Which card do i get???>.look inside for details..HELP!!!!!!!

[stingrae]

Hi ppl,
OK ,now is finally the time!!!!!!!..My respected,worshipped mighty TNT2 is going to retire after 2 & 1/2 years..my dad has given my limit for nearly 200$ (approx. 400 Singapore $).so,my options are down to either a very high quality GF3Ti200 or a OEM Radeon8500LE..this is to go with my 1.4GHz TBird with 256MBDDR RAM on a ECSK7S5A..
btw,my TNT2 is not as crappy as some might think,in this setup,it runs Max Payne at 1024x768x16 at a perfectly fair framerate!thus,what i mean to say is that if a TNT2 can be so good for me,i can happily live with a GF3(which is 1 step behind the latest & the greatest GF4) for another 2-3years OR Is it better to actually wait and get a GF4 Ti4200 after like 3 months??Is it worth the wait??..
so which do you think is the RIGHT CHOICE?????...please help URGENTLY!!!!..

{all prices are in singapore $}

The contenders are:-

1)Elsa Gladiac 721 Ti200 64MB DDR - 395$
+bundled with Giants full version and 3DMark2001 full version
+great overclockability
+great driver support and rocksolid stability in games,i.e,IT IS AN nVIDIA
-Ti200 chip at 175/200,i.e,slower than a Radeon8500..unless o/c'ed

2)Guillemot Hercules Prophet III Ti200 64MB DDR - 399$
+bundled with awesome nVidia demos and a special Q3A level
+EXTREME overclockability
+Awesome PACKAGING!!!
+great driver support and rocksolid stability in games,i.e,IT IS AN nVIDIA
-Ti200 chip at 175/200,i.e,slower than a Radeon8500..unless o/c'ed

3)ATi Radeon 8500LE 64MB DDR - 405$
+clocked at 250/250,i.e,faster than any non o/c'ed GF3Ti200 out there
+I get Truform,tho' i don't know what good that does
+the best 2D & image quality around
-bundled with JACKSHIT..coz it is OEM..in other words I get nothing to show off
-shitty drivers and not totally 100% stable in all games,i.e,IT IS AN ATi

 

[esc]

hey man, i got an ati and it's not as bad as you think it is. i play games for hours with no crash. my card has oem speeds, it's a powermagic ati radeon 8500. it runs very smoothly in games. and the 2d...way better than your tnt2 card or any gf3. sure, there might be driver problems, but ati is working on that, and they've fixed quite a few bugs but i don't recommend downloading the latest, just get the 2nd to the latest. don't get an elsa. if u choose gf3ti200, go with hercules.

 

[Blayze]

I would go with the ATi Radeon 8500LE 64MB DDR - 405$, or if you can wait awhile Im sure the GF4 will make the GF3 prices come down some.

Might save you some $$$...

 

[Mitzi]

I'm in the same situation, my Matrox G400 MAX just doesn't cut it anymore. Personally, I'm going to wait for a couple of months and get the GeForce4 Ti4200 when it eventually comes out, after all I've had this card for nearly 3 years so a couple of months more wait wont hurt.

 

[Mavrick007]

If you think that your TNT2 is giving you fairly decent framerates now, then my advise would be to wait for about 2 months and either get a GF4 Ti4200 or get any other GF3 or Radeon then cause the prices will be coming down then on the older cards and the new generation will be available.

Now if you were having problems and just couldn't wait to get a new card for your machine, I would tell you to go with a GF3 TI200 like Hercules or Gainward, but you seem to think the fps are good with your current card so it's your call anyway.

Just my $0.02 worth

 

[stingrae]

OK,
so ur saying the Hercules is better than the Elsa...WHY???????
Isn't Elsa supposed to have better 2d quality???

 

[stingrae]

^^^BUMP^^^