Gond December 10, 2002 Share Gond Member December 10, 2002 Ok, I think I've decided that buying a new video card is my first step to building my new puter...since I can use that in my current one. So, what is the best video card to get considering it will be used in a P3 600 right now and eventually a p4 3.9. I'd like to keep this under $400. It's probably between the GeForce 4 Ti4600 and the ATI 9700 Pro...opinions...suggestions? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest catalystgs December 10, 2002 Share Guest catalystgs Guests December 10, 2002 I believe the 9700 Pro is the fastest thing on the market now - and the most expensive as well. If you want a better card based on hardware, go for the 9700. If you want better driver support, go with the GeForce. You can find indepth reports at http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973...3,485681,00.asp - they helped me choose out my new video card and it really helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest reverand December 10, 2002 Share Guest reverand Guests December 10, 2002 if your planning on spending some money.. dont always count out the very "not" top notch cards... geforce 4 ti4400 is 200 bucks... sweet card.. very fast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Hurricane December 10, 2002 Share Guest The Hurricane Guests December 10, 2002 TI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 There is no comparison between the GF4 cards and the newest ATI cards. If you have the money to spend, which you said was about 400 bucks, you can pick up a Radeon 9700 easy. The drivers for it are top notch now. The performance of the Radeon 9700 is 2-3 times faster than the GF4 ti4600. And that is no joke. Even the radeon 9500 pro is faster than the gf4 ti4600 in most tests, and blows it away with AA and AF turned on. Do not waste your money on the GF4 cards. Best thing to do? Wait until the new Geforce FX comes out in a couple of months, or at least wait until January to see how it performs by 3rd party websites such as www.anandtech.com or www.tomshardware.com Not only that, but when the card is released, all other cards like the 9700 will drop in price. may be worth the wait. ZD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 if your planning on spending some money.. dont always count out the very "not" top notch cards... geforce 4 ti4400 is 200 bucks... sweet card.. very fast yes, and the new Radeon 9500 pro is 200 bucks or less and the tI4400 can not touch it in performance or image quality. once again, do not waste your money on a gf4 card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrX December 10, 2002 Share mrX GC Alumni December 10, 2002 I had an ATI card a couple of years ago and had numerous problems with it from driver issues to the hardware simply failing. That coulda change by now, but I've avoided them a long time. Plus in testing, if I remember correctly, ATI rarely can keep up with Nvidia. But that is supposed to be changing with the 9700. But the price...... I've gone with Nvidia based chips for a while now, and have been very happy with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 I had an ATI card a couple of years ago and had numerous problems with it from driver issues to the hardware simply failing. That coulda change by now, but I've avoided them a long time. Plus in testing, if I remember correctly, ATI rarely can keep up with Nvidia. But that is supposed to be changing with the 9700. But the price...... I've gone with Nvidia based chips for a while now, and have been very happy with them. Drivers are no longer an issue with ATI. they release on average a new driver set once a month. twice the last 2 weeks now. Times have changed with the ATI cards. and right now, ATI is the leader in performance and I see that being the case for a little while now. When Geforce FX comes out in February (or so), ATI has R350 around the same time with R400 due out in the summer. Nvidia will be playing catch up for a while I think. Competition is really good for us. Great cards for cheap prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gOOters December 10, 2002 Share gOOters Member December 10, 2002 I had a sweet ATI card about 2 years ago. I sold it for a GeForceII because my ATi didn't support openGL for CS. And CS is pretty much the only thing I use my video card for. I guess ATI has solved this compatability issue with the half life engine??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 I had a sweet ATI card about 2 years ago. I sold it for a GeForceII because my ATi didn't support openGL for CS. And CS is pretty much the only thing I use my video card for. I guess ATI has solved this compatability issue with the half life engine??? Ok, let me explain. My ati card is a Radeon 8500 LE. I have AF on at 8x. NO fuzzy on the ground or walls or anything, no fps hit at all. I have AA at 4x, i lose 10 fps so I am a steady 90fps instead of 100 fps. The AA and AF on the 8500 card is crap compared to the new 9700 and 9500pro cards. CS looks actually quite nice, especially with a good skin pack in use. Let me say this, i wouldn't touch a GF4 card right now for anything. Image Quality is as important if not more so than performance. The radeon cards rule both of these benefits right now. and if price is an issue, you cant beat the 9500 pro. DO NOT TOUCH THE 9500 regular. man, what a pos. but the 9500 PRO is the sweetest deal right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FatGuyInALittleCoat December 10, 2002 Share FatGuyInALittleCoat Member December 10, 2002 The 9700 Pro graphics look better than the GF4s. Its easily the better card. But there’s a huge difference in price. If you got a GF4ti4400 you could probably upgrade your processor with the xtra cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 The 9700 Pro graphics look better than the GF4s. Its easily the better card. But there’s a huge difference in price. If you got a GF4ti4400 you could probably upgrade your processor with the xtra cash. I am very insistant on this. buying a ti 4400 when you can buy a 9500 pro for the same price or less (going for 178 dollars on new egg) when it performs as good as the ti4600 or better would be a stupid thing to do. look at some reviews of the 9500 pro on tomshardware.com or anandtech.com and see for yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 and someone PLEASE JOIN THE DLM server. I have been sitting in there alone for 30 minutes and i want to play. Just got it on Italy. (thanks fat) come on people. ATI and Nvidia users UNITE IN DLM server!! POWER TO THE CS PLAYERS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Premier December 10, 2002 Share DJ Premier Member December 10, 2002 The TI-4600 is generally faster when used with "generic" features. The ATI 9500 Pro really shines when using AA and Anisotopic filtering. But usually, ya need to have a decent CPU to use them. But, the TI-4600 is around $250 while the ATI hovers under $200. If anything, I'd wait until Nvidia releases their next chipset. At that point, the ATI 9500 Pro will be $99. Some ppl want to have the best video card out there. I say, get the "better" of whats out there. I really dont see a need to spend more than 150 on a graphics card. I can buy one every 2 years and STILL play every single game that's out there. There is no human that can tell the difference between 1000000fps and 70fps. $400 on a vid card seems excessive. You can get a new 80GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM for the money you save. Or maybe a new 19" monitor. Or maybe a CPU upgrade so all your other programs run faster. I dunno. That's just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playaa December 10, 2002 Share Playaa Member December 10, 2002 I'm with DJ on this one....I still have a Geforce2 TI 64mb card and have NEVER found a game it won't run and run well....when the new games like Doom3 and such come out I will get another middle value card that will run them for under $100 (got this one for $68) and be fine for another year to 2 years.... the biggest thing you must think about is if you buy the top of the line video card and run it on a system with a 600mhz processor....you're not going to get HALF of the preformance you're supposed to....so either card is going to probably run as good as a Geforce2 for ya.... so buy a Radeon 9500 PRO (pro is important) and get a new processor at the same time...if your mobo won't support a bigger processor....well I'd get a Geforce2 or 3 TI at easily under $100 and get a new mobo.... my 2.34452 cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Hurricane December 10, 2002 Share Guest The Hurricane Guests December 10, 2002 There is no human that can tell the difference between 1000000fps and 70fps. Maybe not visually...but i can tell that my aim is SO much smoother with 99 fps than 70. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 Gond, dj is right. The best bet would be to pick up a 9500 pro which you an get on newegg for 178 dollars. Then use the other 220 dollars, get a mobo that supports ddr and get an athlon xp chip like the 1700 ( i use it) and run any game out there just fine. Here is what i found you can get for 400 dollars plus or minus a few. Gigabyte GA-7VAX, VIA KT400 chipset 8X AGP ATX motherboard $89 + $4 shipping (supports DDR400 and has the best onboard sound. no need for sound card, that'll save yeah 100 or so dollars easy) ATI OEM RADEON 9500 PRO 128MB DDR DVI $178 + free shipping (Saphire model, OEM) Samsung Original DDR333 PC-2700 256MB CAS2.5 - OEM Version $70 + $5 shipping DDR 333MHz True PC 2700 chip (Not over clock from PC-2100 chip) New release for Best Performance-Lifetime warranty AMD Athlon XP 1700+/266 FSB Thorougbred Processor CPU 1700+/ 1.47GHz -Retail, AXDA1700BOX 3 Years Warranty with heatsink and cooling fan $65 + free shipping This is not considering a good case and powersupply but i am assuming your mouse and keyboard and monitor are fine. a case with good cooling and a power supply can be found for around 70 dollars or so. i found all of this on www.newegg.com Your total price here => $411 dollars. I know you are probably going with a P4. Think about waiting on the hammer. Or the XP 2800 with 333fsb. and the nforce-2 mobo. on your current system, you wouldn't get the full features of a 9500pro or a gf4 ti 4600. good luck in whatever your choice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gond December 10, 2002 Author Share Gond Member December 10, 2002 Good points...right now I'm using an ATI All-In-Wonder 128...not a bad card but... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 Good points...right now I'm using an ATI All-In-Wonder 128...not a bad card but... if you do get a new card and want to sell that old all-in-wonder, let me know. I am looking for a secondary card like that one for my PC-Tivo system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 10, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 10, 2002 And if you want a good case, here is one: Chieftec Server tower DX-01SLD Dragon Silver Entry Level Server Case w/side panel fan/ 2 x 80mm sleeve cooling fan. No Power Supply Model#: DX-01SLD $49 dollars + 15 shipping (this link is under it as a bonus: Save $5 when you buy this item with AMD Athlon XP 1600+/266 FSB 256K Processor ) and this one: Save $5 when you buy this item with Allied Power Supply ATX400P4 and this item is: Allied 400W Power Supply ATX400P4 w/ Two Fans ***AMD APPROVED good to 2100+ *** UL, CSA, FCC Approved $30 so in total you are talking about the $411 on the other post then another $94 dollars. you are getting a whole new system that will last you well over 2 years for 505 bucks. That is a little more than a high end 9700 pro or what the new geforce fx will cost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBugs December 10, 2002 Share TheBugs Member December 10, 2002 im running on 3 years with my voodoo 3 , Gond wanna hand over some cash? please.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Premier December 10, 2002 Share DJ Premier Member December 10, 2002 I like this case... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gond December 11, 2002 Author Share Gond Member December 11, 2002 Ok...got the 9500 but now CS won't run right in OpenGL...dang...DirectX stinks:) It appears to chop the screen and then fill in the right and bottom so all the text is messed. Got the latest drivers for the card but need to get the newest 4in1 drivers to see if that helps. I'm going to get the new mobo and chip next year so this has to last for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Playaa December 11, 2002 Share Playaa Member December 11, 2002 OpenGL doeesn't work with a Radeon 9500? something sounds wrong there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZDamage December 11, 2002 Share Guest ZDamage Guests December 11, 2002 Ok...got the 9500 but now CS won't run right in OpenGL...dang...DirectX stinks:) It appears to chop the screen and then fill in the right and bottom so all the text is messed. Got the latest drivers for the card but need to get the newest 4in1 drivers to see if that helps. I'm going to get the new mobo and chip next year so this has to last for now. If opengl doesn't run, check in the technical help forums on www.rage3d.com you can get the tweaker there too. But there is no reason for opengl not to work. sounds like there may be an issue there. try uninstalling all drivers and starting again from fresh. Do not forget that with the Radeon cards, you need to d/l the CONTROL PANEL seperately. and typically when you install a brand new video card, a fresh install of windows and etc is required or you need one hell of a good registry cleaning, or the old stuff can cause problems and yes, keep all of your drivers up to speed as in via. the newest via's just came out today or yesterday I think. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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