upgrage from geforce2 gts, what to get?

[BBC454]

My friend wants to upgrade his video card. He kind of likes Nvidia but will have no trouble going with an ati or equivalent. Right now he has an older Compac with a 1.4G pentium, 384mb RDRAM, and the geforce2 gts. What will be the best card to upgrade to? Try to keep the price under $150. He mainly plays fps and racing games, I know he will be playing Doom3 and HL2 when thay come out.

Will there be a problem with the motherboard since it is an older card? ie voltage?

Thanks.

 

[Ionizer86]

P4 1.4: the board's agp should be fine, though the chip is probably kinda slow.

Under 150: the best thing would probably be a 9600XT. It may even have HL2 for free.

 

[VIAN]

He should deal with it and wait until HL2 or Doom 3 come out and then just buy a totally new system.

 

[modedepe]

9600xt is about $150, under $150 either a 9600 pro or ti4200. His system will probably too slow to run hl2 or doom3 very well though. Btw is his cpu a p3 or p4?

 

[bigpow]

FX5700 is coming out... less than $200 for a fast DX9 GPU
(I know that's what I'll get to replace my GF4 Ti4200)

 

[Ionizer86]

Sometimes FX5900's are also under $200, and 9700P/9800 cards are sometimes near $200. I personally think the 570U isn't a very good value.

 

[Cerb]

9600 Pro.
However, having a friend with a GF2 GTS right now, but a 2000+...wait and do a major upgrade instead of upgrading now. Upgrading from that P4 1.4 will make more of a difference than a new video card, and with new parts from Intel and AMD, it should be much cheaper to do so my late spring (or whenever HL2 manages to come out).

 

[bootoo]

Newegg's been throwing some refurb and non-refurb 9500 pro's around lately. I'd get that before a 9600 pro (in fact I did). MMM, what a nice upgrade from my gf2ti!

 

[SneakyStuff]

The sub-200 dollar 5900 cards are reference board designs, and take up 2 slots in the system. Just thought you would like to know.

 

[Corporate Thug]

9600 XT

 

[novice]

Given his current system, I suggest finding a Geforce 4 Ti4200 or so. Should be able to locate one for around $89 new for a 64 mb version. Link Later, he can build/buy a new system to take full advantage of the latest games, video card technology. The Ti4200 would be a nice step up from a GTS. (Heck, my Geforce 3 Ti200 was a nice step up from the GTS!) You may also be able to pick up a used one for less. It just seems like adding a $150 video card to the older system won't allow the card to really perform up to its' capability.

 

[Soulkeeper]

i went from gf2 gts to a gf4 ti4200 and am very happy to this day
of course there might be better solutions for you with dx 9 support

 

[vshah]

i'm still using a geForce 2 ULTRA in my system sometimes....its faster in 3dmark2003 GT1 than my fx5200 (it was a present, i'm not dumb enough to buy it) so i'm sticking with the rockin 250mhz core and 460mhz (shaddup its pretty good for 4 years old) ddr till the next gen makes prices drop....

-Vivan

 

[vshah]

grr double post

 

[RajunCajun]

I'm afraid you're wrong! There are several FX5900s that only take up the agp slot and not the next PCI spot. I bought the eVGA 5900SE, mainly because it only take up ONE slot (and under $200 wit COD). I also know the Albatron 5900 takes up only slot, even with the triple fans. There may be others, but most do use 2 slots. LOOK AROUND!

 

[MDE]

The BFG 5900nu only needs one slot, but the backplate covers two. I don't really see the issue with the cooler taking up two slots. You're nuts to put a card right up next to a 9800 Pro even though it's a "single slot" solution.

 

[amndouglas]

The truth is that just about any radeon card 9500 or higher will be a huge improvement for him. About six months ago, I went from a GeForce3 to a radeon 9500 and it made a huge difference in games like UT2003, but I have a P4 2.4B. He really should go for the whole deal with a new mobo, cpu, and video card.

 

[merlocka]

Sub $100 - Geforce 4 4200
$150ish - Radeon 9600XT (free copy of HL2?)
$200ish - GeForceFX 5900SE/XT (free copy of CoD) OR Radeon 9700 Pro
$250ish - Radeon 9800 Pro
Higher than $250 ? You're nuts.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
Sometimes FX5900's are also under $200, and 9700P/9800 cards are sometimes near $200. I personally think the 570U isn't a very good value.

What the man says...