Cheap Pc 3d Card Advice

[Memnoch]

This is in the off topic section so please don't flame me for not being relevant to GP32.

I need to update my creaky old GeForce 2 32Mb so I can play Star Wars Galaxies. I'm on a budget of about £50 - £60. The three types of card that keep cropping up in that price range are the GeForce TI 128Mb, the GeForce FX5200 128Mb and the Radeon 9200SE 128Mb. Which card type should I go for?

 

[unlucky]

Radeon 9600 xt is what i'm using seems pretty great for the price

 

[Memnoch]

I think they're out of my price range.

I'll check when I get home. Cheers for the suggestion either way.

 

[Steve-O]

well at teh Lan party I was at last night, there computers are fitted with GeForce FX5200 Cards and they ran the Games Perfectly (For Example the UT2004 Demo, Halo, Battle field was sometimes a little jumpy...)

Im looking out for the Geforce 4 Ti 4200 128MB or the Ti 4800 (I think its called isnt it??????)

 

[Memnoch]

The GeForce 4 TI I was looking at was a 4200 (I forgot to specify that). So it seems from the advice here it's between the GeForce 4 4200 TI 128Mb and the GeForce FX5200 128Mb. The Radeon 9600 is a bit more expensive. Nobody has commented on the Radeon 9200SE - are they that bad?

 

[Mofokubik]

I have a radeon9200se pci, it's a HUGE improvement from my voodoo3, it can handle halflife2 around 30fps with all effects on. It's decent, but I would go for the geforce4 ti.

 

[skysnapper]

Wouldn't nother with a Raderon 9200 or geforce fx 5200 really under powered cards and not worth the money

If your buget can stertch to it i would personally go for a Mediamax 128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9600 PRO TV-Out DVI-I Retail Box at ebuyer.com for £68 a very good chipset and not a bad performer and supports direct x 9.0. I would really reccomend spending an extra £8 if you can. However avoid the 9600SE!!!! similar performace to 9200.

Otherwise get a geforce TI 4400 or ti 4600 more horse power than both the above card.(theses are direct x 8.0 cards)
But lthough the Radeon 9200 and geforce 5200 support dirext x 9.0 most games don't use it at the moment. By the time it is fully implemented the above cards will be two slow to run them decently anyaway with all the effects on.


anyway heres link to a comparison of all the current chipsets out at the moment.

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/200312...-charts-11.html

Hope that helps you out

 

[Dozer]

While on this kind of topic, if someone were to make a *complete* half decent budget pc, what components would u guys reccomend?

 

[skysnapper]

Whats your budget?

 

[Memnoch]

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll look into my finances and see if I can afford the Radeon 9600. Failing that I'll go for the GeForce 4 4200 TI. Star Wars Galaxies beware ... a noob in the making here. :lol:

 

[Dozer]

Whats your budget?

say £500? maybe a bit less. the cheaper the better really!

 

[skysnapper]

Asus A7V8X-X SKT A KT400 8x AGP DDR Sound/lAN/USB 2.0/Serial ATA supports up to 3400+ £55

Antec TruePowver 430 12V AC 430W ATX £60

Chieftech Case £45

Crucial 512 DDR400 PC3200 CL=3 Memory Module £55

Lite ON 52x32x52x CD Rewriter £25

AMD ATHLON XP2500+ 333MHZ FSB 512 L2 Cache Barton CPU - OEM £65

Coolermaster Aero7 Lite Fan Upto Xp3200 Skt A with Speed Adjustment £12

Seagate ST3120022A 120Gb 7200rpm UDMA100 9.4ms 2mb Cache - OEM £62

Hightech ATI Radeon 9600XT 256MB AGP x8 Classic Retail Box £121

total £460 thats including VAT


That'd be a pretty decent performing system using quality parts, if your lucky enough to get a Amd 2500+ unlocked you can quite easily run it as a 3200+

Thats without monitor mind you .....

although you can get a decent 17 inch for 80 quid this days so could re-spec it iuf need be to take that in account

 

[skysnapper]

Memnoch : i got the price wrong The prices shown were excluding VAT which pushes it up nearer to 80 quid sorry

Best bet wuld be a geforce 4

 

[Dozer]

Cool, thanks . i have half of those parts already (well, not the same but decent ones) so maybe i can reuse a lot of stuff. the processor and gfx look like gud choices tho! thanks .

 

[skysnapper]

OPh yeah just remembered an absolute baragin to have if you've got most of the other parts Komplett.co.uk are doing a Radeon 9800Pro for 135quid...its a steal

radeon 9800 pro is the king of gfx card market and normally retial around 200quid!

But the offer is only till Sunday i think as its a one week one off..

tempted to buy one myslef but got a rad3eon 9700 which is still doing me fine, play all the games at 1024x768 with all eye candy and AA on so can't reallt justify it

 

[Daz_Genetic]

If you get the 9600 make sure you are getting a PRO version. They are MUCH faster than the non-PRO.

I got the Tyan Tachyon 9600PRO and I am very happy with its performance considering its price.

 

[Steve-O]

The Geforce 4 Ti 4200 128mb will be powerfull enough to Run DOOM 3 wont it????????

 

[skysnapper]

Might be able to if i remember correctly the doom engine is pretty scalable. So you may be able to play at something like 640x480 with ALL effects off.

Mind you its coming out for the xbox whihc is the equivalent of a low spec pc so wouldn't see why not.

 

[unlucky]

i've had this stupid hl2 voucher that came with my 9600xt 2 long now i seem 2 dbout i'll ever get 2 use it