Which of these cards would you go for?

[Newbie77]

Which of these cards do you think I should buy?

Elsa Gladiac GeForce2 GTS Pro 32mb 5ns memory $128
Leadtek Winfast GeForce2 Pro 64mb 5.5ns memory $167
Inno3d Geforce2 GTS 64mb 6ns memory $131

Assuming that I have to choose between these 3.. which one should I take?

 

[Shmorq]

I don't run games higher than 1024x768 so I would take the Elsa since the faster RAM should give me better performance over the extra 32MB. Of course, this is all assuming that you'll be overclocking your card.

 

[PotNoodle]

The Elsa would seem the best bet to me (if you're not too fussed about FSAA resolutions)

 

[Newbie77]

Erm.. what's FSAA resolutions?

 

[jobberd]

benkywalker's faq on FSAA

should be more then enough information

 

[PotNoodle]

"Erm.. what's FSAA resolutions?"

heheh, You're probably not then - Go with the Elsa!

 

[jobberd]

just because he doesn't know about it doesn't mean he won't like it if he tries. But personally i would go for the Elsa as well

 

[Newbie77]

Okay guys.. I went ahead to buy the Elsa.. I had the card installed and it's now running.. The first thing I notice is that the screen seems bright and blurry, so much so that it hurts after looking at the screen for awhile.. I never had this problem with my GeForce2 MX200..

Is this the effect of FSAA resolutions? I know close to nuts about graphics cards so any help would be much appreciated.. Anyway I can solve this problem?

 

[PotNoodle]

"Is this the effect of FSAA resolutions?"

No - its sounds like a brightness / gamma issue to me. Have a look at the drivers and see if you can adjust it through them, or play around with the brightness on the monitor.

 

[Newbie77]

Thanks.. Think I will play around with it tomorrow.. My eyes are kinda tired now.. :frown:

By the way, I tried going to www.elsa.com to download the latest drivers for my card but I can't seem to find any drivers for my GTS Pro.. Or is it Pro? It says 3 different things on the box.. The box itself says GTS and on the box, there is a sticker with the title of Gladiac GTS Pro.. and under the title, it says "powered by GeForce2 Pro".. really confusing.. Anyhow, I guess the 5ns memory is all that matters Probably try overclocking it later once I get the heatsinks for the memory..

 

[PotNoodle]

Really the only thing different between a GeForce2 GTS and a GeForce2 Pro is the speed of the RAM - seeing as you have the fastest RAM of the lot (that you pointed out) its pretty safe to say you have a Pro (although, technically I believe NVIDIA specified Pro's to have 64MB of RAM).

NVIDIA's drivers are 'Unified', in other words they contain the drivers for the whole line of NVIDIA based boards. Looking at the list of options on the Elsa site the 'Gladiac GeForce2 GTS' drivers should do you fine. NVIDIA also provides reference drivers which can be downloaded from the NVIDIA site.

 

[Newbie77]

Hey Potnoodle.. Thanks a lot.. You have been of great help.. I will check out the Nvidia reference drivers tomorrow.. Umm.. one final question.. I was going thru some of the older threads and somebody mentioned that the 12.20 driver is the last driver that allows overclocking.. As I am thinking of doing some overclocking later, any advice on what driver I should get? I know it's annoying to be bombarded with questions.. Please be kind..

 

[PotNoodle]

? Hey Potnoodle.. Thanks a lot..?

Not a problem.

? I was going thru some of the older threads and somebody mentioned that the 12.20 driver is the last driver that allows overclocking.. As I am thinking of doing some overclocking later, any advice on what driver I should get??

Sorry ? its been a while since I last had an NVIDIA card installed, so I?m a little rusty on what the best official or leaked drivers are best to use ? some of the NVIDIA owners may be able to help you out a little better than I can though.

Usually the latest leaked driver runs OK, but if you want to make sure things are OK then the official driver are best (www.nvnews.net had links to some Microsoft Certified WHQL NVIDIA drivers, version 12.90). If the drivers themselves don?t allow overclocking there are apps that are freely available that will do it instead ? I think Powerstrip is a good one to go for, and a simple search on the web should yield some results.

Enjoy!

 

[david849]

You can grab the MSI Starforce GEFORCE2 PRO with 5ns memory for $150ish. I just grabbed on last week and put it in a couple of days ago! WOW!!!

just my thoughts...I go back under my rock!
Dave