What 3d card to get?

TychoCelchuuu · July 2002

<div class="IPBDescription">Hehe, i love my birthday</div>another birthday, a new 3d card. my byooget (budget for those who cannot read phonetically) is unlimited. what shall i pick up? Intel P3 ~500MHz 128mb RAM

Trane · July 2002

lol upgrade your processor! lol, well as long as your mother board has an agp 4.0 compliant slot go ahead and pick up the big tamale, Geforce 4. And not MX version, get the real thing. But the thing is, your 500 mgz isnt going to do much more with a geforce 4 then it would with a good old geforce 2..... Now maybe your processor could handle a Kyro Chip based board. Basically the chipset only renders what is being seen making it clock up there frame rate wise with the geforce 3. And i dont think you need that much processing power to take advantage of those kind of features. So Geforce 4 would of course be great, but for a whole lot less money you'd probably get the same thing with a kyro based baord (herculies prophet is the best). If your upgrading your processor anytime soon though, geforce all the way. Hope this helped.

edit - Well i just went and did some reading real quick and the geforce 4 now includes the same feature i was talking about with the kryo. Nvidia calls it Lossless Z compression. BTW, you could always get the latest ATI Radeon card, but their drivers suck. I have plenty of horror stories about ATI drivers. <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':('>

TychoCelchuuu · July 2002

ok, what i got from that is that i should get a hercules prophet. right, do i need a special chip based board or something, or can i just stick it in?

DOOManiac · July 2002

you could get a 2ghz cpu and mobo for the price of a gf4.. if you have a video card better than a TNT2, then that is a LOT better investment. really its silly to put a gf4 in a 500mhz machine, as it'll only get about the same performance as a gf1 (maybe 2) or so. the limitation will be the processor and RAM amount (get 512, i recommend <a href="http://www.crucial.com" target="_blank">Crucial</a> ram, they're good) will be your limiting factor...

Silver_Fox · July 2002

yes, I agree ..

Go for the mobo/processor/memory upgrade.

Besides, if you really do have an unlimited budget, go for <a href="http://www.alienware.com/main/main.asp?" target="_blank">Alienware</a> ...

Sono · July 2002

Yup, go for mem, cpu, mobo and then if your budget is still there, go for a new graphiccard.

Sono · July 2002

Wow just browsed the Alienware HP a bit. Took the Area 51 System and modified it a bit.
End price: 4000+ $ <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'>

TychoCelchuuu · July 2002

i kno, alienware really goes crazy with its computers and stuff. the new ones are always $2500-$3000. a bit much for something that'll be "crappy" in a year or so.

DruBo · July 2002

back on topic though...

My suggestion for a graphics card would be <a href="http://www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=1774" target="_blank">this one</a> if you've got cash fairly oozing out of your ears, <a href="http://www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=1320" target="_blank">this one</a> if you've got a budget but still want worthwile stuff that'll last you, and <a href="http://www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=1397" target="_blank">this one</a> if you want to spend even less than that but still want something good.

cards to stay away from: Geforce4 mx, any non-ti or non-gts geforce2, and anything older that that.

On the other hand, if you want to upgrade your system like these guys have suggested, email me with your current configuration and I'll tell you what you should get.

Legionnaired · July 2002

order all your parts from <a href="http://www.newegg.com," target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com,</a> whatever you do!

It's cheap, and it ALWAYS gets there in one piece.

My latest package from them was wrapped in so much bubble wrap, not even tiny could #### with it.

EDIT:

Oh, and if you want my advice:
Shutle AK31 Motherboard, Athlon 1800+ retail processor (make sure to scrape the thermal compound off and put arctic silver on there) and a GF4 4200/4400

It'll set you back about 400 from newegg, but my god, the framerates you'll achieve <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

Jack-0 · July 2002

what the hell no ati freaks... nivida has got all your brains washed (they use industrial cleaners tooo), tsk tsk. I say go for cpu/mobo/mem upgrade first then worry about the vid card, but hey im st00pid

Tzarcon · July 2002

geforce 2 is old? We got a new geforce2 not long ago, as a rather large upgrade! Tell me I'm not far behind

Ramses · July 2002

Well, I bought me a new GeForce 2 GTS 64DDR this March and I was impressed... I can play most games at 1024x768 Truecolor and no problems... Well, MaxPayne needed some downscaling but run smooth at 16bit color now. I've a Athlon with 1200Mhz and 128MB SDRAM.

Legionnaired · July 2002

GF2's are good cards, it's just that with the wave of GF3's and GF4's, they have fallen behind teh curve.

They'll still be good for anything you wanna play, for, probably, 6 months to a year. However if you have to push the envelope, a clocked out GF3 or a GF4 does wonders <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

BTW, i have a GF3 Ti200, overclocked to excede the performance of a stock GF3 Ti 500, as well as all the GF4 MX cards.

DOOManiac · July 2002

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (Tzarcon @ July 25 2002,17:38)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">geforce 2 is old? We got a new geforce2 not long ago, as a rather large upgrade! Tell me I'm not far behind</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
the geforce 2 is a 2 year old card. so yeah, its old. :) that doesn't mean its not powerfull, as it runs everything out today just fine. But yeah, its still old :)

(a good comparrison is that a 1ghz cpu is old too, but likewise, very capable of running anything out there today)

oh and jacko, nvidia has in no way brainwashed me. I've hated ATI since before there even was such thing as a 3D card. :)

Legionnaired · July 2002

Did you know that when the Raedon 8500's were coming out, ATI <i>purposefully</i> said they optomized their drivers for "Quaek III"

Thats right, not Quake, "Quaek", or something like it.

Bottom line for ATI, Great hardware, crappy drivers.

Now, with nVidia, you can even do clock speed adjustments through windows.

Overclockage=Fun

TychoCelchuuu · July 2002

ok, the 3d card i get is payed for as a birthday gift, but i have to pay for ram out of me own pocket. any suggestions? and nVidia has brainwashed ME; besides, i never really liked ATI anywayz.

Legionnaired · July 2002

If you have a DDR Board, get yerself some Crucial 256 DDR RAM

Now, for the card <img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

If you feel comfortable getting your parents to buy you a GF4, then, as I've been saying, ahhh hell, get newegg catalog # N82E16814145013

If you want to take the price down a bit, get a GF3 Ti200, do the coolbits regestry hack, and overclock it.

TychoCelchuuu · July 2002

Sorry, this is where my computer knowledge breaks down. Will I still need a better mobo if I buy some of this crucial RAM?

Jack-0 · July 2002

TychoCelchuuu:

in order to have highend ram (ddr/ rambus RAM)your mobo must be able to support it. you can't buy pc 266 ram and try to jam it in to a 133 ram slot on your board won't fit and it makes funny sparks with a great smell of burnin.
(Trust me i tried !!! arrrg get in me belly!!! j/k)

wow doom you had it out for them hey? o well just wanted o throw the other big company into the mix that's all. I am sure all your personal experinces with hardware have given you the conclusions you write today. Don't get me wrong the gforce cards are nice, same with ati. I never had large issues with ati cards and have been monkey'in with systems since 486's. I respect your opinions, but i suggest you give the other guys a chance to show you that they can produce kick poopy bum cards

(ramblin is complete) whew...

O if you really want a high end video card go get yourself an oxygen , hella pricey but DAMN they are sooo fine

Umbrella_Master · July 2002

I have a TNT2, therefore I ordered a GeForce 4 Ti4400 out of my own pocket. But if your budget is unlimited, I would suggest waiting for the Radeon 9000 series, it's looking pretty promising.. Just my 2c

DruBo · July 2002

crucial ram is just a brand name. they make the most reliable stuff. So get whatever fits into your board.

As for the graphics card, I'm still endorsing the Leadtek Winfast Geforce4 Ti4600 as your best bet. You can get that at www.essencompu.com as well as www.newegg.com and it'll set you back about $300. Most people will tell you that all Geforce4 Ti4600s are the same, but i like Leadtek because they include the <a href="http://65.119.30.151/productimage/14-122-135-03.JPG" target="_blank">beastly</a> heatsink/fan combos that'll let you overclock your card when it starts to look a little behind the curve (not that that'll be anytime soon, mind you.)

Legionnaired · July 2002

The 4600 basicly just means that the hardware is rated to a higher clock speed, a 4400 can be bought and clocked up for about 90 bucks less.

oh, and techno:

if you have a gateway, the new ram, chances are, wont work for you. What's your total budget, so I know what we've got to work with.

Jack-0 · July 2002

hp, gateway, compac, and any other big name comp builders stay clear of thier machines, they may be cheap but thier scability sux in the worse way cause they like to intergrate as mush as possible onto the mobo. Whenit's time to upgrade you got to basiclly buy a new machine and your old one is one ethier a anchor, paper weight, or somthing to smack your siblings around with *THWACK*

Custom machines= god's gift to geeks

MonsieurEvil · July 2002

Before you guys continue to conjecture too much more, here's the spot to go to see true benchmarks on performance for the 30 most popular video cards:

<a href="http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020418/vgacharts-01.html" target="_blank">Aquanox DirectX Bench</a>

<a href="http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020418/vgacharts-02.html" target="_blank">Max Payne DirectX Bench</a>

<a href="http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020418/vgacharts-03.html" target="_blank">Quake 3 OpenGL Bench</a>

<a href="http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020418/vgacharts-04.html" target="_blank">Jedi Knight 2 OpenGL Bench</a>

<a href="http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020418/vgacharts-05.html" target="_blank">3D Mark Bench</a>

(all of these taken from
<a href="http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020418/index.html" target="_blank">Tom's Hardware Video Benchmarks Guide</a>)

Then you can take this, compare prices, and get a good idea of what gives you the best bang for the buck.

Jack-0 · July 2002

thanks for the bench marks monse

man the gf4 eats everyone else for dinner
i think pretty much after 40 fps you can't really tell the diffrence so getting the gf4 you won't need to buy a video card for some time... i hope

SmokeMasta · July 2002

i got the same sys as TychoCelchuuu
and i upgraded my old ATI rage 128 today
to a GF4 TI 4400 (275/554mhz)

What 3d card to get?

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