforce 4's don't always do.

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing, basically. I've always had either onboard video, or Nvidia cards, and I know how horrible ATI was from all the complaints I would see, but now, you don't see that problem anymore, they seemed to have shaped up and have gotten into a fight with Nvidia, and are definitely winning...

 

[ssanches]

I'm not really into gaming, but would like to have the ability to play some games if the urge hits. Price is more of a factor. TIA.

Since you mention this, my vote goes for the 128MB Radeon 8500LE boards. They're damn cheap, good 2D and 3D quality and excellent 3D performance for the buck. Definitely go for the Radeon 8500LE

 

[xMikey]

Originally posted by: Spleenus
I've just ordered GeForce 4 Ti 4200 with 128Mb of Ram for £118. They're good video cards and will last for a while, just don't expect all the latest games to be played with every single option set to maximum.

If not get a cheaper Geforce 3.

Just be wary of Ati cards as Ati have poor gfx card driver support.

Where in the Uk did you get that from??


Mikey out!!!

 

[Toro 45]

Originally posted by: johnjk
I'm not really into gaming, but would like to have the ability to play some games if the urge hits. Price is more of a factor. TIA.

If price is more of a factor then you really should mention your price range,alot of the cards people are mentioning are $80-$130.

If your price range is $45-$75 then we can recommend them as well.

Toro.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: Toro 45
If price is more of a factor then you really should mention your price range,alot of the cards people are mentioning are $80-$130.

If your price range is $45-$75 then we can recommend them as well.

Agreed. Saying price is more of a factor doesn't tell me anything. I would say that if you can afford the Ti4200, then absolutely go for it. I would also recommend the 128MB version of that card over the 64MB version. You'll have to overclock the RAM, though, which isn't a problem. While you're at it, you can AT LEAST O/C it to 4400 levels, and most will O/C to 4600 levels. Just to let you know, the speeds for the Ti series (core/RAM respectively) are:

Ti4200 64MB: 250/500
Ti4200 128MB: 250/444
Ti4400: 275/550
Ti4600: 300/650

Since you are out of the loop, if you're concerned about O/C'ing a card, remember this: the GPUs (I hate NVIDIA acronyms) on the Ti4200, Ti4400 and Ti4600 are all the same, they're just verified for different speeds and shipped with different clock speeds. If I were you, I'd just download a copy of Rivatuner (they're all over the place, just search for them) and O/C your 4200 to 300/600. It should have no problem getting there.

If you're still not sure, do this: open up two browser windows - Pricewatch.com and Tom's VGA Charts. Compare the prices and performances of each card at whatever resolution you forsee yourself using. As you know, none of these cards will be the bottleneck for performance for 2D applications (spreadsheet, web browsers, photoshop, etc.), so don't worry about that.

The only other things to know have already been mentioned:

ATI's 2D images are somewhat crisper than NVIDIA's. Personally I couldn't give less of a shite, but that's me.
ATI's drivers are somewhat questionable. Yes this is true, and no I'm not a fanboy. As you are out of the loop, I'll elaborate a little. ATI's new unifed drivers (this is the term used for drivers that span across the entire grphics line of a card maker, just like the newest detonators will work for my TNT2 as well as for the GF3s and GF4s), under the name Catalyst, should take away this problem. However, they've only been around since (I believe) June (? May maybe?), and have yet to span an operating system, like StanTheMan notes. Nobody (except ATI fanboys) would argue that ATI's drivers were more problematic for a majority of users than GF4 drivers. This is not to say that everyone that used ATI cards had driver-related issues, just that a larger percentage of ATI users had driver-related issues compared to NVIDIA users. Pesonally, I won't buy an ATI card until I truly feel confident that ATI has fixed its driver problems, and as of yet, I don't have that feeling.

That should be everything that you need to know. Price, performance, and all miscellaneous questions should be answered now. Let us know if there are other questions and we'd be glad to help.

 

[Goi]

Gee johnjk you ask a question but you don't seem to be reading the thread much are you...at least you're not replying...
Anyway, we need to know more before we can make any recommendations, despite the many recommendations already made. What games do you play, and what's your budget. Obviously if you play Solitaire and Minesweeper then even a TNT2 would be overkill. "some games" doesn't really tell us much ya know?

 

[johnjk]

I've been stuck to this thread like glue. Thank you, everyone, for all the help. I would like to stay in the $100 range, although I may go as high as $150. Also, I wouldn't mind purchasing something used from the for sale/trade forum so my purchasing dollar may go a little further. To be honest, I have no idea what games I might play, as I'm not up on the latest games. I would like to be able to play the newer games obviously. I hate to throw another wrench in the works, but I've sort of gotten interested in tv tuners now. I've read a little bit, but I've been short on time and haven't been able to sort through all the facts. I would love to be able to record hdtv. Is that possible? If not, I would be happy being able to record broadcast tv. I glanced at the ATI AIW 7500 and 8500. Are these good choices? I realize they're above my price range, but I may be able to squeeze our a little more money if the features are there. Or I may be able to pick up a used one for close to that range. Thanks again for all the help, and I'll be anxiously awaiting your replies. Even though I may not appear to be, I will be closely reading every reply. I'll also try to be more involved in the discussion.

 

[Goi]

To the best of my knowledge none of the current ATI AIWs support HDTV decoding/recording. You'd have to get a separate HDTV tuner for that. While I'm slightly familiar with normal cable TV tuners, I'm not familiar with HDTV tuners, so I can't help you there. As for your budget of $100-$150, if it doesn't include the cost of a HDTV tuner, you could easily get a GF4 Ti4200 or Radeon 8500 for that price I think, and that should be pretty satisfactory for the occasional gaming, even with the latest games.

 

[Boris691]

If you want cheap go for 8500. if you want to spend a little more get ti 4200. both are great cards and i am sure will be able to play games at good speeds with both

 

[Tbirdkid]

ATI Radeon 8500le with 3.3 ns ram on it from newegg.... Like 85 bucks shipped and it will blow the doors off the 2d quality of a gf4 4200. You probably wont be playing ut2k3 so the 8500 is all you need.

Youve been Linkified..... http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...=48&manufactory=1126&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1


It is the 16th one down. This card rocks. Core 250 (mine does 300 no problem) and memory 275 (mine does 320 no problem)
I love my radeon and it is cheap... Good choice for the bang for the buck.

 

[johnjk]

Thanks guys. What do you think about this:
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merc...e_Code=M&Product_Code=190736&Category_Code=VC

I don't know if I can record with it though. I also don't know if there is a component out option. I'll have to look later when I get a change, unless somebody know right of hand.

 

[johnjk]

Oops, don't see a coax in on that one. How are you supposed to get the high def signal to it? I guess I'm missing something.