What low end card performs best?

[Oni]

I'm curious which of the following three cards performs best in some basic games like half life engine, quake 3, ut, etc.
Geforce 2 GTS-V 32MB for $49
Kyro II 64MB for $62
or Radeon 7000 64MB for $47
Oh yea and the video card is for a Pentium 3 450 (maybe upgraded later) and overclocking of the video card is ok. Maybe even some epoxying of better Heat Sinks and Ram Sinks.

Trusting every aspect of our lives to a giant computer was the greatest thing we ever did -Homer<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Oni on 02/04/02 00:39 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[bikeman]

I'd go for the GTS, but who am I ... See the 'stranger' word under my (by the way horrible, IMHO, but I had to invent it very rapidly) nickname?
Why the GTS? It has quite some computational power. The Kyro is quite powerful, but has no Transform and Lightning engine, which is of big importance on a slower system like yours. The Radeon is quite powerful, too, but I don't know what the performance of the 7000 is. The 7500 is more powerful than the GTS, that's for sure, though.

Check out these links:
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1580&p=5" target="_new">... at Anandtech, GPU-intensive benchmarks</A>, but on a powerfull machine, don't forget to look at the higher resolutions,
<A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/consumer/02q1/020124/index.html" target="_new">A benchmark using Aquanox at Tom's Hardware</A> shows how the Radeon 7200 performs (and since 7000 < 7200 I presume it's performance is less, too). There is no GeForce 2 GTS in there, but I assume it is somewere between the Pro and the MX400.
Hmm ... And according to <A HREF="http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products/pc/radeon_7000/" target="_new">this webpage at ATI's site</A>, the Radeon has got not T&L either, so I'd definitely go for the Geforce2 GTS. I think it is also the most in balance with your system.


Conclusion:
Kyro II: very powerful, but no T&L,
Radeon: No T&L
Geforce 2 GTS: Moderate power, but including T&L, which might be interersting on your 450 MHZ PIII.

Good luck!

Bikeman
PS: Not to confuse you any more, but I feel like cheating on you by not telling you that the games you quoted do not use T&L-features ...

 

[phsstpok]

It's a tough one.

The Kyro II needs lots CPU power to shine, probably more than you have.

The GTS-V is a good card and is my choice for your slowish PII-450. For a faster processor it might be a toss-up. For higher resolution (above 1024x768) the Kyro might be best.

As for the Radeon 7000, I think the old Radeon LE (hard to find but still available online, $56 to about $65) is a better choice with 128-bit, DDR memory vs the 7000's 64-bit, SDR memory. The Radeon LE is usually a good overclocker and can be brought up to the full capability of the retail Radeon DDR with a few tweaks (see www.rage3d.com).

The "<A HREF="http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=40000182" target="_new">2001 Budget Video Roundup</A>" at <A HREF="http://www.aceshardware.com" target="_new">www.aceshardware.com</A> might help you with your decision. Even though they are comparing the older Radeon VE (later renamed to Radeon 7000), a Kyro II, and a Geforce(1) DDR, they do throw in a GTS-2 for a baseline. I think the information will give a good frame of reference.

<b>We are all beta testers!</b>

 

[dhlucke]

I'd check out Anandtech's review on the new unreal engine before buying a card. You'll find that all those cards are basically not going to cut it. Newer drivers down the road might help, but be prepared to have a rough time with games in the future. If you don't plan on upgrading the PIII-450 then it doesn't matter, but if you plan on upgrading the PC you might want to consider a decent card.

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