Help Tassadar get a Video Card

[OneFootInTheGrave]

heh just to post this

probably easier to check what you have is to open the case and see it for yourself... here is a pic.

Hope it helps...

AGP is the brown slot in the middle and PCI slots are all white ones.

Your mobo is very likely to look something like this.

[Dis]

That's the worst P I have ever seen

[Joseph]

I had a G-force 2 w/32 meg that came with my computer and never had any trouble with it.
Last Friday I had a Ge Force 4 Ti 4200 w/AGP8X 128 meg installed.
Also installed another 256 meg of RAM. Both item together cost $317.00 out the door.
The video card was $196.00
My computer was build by DSI.

[Urban Ranger]

What you can to is to get a bad arse graphics card now, and upgrade your mobo and/or CPU a bit later. A lot of people upgrade their computers bit by bit.

[Sarxis]

Yeah- kinda like a continual upgrading.

Gf4 Ti4200 all the way But, which company? Asus would probably be my choice.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by Dissident
That's the worst P I have ever seen

Ok.

8 minutes to find the pic edit it and make the post

[SpencerH]

Since its kinda on topic I'll ask a similar question. I'm planning my next PC which will probably use a XP 2100 (or so) and a Gigabyte MB. Of course there are thousands of video cards so the choice becomes tougher. Just like the CPU I'm looking for a middle of the road card rather than the top of the line (to avoid paying the premium for the latest stuff). I'm looking at the Radeon 9500, and the GF4 TI 4200.

From what I've seen on Anantech it looks like the 4200 is slightly faster bit the 9500 is compatible with DX9 so will have a longer life span.

Any advice?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Hey Spence... do not buy Radeon 9500, but Radeon 9500 Pro.

The 9500 Pro is DX9 compatible and faster than GF4 ti 4600.

Ok it is a bit more expensive than GF4Ti4200, but quite a bit faster.
Just be careful to buy Radeon 9500 Pro as the "only" 9500 is a lot slower.

[SpencerH]

Thanks for the advice.

[pg]

messy!

personally i'd wait until spring when the the nv30 and next ati card are coming out. or just get a cheap used gf3 then upgrade when doom3 comes out. you really don't need a gf4/ati 9700 class card unless you want to play ut2k3 at 1600*1200 w/ full details and antialiasing. the reason i'm reluctant to recommend the new ati because while it's in theory directx9 compatible dx9 will likely be like directx8 and change as time goes by. plus just because it's dx9 compatible does not mean it will be able to run dx9 games at good preformance. there are not any dx9 games out on the market yet so no one knows these things yet. which is really why i recommend going with a cheap upgrade of a gf3(read: a stopgap measure) or waiting it out.

you also might want to check other options. a cpu upgrade(along with perhaps mobo/ram)coupled with a gf2 would probably get you superior preformance in low resolutions and 2d games than just upgrading to a high gfx card. lower resolutions, and 2d games are usually cpu limited not gfx card limited. this might actually be cheaper depending on certain things. upgrading is a complex business.

i think you should give us more info - what do you want to do w/ your pc? do you have to have high framerates to play games? i'm relatively picky and i still have a 750mhz/gf1 ddr and get good preformance in almost eveything except for ut2k3(which runs at 35fps). are you just going to be playing strategy games like civ3? rendering 3d art? just browsing apolyton? more info please!

[SpencerH]

The implication of your comments is that no one should buy any recent video cards unless they're playing the latest games. I agree that all of these cards are overkill for my current games and graphics. However, I prefer to buy 2nd tier hardware so that it lasts a little longer than a PC that meets my current needs. Given that I need to build a new PC from scratch, and that the 2nd tier cards are all priced around $100 (give or take), I prefer to buy the best of those.

With that in mind, I dont need high frame rates so I'm not interested in a card like the 9700. The 128MB 9500 pro looks like a card that will last me a while but the price tag ($180) is a little high. If they come out with a 64MB version I'll probably go for that since I dont need the VRAM. If not I'll wait for the price to drop or go with the Ti4200.