Tell me what obsolete card to get

[PingSpike]

The gf4 ti series is a good bet, but of course you will have to try and snag a used one. Picking a ti4200 up for $50 is reasonable. But all the cards in that range seem to be a good bet for getting good performance for little money. I snagged a ti4600 off ebay about a year ago for ~$75, which was a wicked good deal then. I played doom3 demo at medium settings 640x480 and it ran pretty solid. Was a bit choppy in a few spots, but I was running WinMx and antivirus in the background so it may not have been its fault.

Nvidias lower end offering from the FX series were pretty sh|t. If you're going on the cheap, throw the eye candy ideas out the window and just focus on finding a card with enough horsepower to get the job done IMO, which typically involves buying flagship cards that are a couple generations old.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser

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.

Rubbish. First off, for NVIDIA cards there are *ONLY* OEM boards (unless you're talking the distinction between OEM and retail boxed products, and for the same products from the same manufactueer there is no difference). And there is generally no difference in quality or speed (barring a few exceptions, like Sapphire's 128-bit '9800 Pro' fiasco) between ATI-built and OEM-built graphics cards.

You do have to be sure that you're actually getting what you think you are (some manufacturers use nonstandard nomenclature, or misleading model names), but there's no reason to avoid particular brands because they're "slower". A Sapphire/ASUS/Powercolor/whatever 9600Pro runs the same speed as an ATI 9600Pro, unless something is indicated otherwise.

 

[VIAN]

Ti 4600 is about equal to a 9600 Pro

Ti 4200 is about 10 frames slower

Ti 200 is about 20 frames slower than the 4200.

 

[Sentinel]

i dunno if it would make a difference but a buddy of mine just bought a fx5200 256mb and he is running bf1942 and such at good framerates, granted i havent tested anything with his pc, it is a 2.4ghz p4 with 512mb ddr, dunno what speed.

 

[mrwxyz]

i have a geforce2mx on a p4 1.6a with 512mb pc100 and i run mp2 perfect along with playable splinter cell and even farcry (although at lower settings, but they are still great)......i dont really think a $40 upgrade would do u any good

 

[Todd33]

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser

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.

This isn't true of any computer parts.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser

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.

Rubbish. First off, for NVIDIA cards there are *ONLY* OEM boards (unless you're talking the distinction between OEM and retail boxed products, and for the same products from the same manufactueer there is no difference). And there is generally no difference in quality or speed (barring a few exceptions, like Sapphire's 128-bit '9800 Pro' fiasco) between ATI-built and OEM-built graphics cards.

You do have to be sure that you're actually getting what you think you are (some manufacturers use nonstandard nomenclature, or misleading model names), but there's no reason to avoid particular brands because they're "slower". A Sapphire/ASUS/Powercolor/whatever 9600Pro runs the same speed as an ATI 9600Pro, unless something is indicated otherwise.

Originally posted by: Todd33
This isn't true of any computer parts.

Ok, I can't seem to find any evidence to support my claim, so I guess I am wrong. I could have sworn that I had seen many in the past that were, and even my old "OEM" GF2 GTS had lower clocked core/mem. Maybe manufacturers have changed, maybe I just got a slower clocked card, dunno.

EDIT >> Well, I did find this. Apparently Velocity Micro thinks OEM graphics cards are lower quality compared to their Retail counterparts (and builds their PCs with Retail components).

Maybe I wasn't entirely wrong to advise against OEM, even though I was wrong concerning the clock speeds.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: VIAN
You'll have to dish out about 110 bucks for a 9600 Pro, or else it's not gonna be worth it.

yeah anything thing less will probably be a waste of money
I have a 9600non pro and it plays doom 3 at 800x600 at low quality at about 40fps.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Check if you can find some GF4 TI4200 in the FS/FT forums or at ebay for 50$, that would be your best choice.