What video card should I get?

[muc0n]

I have an Athlon 800mhz with 320mb of pc133 ram and I was wondering which graphics card would help me best for the least amount of money. It would be used pretty much for games and no 3d rendering or anything. I've been leaning toward a geforce3 ti200. Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

[Kronos]

I would opt for the Radeon 8500 Retail. More bang for the buck for sure. It`s fully directX 8.1 compatible. Goodluck

I want to die like my Grandfather...in my sleep...not screaming in terror like his passengers.

 

[noko]

How much are you willing to pay??

 

[muc0n]

I was looking to spend around $200 dollars. I found a Leadtek geforce3 ti200 with tv out for $149 and I was thinking of getting that. That is in U.S. dollars I have no idea if anyone on here is from outside the U.S.

 

[chuck232]

If that's the case I'd go for the 8500 retail and be sure to check that it's retail and that it's clocked at 275c/275 core/mem.

 

[muc0n]

Any specific reason you would go with the 8500 over the ti200. I have heard some bad things about ATI cards and really haven't done much research on them. Also I don't know what the system requirements for the 8500 are and I don't want to deal with bottleneck issues.

 

[chuck232]

The two cards are basically the same price (~$150US) and the Radeon kicks the Ti200. Look at any of the reviews. And I'm sure your system shouldn't be a problem. And don't worry about their drivers. As long as you aren't running Win2K you should be fine with the drivers. (personal experience. example:
P4 1.4GHz, 256MB RDRAM, Radeon AIW, Win2K, 3DMark SE: 2100
P4 1.4GHz, 256MB RDRAM, Radeon AIW, WinME, 3DMark SE: 3300)

 

[muc0n]

Thanks for the help guess I'll got with the 8500. Though it'll still be a month before I get the money to buy anything .

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by muc0n on 04/06/02 04:57 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[noko]

Well you might want to consider the GF4 Ti4200 then, the 64mb version. Read this review here at FiringSquad:

<A HREF="http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ti4200/default.asp" target="_new">http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ti4200/default.asp</A>

I am very impressed with this review or more exactly the results of the Ti4200, they should be available in about a month. I have a GF3 Ti200 and it overclocks to GF3 Ti500 speeds but for the price you quote I wouldn't buy it. I paid $99 for mine. The Radeon8500 is a better card, more features and faster then most GF3 Ti200. Now the Ti4200 really throws a ball into all this. Hopefully ATI responds with the R250 (update for the Radeon8500) by this time.

 

[AMD_Man]

The RV250 should compete with the Ti4600 while the R8500 will compete with the Ti4200 with the enhanced OpenGl drivers once they become official.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[muc0n]

Things can never be simple can they . O well guess I'll wait until I'm ready to buy one to decide what I'll get.

 

[noko]

That sounds very prudent, just remember either card is pretty kick ass and will probably bring some smiles to ya or to your friends taking over your computer .