I'm a trailing edge gamer, I upgrade my machine a piece at a time and I buy games used, I play games a couple years after cutting edge gamers do but at a fraction of the price. I am now looking at a xmas video card upgrade (to play Max Payne 2 and Splinter Cell). I have not kept up with hardware in a long time, please tell me what you think.
Currently my machine boasts an AMD XP2000 (1666mhz), 512mb Kingston ValueRam (2100 but stuck at 1600), and a geforce3 ti200, all running on the once cutting edge win98se. It does everything I want and can reasonably expect. My target range is $40-50. I'm interested in what is a good match for my system, not something that is overpowered and will be held back by other hardware limits, please no "for another $100 you could get a...".
Scanning Newegg I see basically ATI 9200se or FX5200, maybe 5700LE if I take a chance on a used card. If nothing in that range is going to give an enjoyable fps/detail improvement at 1024x768 I'm ok with that, I will keep the ti200 longer and upgrade the motherboard instead.
Currently my machine boasts an AMD XP2000 (1666mhz), 512mb Kingston ValueRam (2100 but stuck at 1600), and a geforce3 ti200, all running on the once cutting edge win98se. It does everything I want and can reasonably expect. My target range is $40-50. I'm interested in what is a good match for my system, not something that is overpowered and will be held back by other hardware limits, please no "for another $100 you could get a...".
Scanning Newegg I see basically ATI 9200se or FX5200, maybe 5700LE if I take a chance on a used card. If nothing in that range is going to give an enjoyable fps/detail improvement at 1024x768 I'm ok with that, I will keep the ti200 longer and upgrade the motherboard instead.