Which card to buy?

[Apreche]

I'm buying a new computer very soon, but I've been out of the tech loop since I built my last pc (a pentium 3 450!). As a result I have absolutely no clue which video card to purchase. I know that I'm going to be getting a board with the nforce2 chipset, but not the one with the integrated video card. I'm pretty much set on a GeForce of some variety, as I would feel kind of weird with an ati card in an nvidia board. I also need to have VGA and DVI and some sort of TV out (s-video or rca). The 3d graphics quality just has to be good enough to play doom 3 and half-life 2 at decent framerates and quality. There are so many different chips and board makers I just need to know which specific board to buy. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

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"I EAT YOUR BRAIN"
-Mindflayer

CTHULHU for President in 2004!

 

[GeneticWeapon]

The 3d graphics quality just has to be good enough to play doom 3 and half-life 2 at decent framerates and quality.

Is that all?...lol
You are going to need a pretty high end card to be happy playing those games. You sound like you might be willing to spend some money, look into the GeForceFX 5900 Ultra.
It cost's around $500 dollars, but it's Nvidia's flagship.
The best bang for the buck would be something from ATi.
It will work fine in your Nforce mobo, and is the favorite of most people here.
I would get a 256mb Radeon 9800Pro if I wanted the best, the 128mb version(I know Willamette) is about as good performance wise.
I would go on, but I'm falling asleep in bed with my laptop, last time I did that, I kicked it off the bed while sleeping


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[cleeve]

Half life 2 and Doom3?

Well, neither of those games are released yet, but my guess is the lowest end card that will play those games is the 9700 non-pro

Next best is the 9700 PRO, up from there would be the 9800 PRO.

Any of those 3 should be fine, the more expensive ones will perform better of course, but all should be playable.

And don't forget, those games will require a speedy CPU & Motherboard setup as well!

 

[Willamette_sucks]

Gen, gen, gen. 256mb ram will be worth having on the R420.
Not now.
You saw the tests with the 99% release version of Doom3. No improvement.

Like Ive said before, Carmack pisses me off. Doom 3 uses stencil shadows, which favor the 5900 alot (dunno how the rest of the family handles them).
I havn't read too much about the HL2 engine (just saw the video and seen some screens etc.)
What method of shadowing does it use?
ATI did premier the title, but that in no way guarantees that it will run best on ATI hardware, cause ATI also premiered Doom 3
Im hoping the 9800 does better in HL2. Im also hoping ATI gets some kick ass drivers out that boost Doom 3 performance.
And im ALSO hoping that all of nVidias driver team DIES!

"Every Day is the Right Day." -Pink Floyd

 

[coolsquirtle]

if it favours FX5900 alot i guess 5600Ultra would benefit from it too and Willamette_Sucks if u want to be a ATi fanboy do it right.....u shouldn't hope the the nVidia driver team dies u should hope the nVidia Driver team joins ATi!!

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