Which is better? Nvidia TNT, Nvidia Vanta TNT2 or ATI Rage 128

[vec]

Which video card will work best for browsing the web, office apps, playing some older 3d games and watching DVDs. This will be on a PII 350 w/128 M of ram. May upgrade the cpu to a 566@850.

The TNT is the original TNT (STB branded) w/16 Megs
The Vanta TNT2 has 16 Megs
The ATI Rage 128 has 16 megs as well.

Thanks,

 

[Migroo]

The order of release

TNT
ATi Rage 128
TNT 2

I'm not sure about the performance of the 'Vanta' however, so I'd go with the Rage 128.

 

[vec]

I think that vanta was a crippled tnt2. I think you're right, the rage 128 is the way to go. Probably handles dvd playback better.

Thanks,

 

[Migroo]

Oh yeah I remember now

Like the TNT M64?

Yeah I'd think that the R128 would be a better all round card.

 

[Workin']

Rage 128 is by far the best choice if you plan on watching DVD's. It's also slightly better than the others for 3D games. Any of them would be more than good enough for office apps and web browsing.

 

[Sunner]

Did ATi ever fix the drivers for the Rage128?

Those drivers were truely horrible for quite a while, as long as I had with them to do anyway.

 

[Theslowone]

Ati rage by far, I personally would stay as far away as i could from the vanta. The stb tnt wasn't bad but its not nearly as good as the 128.

 

[vec]

Thanks for the advice guys - I like it when there's a consensus. ATI Rage 128 it is.

 

[Workin']

<< Did ATi ever fix the drivers for the Rage128? >>

Yeah, they finally pulled it together there at the end. Mine worked great in Win 9x, Me, and 2000. Haven't tried it under XP. It's installed in a "classic" BH6/Celeron 300A @450 rig with 384MB of RAM. Half-Life plays OK at 1024x768 and like butter at 800x600. DVD playback is flawless.

 

[Migroo]

Yeah Rage 128 drivers are not bad now.

They used to be quite bad when I first got a 128 (when they were first released) - I was playing 'Kingpin' at the time.

After having Quake 3 for a few months, the drivers were fixed.

I was still using my Rage 128 in my main gaming machine until early February 2002!

 

[tcsenter]

Goto the support section of ATI's website and look at the current known issues for the Rage128. Rage128 is a rather mature driver now and should have very few issues.

I recommend the Rage128 too for your all-around graphics card. Its 3D image quality equals if not slightly exceeds TNT2 but it isn't quite as fast (maybe 10% slower fps). This is not a big deal for anyone but the avid gamer and benchmark cowboys. 2D is great (though not top notch) and the Video/DVD is what you would expect of ATI.

If you look around, I've seen the Rage128 Pro (aka Expert 2000 Pro) 32MB AGP (2x/4x) cards going for $25 - $30 and that is probably the best card you're going to get for $30.

 

[Migroo]

Yup, I'd agree with that

My Rage 128 is now at work running my 19" monitor.. lovely 2D

 

[vec]

Wow guys great info. I'll make sure to grab the newest drivers. This card is going in a system for my mom-inlaw. She does the web browsing and office apps. I play quake2/3 & unreal when I visit. Sounds like a good fit for her I think she'll also enjoy watching movies.

I am able to get any one of the 3 cards but was not sure which one is the best fit.

Thanks again for the help and information,

 

[Migroo]

The Rage 128 is not bad at Quake 2 and 3, so you should be well sorted there

Oh yeah the latest drivers are a good thing - we have said they are good - but they are such a major improvement over the ones on the driver CD that came with the card.

Gee I like talking about old hardware, I'm starting to feel old now...

 

[vec]

I know what you mean about getting old and being attached to old hardware favorites. That's how I feel about the Tnt and my voodoo 3000 which I still use in another system.

 

[Migroo]

Yeah

I kept my first PC (P166 MMX, 32 mb, 2.1 GB, Matrox Mistique) and now I use it as a firewall with SmoothWall

 

[BFG10K]

The Rage 128 is the best card from that lineup and AFAIK ATi's drivers for that board are now pretty good for Windows 9x/ME.

 

[Byte]

rage 128 is one peice of crap, with Winxp it chokes in 2d, you can't even run XP on a rage. I even did an update on xp and downloaded the new drivers. What a joke.

 

[Migroo]

My Rage 128 + Windows XP is fine...

 

[nRollo]

None of these are stellar choices in this day/age. Can't you come up with$50 and make the choice GF2/GF2MX/Radeon 32DDR? For that matter, I bet you could get some of these cards for less than that on the for sale board.

 

[vec]

I don't want to invest any money on a machine that will be used 95% of the time for web browsing and office apps. I already have the tnt. I can get one of the other two cards in a trade.

 

[stang95]

Unfortunately we have quite a few machines at work here running vantas. Which driver do you guys feel is the most stable? The 1x drivers or the 2x drivers?