Video Card again

  • Thread starter Thread starter Little Farm
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Little Farm

I would like to upgrade my video card
1Ghz CPU, MB with 4X AGP
(my old card is Matrox G450 16mb RAM)

Any suggestion?
which chips?
64Mb RAM or 128Mb RAM?
and is DX9 support important?
 
Your question is very broad. Tell us what kind of performance you
expect, what kind of games do you intend to play, what kind of money are
you willing to put down on the table?

First of all, you 'only' have a 1Ghz processor, so this will be a
limiting factor - in this respect, there may be little reason to get a
top-notch videocard if the processor is the part that is holding the
game performance back.

You could have a look at the nVidia GF4 Ti4200, or ATi Radeon 9500.

DX9 is only important for new games (read, those that are going to be
released 'soon' and then onwards).

As for the memory - it again depends on the game(s). For some games, the
more the merrier. For games out now, 128MB should do.

Personally, I'm waiting for the release/benchmarks of the ATi Radeon
9600 XT 128MB (DX9), which'll sell for US$ 199 and be bundled with
Half-life2. The card is due to be released later this month.
 
Thanks.
My current videocard is has only 16Mb RAM, that's why I'm looking for a card
to survive the current games. And yes, since my processor is 1Ghz "only" and
AGP 4X, I'm not going to push too far. I am actually comparing GF4 5200 (DX9
support) with ATI 9200 (DDR 256bit interface)
5200 Ultra seems to have a big difference in price.
 
Thanks.
My current videocard is has only 16Mb RAM, that's why I'm looking for a card
to survive the current games. And yes, since my processor is 1Ghz "only" and
AGP 4X, I'm not going to push too far. I am actually comparing GF4 5200 (DX9
support) with ATI 9200 (DDR 256bit interface)
5200 Ultra seems to have a big difference in price.
Click to expand...

Although an Nvidia user for years I doubt I will upgrade with them
again as some of their newer cards are just getting too big physically
for my liking.
I'd go with an ATI 9600 Sapphire if possible :)



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thanks, 9600 is a good choice but it's off my budget for my old old
motherboard :P
Click to expand...

I think FX5200 is a fair lowbudget choice right now. Most seem to
agree it's better than ATI 9200. It's the more expensive 'ultra' and
the new 275/400MHz version getting the good reviews though. I don't
really know anything more about this than you do. (I've read the
reviews :)). But for enjoying DX8.1 games, which would seem reasonable
to expect from a 1GHz system, my take is that a GF4 Ti would do
better.

You might be able to pick up some GF4 Ti 4??0 real cheap now too. They
don't support DX9 pixel&vertex shaders, but in all other respects
these cards (GF4 Ti) rocks bigtime. Crisp, stable, monsterfast.
This family was a big technical success. I have three of these
darlings in different computers. A new Ti4200 should be avalaible as
low as $85.

(My estimate is that ATI's 9600/9600pro/9600XT will be the true market
heir to the GF4 Ti family, but nVidia have a FX5600 replacement (akin
5800/5900) around the corner. FX5700?)

The MX cards are cheap and lightningfast 2D cards. But with only basic
3D competence. I think even a 1GHz PC deserves better 3D for games.
Don't consider GF4 'MX'. Performance is not different from your G450,
apart from memory.
The performance gap to the 'Ti' cards is huge, when lightsources,
reflections and shadows are involved! Dont let the 'GF4' label fool
you. Only real GF4 cards are the 'Ti'. The 'MX' seem to belong to GF2
family chipsets. They don't have any transformation engines, and they
don't support pixelshaders (not even DX8), so there's some nice
effects you won't ever see as well.


ancra
 
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