which card to use?

[CHIEFJKH]

with so many cards out there, and without a lot of tech knowledge, i decided to do some online searching. results of persistance got me to this website. i'm impressed with everybody's willingness to help each other and all the diffrent topics.
i have a athlon xp 1.4 processor, 384 mem pc2100(should i be using something else?), the motherboard at this moment i'm unsure on, didn't see any info in the sytem info. this comp came with S3pro savge drr 32mb.
after reading all the posts, seems no one likes the ti4200? when reading the recent test pages,ect, it SEEMED that card did fairly well. having used nvidia before, was partial to but not sure now.
i don't feel like spending $300-$400 on a card( wife would shoot me) but would like a fairly decent one. would preferably spend around $150-$175. what would be the best card in this range? recent game i bought won't let me play it without an upgrade to a better agp card, like to spend my money once and have it last for awhile(again, the wife thing). any info would be appreciated

 

[10GHZ]

if you want Ti4200 level performance, then get the ATI Radeon PRO 128mb. it beats the ti4200. they cost about the same here in australia.
or alternativly, you can buy a Radeon 9500 128mb (non-pro, and must be 128mb, preferably sapphire) which cost abit less, and install driver hack to unlock it to a Radeon 9700. which is faster then a GF4 ti4600!!!

 

[LtBlue14]

radeon 9500 pro
at least that's how much it costs where i am ($175 USD)

<A HREF="http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=120&dPage=1" target="_new">WinXP tweak guide</A>
<A HREF="http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=145&dPage=1" target="_new">WinXP tweak guide 2</A>

 

[CHIEFJKH]

i assume the ati pro refering to would be the 9500?

 

[CHIEFJKH]

thx for the info and the tweaks

 

[umheint0]

From what I've heard, it isn't a driver hack that gives the performance boost. There are the same boosts for nVidia chipsets as well. To really get the extra performance, you have to remove the heatsink and to the top-right of the GPU are a few transistors. One of them needs to be removed and transferred over one slot. Then you will unlock the extra two pipelines and give fairly close to 9700 performance. But that's only if you are steadier than a neurosurgeon and don't mind not getting any warranty support if your card goes fubar when you screw it up.

XP 2500+ Barton
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
ATI 9700 Pro
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Get a Radeon 9500 Pro BBA

Submit your opinion <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=28537#28537" target="_new"> Should Tom Fire Omid? </A>

 

[10GHZ]

that mod is old way of modding a 9500128mb to a 9700. the lesser risky approach is simply install a hacked driver that unlocks the hidden pipelines automatically. and it delievers the same performance boost as the soldering trick.
thoese drivers are every where on the web now. omega even incooperated to his tuned cat3.2 driver. there is also a mod for turning 9700pro to a 9800 pro, also with driver hack.

 

[chuck232]

lol, ya, I got my R9700 hacked to a R9800... Actually does imporve performance a bit. Quite nice, since it's free and all.

I agree, get a R9500 Pro, or if you're the risky type, go for the R9500 non Pro 128MB, but get the L shaped RAM type PCB.

...And all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put my computer back together again...