Which video card for my next upgrade..... help/opinions please!!!
Okay, as you can see from my sig, I'm running an older Abit mobo currently, but that will change later....
I'm looking to upgrade from my Prophet2 MX video card to a newer/faster/better card and thought I would post here to ask the experts! I will also be looking into a new 19" monitor as well so I'm looking for opinions on a new video card/monitor upgrade. Common uses for my machine are:
Light Gaming - 30%
Medium Graphics work - 50%
Other mundane uses - 20%
Give me some ideas, but keep the price reasonable. I don't want or need a GeForce3 Ti500 and a LaCie monitor. I've been looking at the GeForce3 Ti200 and a ViewSonic 19" PerfectFlat. But the Radeon looks good to.
Turbo Gamer 21" Black Aluminum Case w/ 350watt Enermax Power Supply. AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 1.83GHz @ 2.09GHz 1.65v (167*12.5) ATi Radeon 8500LE 128MB DDR Gigabyte GA-7VAXP KT400 w/sound+LAN+Firewire+RAID 2 x Samsung DDR SDRAM 256MB PC2700 Seagate Barracuda IV 80GB 7200rpm ATA-100 LiteOn Black CDWriter 42x24x42 LiteOn Black DVD-rom 16x Panasonic Black 1.44MB 3.5" Windows XP Professional Creative Inspire 5200 5.1 Black Speakers 80mm LED Case Fans x 5
Well the Viewsonic G90f and the Matrox G450 work great for me .I'm thinking of getting a Radeon8500DV soon ,for the TV tuner and better gaming,but my current specs provide awesome image quality.
I'd get a Radeon 7500 if I was you. Looks like you want to balance excellent image quality with decent graphics performance and that card has both. It'll also provide you with DVI/multiple monitor support should you ever need them. You could pick one up for under $150. For about $200 there's the 8500LE which I'd say lies between the Ti200 and Ti500 in 3D performance (although can be o/c'ed very easily). Helluva card!
For absolute 2D quality I'd still say go Matrox. Recently had the pleasure of a non-partial G450/8500/GF3 comparison on three identical monitors. ATI and Matrox looked close with Matrox just edging it. At higher resolutions the pair distanced themsleves from the nVidia card in terms of quality. I didn't think it would be noticeable at all, but it was. Not sure whether it was just the particular brand of GF3 they were using or not.
Expenses are not to exceed $350-$375 if possible. I'm thinking of around $200 for monitor and $150-$175 for video card. But that 8500LE sounds real nice!
There could well be price drops all round within the next couple of months, as Nvidia are supposed announcing the GF4 in Feb.
Athlon XP 3200+, TT Silent Boost (its rubbish as well as loud) Gigabyte nForce2 mobo (stable but lacks tweaking options), GF4 Ti4200 128mb, Lian-Li V2000
As MF knows - I just got the ATI 8500LE for $200.00. I love it and as MF says it outperforms the GF3 Ti 200. Excellent image quality and DVD playback with the DVI output connectot as well as TV out. Just scored 7945 in 3DMARK2001 with the CPU OC to 1.666 GHZ so you can see it is very good for gaming. Great card.
Current Main Rig:
AMD FX55 @ 2.9 GHz
2 GB PC 3200 DDR RAM
ABIT KN8 SLi motherboard
ATI X1900XT O/C to XTX speeds
Forgive my ignorance but whats the difference between the 8500 and the 8500LE?
Athlon XP 3200+, TT Silent Boost (its rubbish as well as loud) Gigabyte nForce2 mobo (stable but lacks tweaking options), GF4 Ti4200 128mb, Lian-Li V2000
I've been meaning to ask this for awhile. I know the 7000 and 7200 suck @$$ when compared to even the 7500, but why? Is the memory data pathway cut in half from like 256 bit to 128bit (wahtever the actual scores, I mean like cut in half), or is it actually a completely different core? I would like a 7500, but I don't have a lot of money and I would like to know how they all compare and if the 7000 and 7200 can OC well? I already know about the 7500..I would aim for 300/300...
Wow, 7500's are floating around the $90-100 mark on pricewatch.
Ok... the 7500 (RV200) is based on the same core as the original Radeon (Rage6C) execpt it's manufactured on a smaller process (0.15 micron) allowing it to clock much higher (270-360MHz MHz vs. 166-210MHz of the original). It also now has a revamped output stage including better DACs and support for dual DVI/VGA monitors + Composite/S-Video.
The 7200 (Rage6C) is essentially a "64MB SDR" version of the original Radeon (0.18 micron).
The 7000 (RV100) is identical to what used to be the Radeon VE apart from having no dual-display support i.e. great workstation card with 32MB DDR crippled by a narrow memory bus (64-bit) and no T&L meaning piss-poor 3D performance.
The 8500LE (R200) is identical to the 8500 (R200) apart from having a different BIOS and a couple of different resistor values which amount to it being restricted to lower clockspeeds (sometimes the LE's have lower-spec RAM but this is still not universally the case... mine is LE and has 3.6ns Hynix). These problems can be overcome fairly easily (BIOS flash, pencil trick) so you basically end up with a full Retail board.
Ok?
MuFu.
P.S. Glad you are pleased with your 8500LE AMD Guy, there's nothing worse than recommending something and then them having a ****ty time with it!
I just finished upgrading my CPU, RAM and mobo... next is a new PSU, the Enermax 431W EG465P! And after that a new Video Card! I want the Geforce 3 Ti500. But I think I´m going to wait until the Geforce 4 is out, I hope the Geforce 3 cards will drop in price then... In Sweden a good Geforce 3 Ti500 cost just under $400 USD!
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EpoX EP-8KHA+
XP 1700+
Water Cooled
256 Mb Samsung PC-2100
IBM 30 Gb 7200 RPM, ATA100
Asus V-7700 GeForce 2 GTS 32 Mb (220/390) Det. 23.10 DX8.1
Looks like I'm getting the R7500 then. Will I notice any difference between 32mb and 64mb if the most intensive 3D thing I do is DVD out to my TV? My monitor can't handle over 1024x768x32, which pisses the hell out of me for a 17" monitor. My next one will be easily able to support 1600x1200...but thats not for a few years, and by that time, my vid card will probably be obsolete, so I guess the most I'll do is 1024x768x32 on monitor and 640x480x16 on TV.
Also, taking a rough estimate, what speeds would this card have to operate to achieve the performance of a R8500? Just some guesses would be nice!
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