MidRange Card

[guruguhan]

Hello,

I need to get a video card for a new computer I'm building. I'm not an avid gamer, but when I do want to enjoy a new game, I don't want to be dissappointed. I do do a lot of 2D work in Photoshop, I would like something that is good for it. At first, I was thinkng about an ATI 9000Pro, but I fear it may not be good enough for games. I was then thinking about a Geforce 4 Ti-4200...the price is just a little high (but i might end up getting it anyways). What else should I consider? A Radeon 9700 is too expensive for me right now, and I don't know if I need that kind of power in my graphics card (as I said, I dn't play that many games).

At the same time, I'd like to get a PCI TVtuner with PVR so I can record and watch some TV. Any recommendations on that?

My mobo is an Asus a7n8x deluxe, with an amd xp 2200+, and 1gb DDR 400.

Thanks in advance! Take care

 

[redface]

you're right 9000Pro is no better than 8500 (actually 8500 is even better!)
What card do you have now?

IMHO, I think with similar price as Ti4200, you might as well get a radeon 9500 or a 9500PRO(both are Directx9 compatible whereas Ti4200 is not Directx9 compatible).

What kind of games do you usually play?
first person 3D shooting games or real time strategy games?
or turn based games?



A fine day!

 

[DCB_AU]

Mid range- GF3 TI200 or 500 if yo don't want to spend the extra on a GF4 TI4200.

<font color=red>DCB</font color=red><font color=white>_</font color=white><font color=blue>AU</font color=blue>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

R8500LE/R9100 is much easier to find than GeForce3

<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86" target="_new"> My Rig</A></b>

 

[guruguhan]

Thanks to all of you,

In response to your q's redface...I can't say for sure what kinds of games I will be playing. The last couple games that caught my interest were Civ III, Warcraft III, and I also like Myth. I don't play many first person shooters, but I was into Quake III Arena a few years back. I doubt I'll have another urge to play many 1st person shooters however.

Does the Radeon 8500 support Direct X 9?

Thanks again!

 

[knowan]

The Radeon 8500, 9000, 9000 pro and 9100 are all Direct X 8 cards. The 9500 and above are Direct X 9.

The GF4 Ti are all DX8 as well. The GF FX is DX9 and the GF4 MX are all DX7

My personal recommendation would be to get the Radeon 9500 pro. If that's too expensive then get a GF4 ti 4200. If that's still too expensive then get a Radeon 8500, 9000 Pro or 9100 (all three perform almost identically, get whichever's cheeper). A GF3 Ti would be about as powerfull as those Radeons, but the GF3 Ti is almost impossible to find.

For direct comparisons check out <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/index.html" target="_new">http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/index.html</A>

--------------
Knowan likes you. Knowan is your friend. Knowan thinks you're great.

 

[redface]

For WarcraftIII you definitely need a Directx8.1 compatible card. CivIII rely more on your cpu power.

Real time stategy/Turn based games rely more on CPU than your graphic card, but I think Radeon8500/9000 should be your bottom line.
GF3 is another good choice but I haven't seen one in the store for quite some time.

A fine day!

 

[phial]

reduce the amount of ram you have to 512, and use the extra money to get a Radeon 9500pro


itll make your system MUCH faster than that extra ram (which your computer will probably never use anyways)

___


and no, redface, you dont need a dx8.1 card to run warcraft3. its a Dx7 game (altho it does use some dx8 rendering to speed things up) and only uses dx7 effects. it ran over 60fps on my duron 1gig/384mram/radeon256 64meg at 1024x768x32 full detail etc

i wonder why people think they can post crap and make it look like they know what they are talking about?

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

If you are mainly doing 2D and WORK related things and will be playing anything BUT first person shooters, stick with the Value cards the 9000 and 9100 give you GREAT 2D pictures, I run a 9000OEM in my 'work' machine, works great for MAYA, PHOTSHOP, PREMIERE and lots of other stuff. 9100 is likely the better choice and is about the same price. The power of a 9500 is nice and if you can afford it, by all means do, it will help in other apps too. IF you are ever doing 3d animation then a better card will help,but for 2D and mainly 2D games really the 9000 will be fine especialy for Warcraft-like games.
You may also want to consider good GOOD (Corsair or OCZ) DDR333(PC2700 or 3000) over DDR400 (pc3200) as the timings wil be more important. But if that is already bought, then so be it.
As for the PCI TV tuner, don't get it if you just want to WATCH or Record-while-youre-there TV on your computer, get a 9000 with VI/VO they are availible from OEM makers and a good solution. If you want PVR functionality, you may want to look at an AllInWonder 9000 (new to North America) or the older AIW8500DV, however both are only 64mb. You could get an AIW8500-128, but that's alot of bread for that, and then a seperate card would be cheaper, for that price you could get a 9500pro plus a tuner card. Will VIVO be enough? 64mb enough?
Sorry for the long post, but to cut it short, Go with 128mb versions of the 9100 or 9000(VIVO?)IMHO. Then go from there, you likely won't use the extra power of a 9500, at least not yet. The $ difference between those class of cards you could sock away and then spend on a next gen card when they are cheaper and you actually play those type of games, like when Warcraft 4 or 5 or whatever really requires it, these will do for now.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <font color=red>RED</font color=red> <font color=green>GREEN</font color=green> :tongue: GA to SK

 

[phial]

agree with going for a 9100. they are a steal..



The original 9500pro fanboi~~~
suck it baby

 

[cleeve]

Well... your midrange choices are:

Radeon 9000 PRO
Radeon 8500/9100
Geforce4 Ti 4200
Radeon 9500

All of these cards are at least DirectX 8 compatible. The Radeon 9500 is DirectX 9 compatible.

The radeon 9000 PRO is definitely a decent card, it certainly won't be disappointing unless you're trying to run things above 1024*768 resolution. It's major drawback is it's lackluster performance at high resolutions, and it's poor antialiassing performance.

The Radeon 8500/9100 is very close in performance to the 9000 PRO, the difference being it's usually a little cheaper... and a little better. It has 2 texture units per pipeline instead of 1 like the 9000 PRO. WHat this means is, in multitexturiung games, the 8500/9100 usually fares better. The 8500/9100 is a better choice than the 9000 PRO, in my opinion. But it still suffers from poor antialiassing performance.

The Geforce4 Ti 4200... this is a nice card. It performs a tad batter than the Radeon 8500 in normal situations, but it's strength lies in antialiassing and overclocking. If you're into using antialiassing, it'll perform far faster than a Radeon 8500/9100 in every situation. Add to this the inherent overclockability of these cards, and you have a winner in the segment... well, sort of...

The Radeon 9500 is a great card in this price range that's generally completely overlooked by the community. This card has a Radeon 9700 GPU that has been crippled at the factory. What this means is that they turned off 4 of it's 8 pixel processing pipes.
While this sounds horrible, you should know that the Radeon 8500/9100, 9000 PRO, and Geforce4 T1 4200 have only 4 Pixel Processing pipes to begin with.
The Radeon 9500 handles antialiassing a little faster than the Geforce4 Ti4200, it overclocks like a champ, AND it's directX 9 compatible... which no other card in this category can claim.

All of these video cards should be in the same price "range" but the Radeon 9000 PRO and 8500/9100 will probably be a little cheaper. The Geforce4 and Radeon 9500 are almost exactly on par, as far as price goes.

Frankly though... if you don't plan to enable antialiassing, and 1024*768 is fine for you... none of these cards will dissapoint you. All will play Unreal Tournament 2003 well, and that's a relatively new and demanding game.

It's future games like the upcoming Doom3 that will separate the men from the boys as far as graphics cards are concerned. If you plan to even try Doom3 on your system, don't consider anything less than the Geforce4Ti or Radeon 9500.

Long story short... if I were you, I'd get the Radeon 9500... and if you can afford the extra $$, get the Radeon 9500 PRO version. The 9500 PRO is a Radeon 9500 with all 8 Pipelines enabled... it is a very fast card for the money.

Hope this helps,

- Cleeve

(EDIT: Ah! I missed the part about a TV tuner and PVR.
If it's important to you, you should look for a Radeon 8500 ALL-IN-WONDER. It has a fantastic tuner built in and tons of great PVR functionality, it also comes with a wireless radio remote. I'd recommend an all-in-wonder 9500 if I could, but they don't make those yet... they make all-in-wonder 9700s, but they are crazy expensive.)