Upgrade question.....

[Valdin]

Hey everybody. It's been a long time since I've posted here. Good to be back. So here's my question:

I've been thinking about upgrading my video card but am not sure how much of an improvement some of the newer cards are. I know the TNT2 isn't exactly new but this is a card I am considering becaue of cash. I currently have a TNT. Is there much difference between a TNT and a TNT2 Ultra? Enough to upgrade? The TNT has done me well but with Quake 3 and such things look pretty darn good but at certain points I get a video slowdown. (ie, blood splatter :]) Any advice on what to upgrade too? I'd like to see what I can find for $150 or so online.

My specs:
ASUS P2B-L m/b
PII 450MHz
128Mb RAM (soon to be 256)
SB Live!
CL TNT
ASUS 50X CD
Plextor 8/4/32 CDRW
21" Viewsonic Monitor

Thanks for any help.

[Dave_B]

You can pick up a VisionTek GeForce SDR for about $150. Here's a link to some graphs that show you'll get a considerable boost from a Geforce SDR over a TNT2 or TNT2 Ultra. It's from a review of a different video card, but is a good comparison of the most common video cards with a PIII 450. That's as close as I could get to a comparison with a PII 450. Here's the link: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1116&p=10

Here's a link where you can get the VisionTek SDR GeForce for $151 plus $10 shipping: http://www.ucdweb.com/

[Rip n Tear]

well cool, a $150.00 is a good amount to work with. Yeah, you'll see a huge performance increase with a TNT2 Ultra. Now you can get a Voodoo3 3500 for about that much, maybe a few bucks more, but it'll be faster as far as performance and you'll get alot of features that the TNT2U won't have.
So that's another route.
I assume since you're a TNT user you'd prefere a TNT2Ultra, reason is that you obviously like image quality. But with Quake 3 you'll get killer perfomance with your CPU and a Vooodoo3 3500.
Now also consider this, since the new cards are being released (Voodoo4-6, GeForce2) than the other cards will be dropping in price. You could totally benefit with a GeFroce DDR. That money for the 256 megs of RAM I'd throw into the DDR Board, 128 is plenty for now, you won't see much difference with the extra 128 if you're only gaming. Now if you're using photoshop or autocad than you'll need the more RAM.
You ahve alot of possibilities, but I'd save up a little more money (about $75.00) and get a GeForce card, you'll be impressed.

[Valdin]

That's an interesting thought on the GeForce. I had considered that but haven't seen the prices drop like people say they will. I mean, even the TNT2 Ultras are still higher than I would have expected them to be. One question I've had about the Geforce (both SDR and DDR) is, will the rest of my system specs be able to take advantage of what the GeForce has to offer? I know about the GeForce power, but do I have a system capable of making the $ worth it? (ie, PII 450MHz CPU and 2X AGP)

Also, I have been thinking about upgrading to a PIII 600, but I cannot find out if my m/b will support it. (Posted about it on the m/b forum.) Plus, even if I can get the PIII 600, I'm quite sure my m/b would not allow for o/c'ing it to 800. :[

Finally, I'm pretty sure about getting the RAM. I do sometimes use Photoshop but not a lot (right now). Plus, RAM is so cheap right now. :]

Oh yeah, I'm also a bit of a CL/Diamond/TNT dude. No real reason. These things just seemed to be at the top when I last built my PC. I'm a little sckeptical about other card brands. Any comments on this VisionTek brand?

Thanks for the input!

[Dave_B]

Basically all the GeForce cards are pretty much identical - they're mostly all based on the nVidia reference design. Some have higher quality filters which can give better 2D at high resolutions. The differ also in the heatsink/fan setup, but you could always change that. Plus, you can always use nVidia drivers, so there's no problem there. And, if you looked at the performance on a PIII 450 (not much faster than yours), it was much better than any TNT2 or Voodoo card.

Hope you read my post on your motherboard question. The link I gave was specifically related to running Photoshop on a P2B with any Katmai PIII over 450 MHz.

[Avatar]

VisionTek cards are almost always pure reference designs. They are cheap because they are OEM model cards (No Software budle.) Quality wise, I have been very happy with the 3 I have (M64, GeForce SDR, and GF2)

You can check out some benches are www.evil3d.net to see if you like htere performance.


[This message has been edited by Avatar (edited 05-29-2000).]

[woger]

I have 4 computers at home each with a different type of Video card.

1: erazor III pro: nice card on my bx mobo overclocking the p3 chip does not seem to bother this card at all. I use nvidia reference drivers.

2: voodoo 3000: again nice card solid gaming performance but only 16bit colour and 16mb memory - beginning to feel dated.

3: ViperII: savage 2000 chipset, excellent performance,vivid graphics, I really love this card. Cost me £103 ( about $140-150 )

4: Creative labs annihilator pro: excellent performance but still too expensive, not much better than the ViperII if you have a fast processor.

[jforth]

Uh i'd double check the asus website and make sure your motherboard is compatible with the geforce,something about voltage.