Tell me what obsolete card to get

dummy2001

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Dec 5, 2001
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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.

 

AnonymouseUser

Diamond Member
May 14, 2003
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Hmm, the 9200se and FX5200 are practically equals to the GF3 Ti200 you currently have, so I would have to say the 5700LE. Unfortunately, MP2 and SC (Pandora Tomorrow?) still won't play very well with the 5700LE, but they would be playable.
 

dug777

Lifer
Oct 13, 2004
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as far as mp2 is concerned, it ran very smoothly with all the toys on on my mates 2500+, 512mb, and fx5200 (crappy 64-bit one too) at 1024 (i think, this was a while ago), in fact other than i could crank aa/af on my 9800 pro (2000+ @2600+, 512mb), as far as enjoying the game was concerned it was just as fun on his rig as mine :)
 

AnonymouseUser

Diamond Member
May 14, 2003
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If you are willing, check out the FS/T forums. If this guy is legit (some people have posted in the thread that they have gotten their item), he has an FX5200 Ultra (a little better than any 5700LE) for $50.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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I'd avoid the FX5200, look for a 9600 Pro. You can find them for less than 100 without too much trouble and they'll crush the FX5700LE in every game as well.
 

dummy2001

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Dec 5, 2001
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Thanks for the replies.

I stopped paying attention to video cards after I got the Gf3 ti200, are the 5200 and 5700LE really that small a performance increase? I mean I want to actually see a difference, are we talking about noticeably better texture quality and so forth or just a few more fps? If the difference is going to be hard to notice then you have answered my question, I will defer the video card to the future.
 

bim27142

Senior member
Oct 6, 2004
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max payne 2 is very much playable on my on-board video(intel 865G) even @1024(but medium quality though)... splinter cell however is one hell of a demanding game...low-end cards struggles to keep up in this game just so you be aware... just avoid 5200, it's not much of a performer 3D apps wise...

BTW, can we get <$50 of used ti4200?
 

five40

Golden Member
Oct 4, 2004
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Personally I would stick with the GF3. I have the same GF3 in an old p4 2.53 and it runs everything fairly well. It can play battlefield and unreal 2k3 (haven't tried 2k4 on it yet) at 1024X768. If you really want to upgrade though you can get a 64mb radeon 9500, a 128 mb gf4 4200, or a 128mb radeon 9100 (basically a rebadged 8500). All of those cards are in the $50-$60 range. I used to have a 128mb 9100 before I upgraded to a 9800 pro. The 9100 worked good for many of the current games today (you can't expect much eye candy though).
 

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
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If you want to upgrade, find a used GF4 Ti4600. It would be FAR faster than any FX5200, or even a 5700LE.
 

Appledrop

Platinum Member
Aug 25, 2004
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Originally posted by: Matthias99
If you want to upgrade, find a used GF4 Ti4600. It would be FAR faster than any FX5200, or even a 5700LE.

ya, id consider a ti200 a superior card to any 9200 or 5200 anyway hehe
 

bim27142

Senior member
Oct 6, 2004
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Originally posted by: Azzy64
Originally posted by: Matthias99
If you want to upgrade, find a used GF4 Ti4600. It would be FAR faster than any FX5200, or even a 5700LE.

ya, id consider a ti200 a superior card to any 9200 or 5200 anyway hehe

did you just mean ti4200?? :)
 

VIAN

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2003
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You'll have to dish out about 110 bucks for a 9600 Pro, or else it's not gonna be worth it.
 

drpootums

Golden Member
Oct 22, 2004
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Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Geforce 4 Ti 4200

-Kevin

yes, my friend has a oc'ed one of these and he can play anything (with a 2000+ and 512 mb's of ram) from old games to Doom 3. Very nice cards for the money!

 

VIAN

Diamond Member
Aug 22, 2003
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If he doesn't OC, the 4200 won't be too much faster than the TI 200.
 

deals99

Senior member
Dec 26, 2001
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Originally posted by: VIAN
If he doesn't OC, the 4200 won't be too much faster than the TI 200.
A 4200 can be a good deal faster then a Ti200, Tom's VGA charts are a decent reference.

A "real" 9600 would be nice also. Most of that SE/EZ/Lite stuff just neuter the card.
 

AnonymouseUser

Diamond Member
May 14, 2003
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Originally posted by: VIAN
If he doesn't OC, the 4200 won't be too much faster than the TI 200.

Now that's funny! :laugh:

I personally tested Doom 3 on both a GF3 Ti200 64MB and a GF4 TI4200 128MB.

The GF3 Ti200 did < 20fps @ 640x480 low quality on a Mobile Athlon XP @ 2.3GHz w/ PC3200 RAM. Totally. Un. Playable.

On a slower CPU (Athlon XP 2400+) with slower RAM (PC2100), the GF4 Ti4200 could run Doom 3 playable (~30fps) @ 800x600 low quality or 640x480 medium quality. Respectable

Also of note, the Ti4200 (Athlon XP 2400+, PC2100 RAM) was too slow (640x480 @ ~25fps) for Thief: Deadly Shadows, a game very similar to Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (which the demo played fine @ 640x480).

This is, of course, at the expense of reduced eye candy (programmable pixel shaders) compared to the FX series and better graphics cards.
 

dummy2001

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Dec 5, 2001
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Ok, so what I'm taking from this is that to make a worthwhile jump I would need to go to at least a ti4600, 9600, or 9600 PRO. The catch w/ the ti4600 is no DX9 right? Is that a fair synthesis of consensus? Thanks.
 

AnonymouseUser

Diamond Member
May 14, 2003
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Yes, and no.

Be especially wary of ATI's SE cards. Some are absolute rubbish, but all are crippled.

Any GF4 Ti card would be good, and the Ti4200 is the most popular (easiest to get a good price on). Don't overlook the Ti4800 if you go this route as it is basically an improved and overclocked Ti4200 (still has fewer features than the Ti4600, but performs very closely for much less).

Avoid OEM like the plague and don't get more than 128MB RAM on any of these cards.
 

AnonymouseUser

Diamond Member
May 14, 2003
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Originally posted by: dummy2001
Why avoid OEM? I've gotten OEM hardware from Newegg before w/ no problems.

OEM video cards are often much slower (core/mem) than their retail counterparts. This isn't true of most other computer components.
 

sbuckler

Senior member
Aug 11, 2004
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9600 Pro or if you can afford it, if not a GF4 Ti would be your best bet, anything slower isn't worth it. Might want to risk ebay as there should be lots of those cards available second hand.
 
Aug 15, 2004
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I know everyone hates the FX5200, but I had one until recently, and it played every game fine (IMO, I realize some people need max detail or whatnot). Don't get me wrong, I love the upgrade to the 6800, but I'm saying the 5200 worked well for me, even playing Doom 3 at a recent framerate (albeit 640x480 medium quality, but still above 30 Fps).

This may be a good upgrade, but I'm not sure how much of an upgrade it will be from the Ti200, as those cards rocked.
 

dug777

Lifer
Oct 13, 2004
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Originally posted by: CharlesMcKinney
I know everyone hates the FX5200, but I had one until recently, and it played every game fine (IMO, I realize some people need max detail or whatnot). Don't get me wrong, I love the upgrade to the 6800, but I'm saying the 5200 worked well for me, even playing Doom 3 at a recent framerate (albeit 640x480 medium quality, but still above 30 Fps).

This may be a good upgrade, but I'm not sure how much of an upgrade it will be from the Ti200, as those cards rocked.

Impressive getting d3 2 run on that setup at those fps, i know u r supposed to be able 2, but i tried hard to get it running on a mates barton 2500+ (xtra cache should have given him a leg up over u... i think), 512mb pc3200, on an nforce2, and i couldn't even get it playable at any res, even with all the shiny stuff turned off- like 15fps in timedemo1. What drivers did u use, cos i tried this when d3 first came out- haven't since, and was your fx5200 a proper 128bit or a crappy 64bit like my mates?