FX 5200, Ti 4200, ATI 9000, or ATI 9200?

[Tirian]

I've seen similiar questions asked, and I apologize, but I couldn't find the info I'm looking for specifically. I have three PCs that all currently have GeForce2 MX400 64MB video cards, and am looking for a low-cost upgrade. (My roommates and I primarily play EverQuest, but also some UT, Jedi Knight 2, and other games, and want to boost our framerate for them, as well as future games.)

Currently we have four choices available to our budget ($100-130):

nVidia FX 5200
NVidia Ti 4200
Radeon 9000
Radeon 9200

I've read that the Ti 4200 outpreforms the FX 5200, and I know that the 9200 beats the 9000, but I wasn't sure if it's worth the extra. Currently the 5200 and the 9000 are around $100 retail (so less online of course) and the 4200 and 9200 are about $30 more.

My two main questions are, which card is better in both price ranges, and once that is answered, would it be worth the money to spend a bit more and get the best card of the four? I realize that these are all low-end cards by today's standards, and will have to upgrade again much sooner than if I got an ATI 9700, but budget doesn't allow for more. Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[jclw]

I'd say ATI 9100 or nVidia 4200.


*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[cleeve]

All of these are decent cards in their price range, but the Geforce4 Ti4200 is a good head & shoulders above the FX5200, Radeon 8500, 9000, 9100, and 9200.

 

[Nights_L]

I agree with what people said
Ti4200 is the one, or Radeon9100 if you could find one

 

[Unit01]

first ti4200
then 9100
then 9000
then 5200

 

[confoundicator]

One more vote for the Ti4200. A note about it, too. If you are looking at the AGP 4x version then the 64MB card is actually <i>faster</i> than the 128MB card due to better quality and faster clocked memory (combined with the fact that no games yet use textures bigger than 64MB). If you are looking at the AGP 8x version then this is not true and the 128MB version is better. So they rank:
1.) Ti4200 AGP 8x 128MB
2.) Ti4200 AGP 4x 64MB
3.) Ti4200 AGP 4x 128MB
Since #2 cheaper than #3, obviously #3 is to be avoided. Best of luck!


<font color=blue>-Toast always lands buttered-side down and cats always land on their feet. So what happens if you strap a piece of toast on the back of a cat and drop it?</font color=blue>

 

[Ozzit]

What is best: Geforce 4 ti 4800SE or Geforce 4 ti 4200

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Buy GeForce4 Ti4200

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[Spitfire_x86]

Ti4800SE is better than Ti4200.

Ti4800SE is Ti4400 + AGP 8X

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[phial]

but at what cost?

1/3rd more price for 10 percent more performance?

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[Spitfire_x86]

I've heard that 64 MB Ti4200's are priced as low as $80.

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