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What's the best low end video card?

Y

Ymmy

Banned
i need a very low end card that can handle half life 1 or old games. 9600pro or gf4ti4600 would be way too high. also, any links to reviews would be great. thanks
 
I used to run Half life on a Riva128ZX... it ran really well on my TNT2 Ultra. I don't think you can buy a card today that won't run Half Life really really well. If you want a value card, go with a FX5200 or something. An old Raedon 8500 would be good if you can find one.
 
I have a GeForce 4 MX400 which I could send you way for $25 shipped and it would be more than sufficient to meet your needs. Please get back to me if you are interested.

Have a good one,
Jason Dorfman
 
TI4200 would be a little better in case you ever wanted to play any semi-recent games, but I think they are hard to come by these days.
 
Another vote for the GF4MX. I got a great deal on a Mad Dog 440SE last Christmas that I put in a family member's PC. $30 AR for a 64MB card that had VGA, DVI and S-Video outs and a nice shiny gold VGA fan plus RAM sinks. If you keep an eye on the sale ads you might be able to score a good deal on one, since just about every retailer still carries them.
 
Used geforce3 or a voodoo3 which gives you bonus glide support (at the expense of 24-bit color).

I'm puttiing together a W98SE "old games" box and have a voodoo3 and aureal soundcard set aside to put with a P3. My Monster Sound MX300 had better DOS Soundblaster emulation than any "real" SB Live or Audigy I've used since then.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Used geforce3 or a voodoo3 which gives you bonus glide support (at the expense of 24-bit color).

I'm puttiing together a W98SE "old games" box and have a voodoo3 and aureal soundcard set aside to put with a P3. My Monster Sound MX300 had better DOS Soundblaster emulation than any "real" SB Live or Audigy I've used since then.
Click to expand...

Sweet! I was planning on doing the same thing, after getting a hand-me-down Abit BX6 mobo that had gone slightly flaky. I had a Vortex2 soundcard too somewhere, and I know a friend that has an unused Voodoo3. Sadly, the mobo went completely south, and my soundcard seems to have disappeared. 🙁 So unless I can find some replacements for those, I think that I'm going to have to nix the project, or at least put it on indefinate hold. I still have 3 x 256MB PC133 and a Celeron Coppermine 1Ghz CPU though.

I definately concur though, that the Aureal Vortex2's DOS SB emulation was far better and more bullet-proof than even a real Creative Labs PCI SBlive card. Kind of amazing, if you think about it. Plus, playing UT on a Voodoo3 (Glide) + Vortex2 (A3D 2.0) card.. pure gaming goodness!

It's too bad that the V3 is so unsupported nowadays, plus it only runs in AGP 1x/2x slots, not newer 4x/8x slots. I miss my 3Dfx cards.

Edit: To answer the OP's question - I would suggest an S3 Virge DX/GX (amazingly, UT plays in 3D hardware mode at 800x600 on one of these things), ATI RagePro (Rage128 was faster, but had more driver issues), or better (best) yet, an NVidia TNT1/TNT2 card (or a GeForce 1/2). That last option would probably be the best, as NV still supports even the TNT1 cards with drivers. If the mobo is a little more modern (AGP 2x/4x slot), then I would suggest a GF2 MX (DX7), GF4 MX (DX8), or a Radeon 7500 (DX7) / 9000 (DX8.1) / 9200 (DX8.1). A straight-up GeForce 2/3 card would work too, but beware of the power requirements of those cards on older motherboards, they could overload it.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Used geforce3 or a voodoo3 which gives you bonus glide support (at the expense of 24-bit color).

I'm puttiing together a W98SE "old games" box and have a voodoo3 and aureal soundcard set aside to put with a P3. My Monster Sound MX300 had better DOS Soundblaster emulation than any "real" SB Live or Audigy I've used since then.
Click to expand...

Sweet! I was planning on doing the same thing, after getting a hand-me-down Abit BX6 mobo that had gone slightly flaky. I had a Vortex2 soundcard too somewhere, and I know a friend that has an unused Voodoo3. Sadly, the mobo went completely south, and my soundcard seems to have disappeared. 🙁 So unless I can find some replacements for those, I think that I'm going to have to nix the project, or at least put it on indefinate hold. I still have 3 x 256MB PC133 and a Celeron Coppermine 1Ghz CPU though.

I definately concur though, that the Aureal Vortex2's DOS SB emulation was far better and more bullet-proof than even a real Creative Labs PCI SBlive card. Kind of amazing, if you think about it. Plus, playing UT on a Voodoo3 (Glide) + Vortex2 (A3D 2.0) card.. pure gaming goodness!

It's too bad that the V3 is so unsupported nowadays, plus it only runs in AGP 1x/2x slots, not newer 4x/8x slots. I miss my 3Dfx cards.

Edit: To answer the OP's question - I would suggest an S3 Virge DX/GX (amazingly, UT plays in 3D hardware mode at 800x600 on one of these things), ATI RagePro (Rage128 was faster, but had more driver issues), or better (best) yet, an NVidia TNT1/TNT2 card (or a GeForce 1/2). That last option would probably be the best, as NV still supports even the TNT1 cards with drivers. If the mobo is a little more modern (AGP 2x/4x slot), then I would suggest a GF2 MX (DX7), GF4 MX (DX8), or a Radeon 7500 (DX7) / 9000 (DX8.1) / 9200 (DX8.1). A straight-up GeForce 2/3 card would work too, but beware of the power requirements of those cards on older motherboards, they could overload it.
Click to expand...

this is gonna be on an nforce2 mobo with xp 2800 cpu. this is simply for work, school, and the occasional/rare gaming.
 
You could go with a NForce2 mainboard with integrated video, if that is fine with you. If not, as was already told, something with Radeon (not VE though) or GeForce would be fine, I even used a TNT 2 M64 and it was good enough.
The integrated video on nForce2 is similar with GeForce 4 MX, but you would be restricted to lower resolutions if using it. and if you upgrade, you can't sell or reuse the "old" video card

Calin
 
Originally posted by: Calin
You could go with a NForce2 mainboard with integrated video, if that is fine with you. If not, as was already told, something with Radeon (not VE though) or GeForce would be fine, I even used a TNT 2 M64 and it was good enough.
The integrated video on nForce2 is similar with GeForce 4 MX, but you would be restricted to lower resolutions if using it. and if you upgrade, you can't sell or reuse the "old" video card

Calin
Click to expand...

which nforce2 mobo in specfic? i'm looking for an atx mobo so i can upgrade later. i looked on pricewatch and did a search for "nforce igp" and only saw micro atx and a few atx.
 
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