Video Card Suggestions...

[BCYL]

I normally don't play much games on my PC, but lately there are a couple of games that I really like to play. Unfortunately I have an old ATI Xpert 98 8MB video card, which came with my PC 2 years ago. It is fine for my normal PC usage, but no 3D support for gaming. So I am considering upgrading my video card to something else.

Do you guys think I should get like a supplementary voodoo card or replace the ATI altogether? I don't need something state-of-the-art, just something that would be enough for maybe 2 yrs so I dont have to replace it again in a while... I guess my budget would be around $150 US...

Also I have a DVD drive, so having hardware DVD decoding on the card would be nice... I run win2k...

Thanks for all your suggestions!

 

[Tweakin]

I'm sure I'll ketch all kinds of s#$^ for this response, but I use a Matrox G400 32Meg Single Head and love it to death. I play very few games so my 1st consideration was clarity of text and 2d speed. I do play a little unreal and have no problems doing this under W2k at all. Best of all, you can find these all over the place (oem's) for under $100

 

[TimeKeeper]

Geforce 2 MX for around $100 only.

 

[LXi]

How about Radeon SDR? Better than GF2 MX in both 2D and 3D department. Comparable to G400 in 2D. ~$150 or even less than that now.

 

[Tweakin]

OK LXi...here we go again....I agree that the ATI card is very nice, and outperforms the Matrox in Games, but I'll still give the edge to Matrox for Driver stability.

 

[LXi]

ATI had driver problems, but its definitely stablized now, just like Matrox settled the OpenGL issue that was bothering them for a long time. The only thing imperfect about ATI is the rather poor performance of the Win2000 drivers.

 

[Tweakin]

Outstanding point LXi....I'm basing my view on W2K specifically. Haven't used 98 in some time now.

 

[LXi]

Win2K is the only thing standing in my way to go with Radeon. As for now, I've decided on a GeForce2MX, Ill bare with the poor 2D, but I really need some 3D power.

 

[urbantechie]

Geforce MX or Radeon.

 

[HellRaven]

If your willing to spend $170-$175 you can get an OEM Geforce 2 GTS 32mb from the For Sale/Trade forums. Decoy and Untamo sell those all the time. Untamo has medical problems right now but I think Decoy is till selling. You could also get a 32mb DDR Radeon from Best Buy (actual physical store) for about $190 but it comes with a $50 rebate that prints out at the register at Best Buy. There is also a 20% off Best Buy coupon out there that is a promo from tribes2.com which would bring a Radeon 32mb DDR to about $120 or less

 

[BCYL]

Tweakin:

Does your Matrox G400 Single Head has built-in DVD decoding?

Thanks for all that replied!

 

[Enigma]

Grab an ATI Rage128 32 meg vid card for around $75. Both 2-D and 3-D are great for normal use.

 

[Howard]

Radeon 32MB SDR has onboard DVD decoding, I believe. Also outperforms the Geforce 2 MX slightly in most benchmarks.

 

[vvvvvv]

get a voodoo 4 4500 pci

 

[Tweakin]

I have no idea.....not something I've ever thought about. I'll have to find out.