Need PCI Video Card Advice

[Rodion]

I am a very casual PC gamer. The only games I have are BF1942 and GTA3. I've only ever upgraded my video card one time, and that was a GeForce2 MX400 64mb PCI that I bought in order to play GTA3. Well, now Vice City is out, and I'm looking to buy another video card. The thing is, my mobo has onboard video, therefore limiting me to PCI video cards only. I've had many people tell me that I should buy a totally new mobo and then get an AGP card. But I'm really not into PC gaming enough to do that. I don't need a top-of-the-line gaming rig. I just want to get a new PCI video card for my current system that will allow me to play Vice City and maybe a few other games with decent FPS.

Right now, I'm trying to decide between buying a Visiontek Xtasy 9100 128mb DDR PCI card for $120, or a GeForce4 MX440SE 64mb SDR PCI card for $52.00.

Is the Xtasy 9100 really worth over twice as much as the MX440SE? Will it perform over twice as well? Which is the better value? Does anyone have any advice for me?

 

[papasmurf]

I am flabberghasted... the last pci video card I had was a voodoo 3 why the hell wont you just upgrade your main board! Its not expensive! Considering you have no agp port I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you probably have an old slot 1 or slot a system...

Pricewatch.com lists a motherboard and cpu combo with an xp 1800 for 85 dollars. To answer your question tho the ati card does not outperform the geforce4mx enough to justify the price ESPECIALLY considering you can buy the mobo and cpu for 85 dollars and a radeon 8500 for 70 dollars (8500s are MUCH faster than the 9100) for a grand total of 155 dollars you can have a halfway decent system and that is only 50 bucks more than the 9100 you were thinking about buying and it will perform soooooo much better too.

Treat your body like a $600 car. God didn't intend it to last so use it. Run it into the ground!

 

[endyen]

If PAPA was right and you are runnig a system that old then go that route. The increased processor speed will improve your frame rate and will help with everything you do on your computer. If on the other hand you already have a setup that is better than a P4-1.4 gig go with the Radeon. I think maybe he missed that the mx is sdram and the ati is ddr. I went from a gforce 2 to an mx 420 (sdram) and then to a Radeon 9000 pro. Equal steps. The 9100 is abit better than the 9000 pro. Oh no it was the mx card that was Abit the radeon was Ati.

 

[papasmurf]

ahh yes I forgot about that, I had thought the g4mx was ddr... I have a friend who has one and it's a pretty decent card. As always Let your wallet be your guide a little extra performance is not worth living off of celery and peanut butter till your next payday.

Treat your body like a $600 car. God didn't intend it to last so use it. Run it into the ground!

 

[selfbuilt]

Are you sure your mobo doesn't have an AGP slot? (Just because it has onboard video doesn't mean you can't have an AGP slot - and onboard video can be disabled, as you are now doing with your GeF2 MX).

I agree that a mobo and chip upgrade will benefit you a lot more in the long run. However, if you want to stick with a PCI card I would say avoid ANY SD-RAM based cards - you'll take a major hit compared to the DDR cards. A MX440SE with DDR would be acceptable (and only a few dollars more, most likely).

he Radeon 9100 will be faster, but it sounds like you would be paying way too much for it (they are available around here for about two thirds of that price). If you want to save a little (without sacrificing much in the way of performance), go for a 64MB version of the 9100 card. That's probably your best trade off for performance/price.

Good luck with it!


Where does good judgement come from? Experience. Where does experience come from? Bad judgement.

 

[Rodion]

No, my mobo does not have an AGP slot. Trust me, I've checked.

Where is a Visiontek Xtasy 9100 128mb DDR PCI card available for $80 (2/3 of $120)??? I've checked every major pricebot on the Web. Compuplus.com has the best price at $120, including shipping.