Upgrade from GF3 to ???

[Chancellor]

I'm looking for upgrade advice. I have a Visiontek GeForce 3 (plain old 3), and I want something with better anti-aliasing and faster frame rates for MS FlightSim2k2. My PC is a P4 1.8ghz, 512mb DDR, Asus P4B266. While I would love a Radeon 9700, I can't bring myself to spend that much $ on a video card. What would be a reasonable upgrade from the GF3 for my purposes? Is there much improvement to be had by upgrading to a GF4 Ti4200 or 4400? Would a Radeon 8500 be better? I'm looking for something that will give me noticeably better performance for $100-150. Thanks!

 

[Anubis]

an TI4400 would be perfect and it also overclocks well

 

[Insidious]

I agree with the statement that a Ti 4400 is a great card.

I had the opportunity to put one in my PC for a couple days. I found that my framerates in games really didn't go up all that much.
(I think I am CPU limited in many cases)
Benchies did go up a lot, but I am not really driven by that. How do my apps. work? That's what drives my choices. (work great with either card)

The upside was that the AA did work nicely without major decreases in FPS which, IMHO, is the only real motivator to go from your GF3 to a GF4.

 

[Chancellor]

Interesting that people are recommending the 4400 instead of the 4200, which I assumed was the real "bang for your buck" card. My main complaint with my GeForce 3 is that the AA is pretty poor. Sometimes I'm not even sure it's doing anything. For example, in flightsim 2k2, the taxiway lines and runway markings can look jagged if you view them at an angle. I would have expected AA to smooth them out substantially, but the difference is only slight. Does the GF4 GPU do a better job of AA? I know that none of these cards will offer the brute force of a Radeon 9700, but if flightsim is CPU limited anyway, it's pointless to shell out the extra cash. Decisions, decisions...

 

[jiffylube1024]

I'd recommend a Ti4200 myself. 128MB. I DO believe it's the best bang for the buck, bar none.

By the way, I just looked at your system rig (your first post piqued my eye - P4 1800, GF3, 512DDR, P4B266 - sounds familiar). Check your system rig and check mine. Are we twins separated at birth? Jeez, we have VERY similar machines - even the same case and DVD drives!!!

 

[AnAndAustin]

I'd also rec the 4200-128MB ($140ish) over the 4400, although if you have the cash an enhanced 3.3ns BGA 4200 (Asus Deluxe or Suma Special Edition) or 4400 ($200) are still very good too.

As for the AA, GF3/4TI cards have the best ... apart from the low performing Parhelia's quirky FxAA and of course the super-performing super-priced Rad9700pro. As always it does depend upon the game engine and type itself. You may find the best results come from forcing (nVidia panel) 2xAA or QxAA+Aniso as 4xAA and 4xSxAA take quite a hit.

In any case IMHO it would be unwise to upgrade from a card as good as a GF3, Rad8500 or GF4TI at the mo, a heck of a lot will be going down in the gfx card industry over the next 6 months, if you already have one of these excellent cards you'd be better served waiting. NV18, NV28 and NV30 are all due out between now and December and early 2003 will surely see the introduction of 'budget' ($200?) DX9 cards, as in NV30-Lite and Rad9500 type cards. Do yourself a favour and sit tight, GF3 is a very capable card and it has very good 2xAA, if you don't see much of a diff try another AA mode or higher res, but it could just be that particular game.

 

[merlocka]

I have a Visiontek GeForce 3 (plain old 3), and I want something with better anti-aliasing and faster frame rates for MS FlightSim2k2.

Although I've never played this game I'm suprised that the GF3 isn't serving you well here. IIR, flight sims are generally CPU bound so I'd think you'd be OK with cranking 4x4 or Quincux <sp> with AF. Doesn't sound like this is the case though.

I'm in the same boat, I have the vanilla Gainward GF3 and although I wouldn't mind something faster I've considered my options as...

1) Geforce4 4200 for sub $150
2) Wait until the GF3 is looking really old

I'm planning to wait it out. My next change will be a P4/T-bred DDR upgrade.