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Videocard-upgrade - need help/experience/input

Frank Martin

Frank Martin

Bitten by the luthiery bug...
Oct 8, 2001
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Budapest, Hungary, EU
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#1
Hi guys!

Thought I'd ask you as there have been some PC and hardware related links nowadays and some of you guys seem to know a lot more than me - and thought maybe you could help me out with some info.

I now have an nVidia GeForce 4 MX 440... need I say more? ;) :hmm: :(
With AGP 8x and 64 Mb...
Some games either dont run (need Pixel-shader of Vertex-shader) or they just crash after some time and i get that blue screen...
The rest of the setup is still at least half-way decent (Athlon 2,4 GHz, 512Mb RAM), now this videocard seems to be the bottleneck.

Before some of you say GeForce 6800 Ultra or Radeon X800 XT, I will say that I need to do this on the cheap. My parents have just bought a new car and I've just ordered a Schroeder 1210 - so I think you get the picture ;)

So what I need is something decent that can run DirectX9 and is not really expensive (better put: they are cheap).

My thoughts so far:
- Radeon 9600 Pro 128 Mb
- Radeon 9600 128 or 256 Mb (costs almost the same)
- nVidia FX 5700

I're read some tests on the net, but what I really need is some hands-on info.
The Radeon seems to be better, but I've read that they are a bit more problematic to install; whats your experience with them?

Thanks
 
#3
MJ5150 said:
<---------Radeon guy. I have never liked the vid cards from nVidia.

You don't need the Pro either.

-Mike
Click to expand...

I dont need the Pro? Ok, if you say so ;)
However, in the tests the Pro performed much better than the normal ones (and also better than the nVidias... so that's why I'm thinking of doing this change)

Anyone who changed from nVidia to ATI on the same PC had any problems with it? Or will they (videocard and Asus A7V8X motherboard - IIRC) work well together?
 
#5
Ívar Þórólfsson said:
Check out the price of the Radeon 9800 cards now....

Those are really good cards and give the most bang for the buck. I bought one a couple of months ago and I´m very happy with it.

Check it out...
Click to expand...

I checked it out, but cant (and dont even want to) spend so much now. The games I play are not that graphics-card intensive.

Besides, even these cards would be quite a jump from the GF4 MX 440 with only 2 pipelines and 200/400 MHz (IIRC)
 
#6
Of those three I'd go with the 9600 pro. Check out the deals at www.newegg.com if you haven't already.

It just depends though what kind of stuff you play and whatnot. In gaming benchmarks sometimes the 5700 does better (I'm assuming we're not talking about 5700 ultra) and sometimes the 9600 pro does better. On games that use version 2.0 of pixel and vertex shaders the Nvidia cards suffer. The 9600 pro whips 5700 a$$ on the leaked half life 2 beta, Far Cry and some of the other games with advanced graphics.

brad cook
 
#7
DigMe said:
Of those three I'd go with the 9600 pro.
Click to expand...

Thats what I'm leaning towards the most.

As for the games I play, most are real-time strategy and sometimes some simulations.
For example these are the games I've played or tried to play recently:
Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps
D-Day and Panzers Phase 1 (with next card hopefully...)
Diablo II
Richard Burns Rally (needs pixel- and vertex-shaders)
WWII Sniper (ocassionally crashes)
Pacific Fighters.

So, as you see, not many FPS, rather RTS and RPG, with some sims.
 
#10
I'd also rec. the ATI 9600 I know alot of peeps have had issues with ATI, but I havnt and Ive had several of their cards.

I wouldnt be so worried about needing to upgrade that soon after this purchase as the 64 bit processors will be out soon; ( which will likely be designed for 512 MB vid cards and better.) so everyone will be upgrading.......again.
 
#11
{OE} said:
I wouldnt be so worried about needing to upgrade that soon after this purchase as the 64 bit processors will be out soon; ( which will likely be designed for 512 MB vid cards and better.) so everyone will be upgrading.......again.
Click to expand...

Newsflash: 64 bit processors have been out for a while now.

brad cook
 
#12
{OE} said:
I'd also rec. the ATI 9600 I know alot of peeps have had issues with ATI, but I havnt and Ive had several of their cards.

I wouldnt be so worried about needing to upgrade that soon after this purchase as the 64 bit processors will be out soon; ( which will likely be designed for 512 MB vid cards and better.) so everyone will be upgrading.......again.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we all know what GAS stands for - and its not just for bassists ;)
 

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