Want a new video card...Need advice

[RainDowg]

My current system:
ECS K7S5A
amd xp 1600
2x Crucial 256mbm pc 133
Radeon 7200

Perhaps I should make other upgrades first, but I really want a new video card. Looking to spend up to about 200 dollars. I'm thinking that the radeon 9500 pro would be the way to go....so, here are my questions:
Can I even use the 9500 with my current mobo? Am I limited by my system? Would it be worth it? Or, should I even get one now or wait until the new nvidia comes out? I've just recently gotten into gaming and love it. But I want a card that kicks some tail. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Soulkeeper]

if yur gonna wait for the NV30 you could be waiting several months
it's really up to you
i would just get a GF4 ti4200 or a radeon 9500 pro
any card over GF3 performance would leave yur cpu as the bottleneck in that system
yeah i would just get the cheapest price/performance deal you can find

good luck

 

[ScrewFace]

Grab the RADEON 9500 PRO (not the regular RADEON 9500). It's performance is far superior to the GeForce4-Ti4600 when Anisotropic Filtering AND Anti-aliasing are enabled because of it's 8-pixel pipeline and superior memory controllers. It's also fully DirectX9 compliant.

 

[AnAndAustin]

I'd say Rad8500 unless you plan to upgrade or o/c the XP1600+, then get a GF4TI4200 or Rad9500PRO. The 7200 will be easily maxed out so most of your CPU will be wasted, they'll be a VERY nice gain going to a more modern card

 

[pelikan]

I have an 1800+ on an Asus A7V266-E. First I had a gforce 2 mx-200. It worked fine until UT2003. Then I got a ti-500. With the ti-500 I had to use medium settings on UT2003 - it ran pretty good but not complettely smooth. Today I bought a 9500 Pro. Now I have all the settings on UT2003 as high as they go and it runs very smooth. I am impressed. So I'd say get the video card first.
Upgrade fever hasn't gone away yet though, so I'm getting an nforce2 board and a 2400+. That should round out my system nicely and get me ready for Doom 3!

 

[Soulkeeper]

pelikan, let us know how that upgrade goes

yeah my uncle's comp has a radeon 8500 (128mb) and an xp1700+ (a7v333 kt333)
i would say the cpu is the bottleneck in UT2003
when you add bots that AI just kills cpu cycles

 

[RainDowg]

Thank you all for your feed back. It is greatly appreciated, as I have been saturating my brain with review after review of many video cards trying to decide what to get. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go with the 9500 pro. But I have another question. I'm not too familiar with the with AGP speeds. What I mean is my mobo only supports up to 4x and the 9500pro (or whatever other crads) can be used at 8x. What kind of difference does this make?
If I was buying this card myself I would definitely get the 8500, but it's a christmas gift so I have greater spending room. Hehe. I feel like I can upgrade the other stuff later, and that I should go ahead and get something higher end now. However, before you say get the 9700, that's still a little too much $$$. My folks wouldn't be too pleased at dropping 300+ on a video card. Hehe.
Anywho, thanks again for the advice, everybawdy.

 

[CurtCold]

Originally posted by: RainDowg
Thank you all for your feed back. It is greatly appreciated, as I have been saturating my brain with review after review of many video cards trying to decide what to get. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go with the 9500 pro. But I have another question. I'm not too familiar with the with AGP speeds. What I mean is my mobo only supports up to 4x and the 9500pro (or whatever other crads) can be used at 8x. What kind of difference does this make?
If I was buying this card myself I would definitely get the 8500, but it's a christmas gift so I have greater spending room. Hehe. I feel like I can upgrade the other stuff later, and that I should go ahead and get something higher end now. However, before you say get the 9700, that's still a little too much $$$. My folks wouldn't be too pleased at dropping 300+ on a video card. Hehe.
Anywho, thanks again for the advice, everybawdy.

4x to 8x??? You prolly would never notice a difference, as until new games are released they aren't even capable of using 4x right now. 8x is marketing hype.