GF3 ==> GF4 Upgrade?

[KloBoCoP]

Ok, here we go my first post. Right now I have a visiontek GeForce3 Ti200 sitting in this:

PIII 500
384 MB pc133
12 GB IBM 7200 rpm HD
Don't know if its AGP or AGP 2x
other crap is immaterial

and i am building the following in a couple of days

Athlon XP 2100+
Asus A7V333
1 GB Samsung PC2700
bunch 'o fans and drives

So my question is this. Should I wait and see how the ti200 performs in the new rig or upgrade to the 4400 or 4600? Or should i wait for nv30 or ATi's new card (granted if i have the $$)

Also I'm not much of a overclocker yet (yet being the keyword) but would it be beneficial to overclock it? I know there is a good utility to so with.

 

[pr497]

i think you ti200 will serve you well for at least another year...i dont see why you need to upgrade to a gf4...
id say save your money and see how the NV30 and R300 chips perform...

<b>Who fixed <font color=red>ATI</font color=red>'s leaky faucet??</b>

 

[rubikian]

Ti200 is good enough. Unless you want to see higher frame rates in benchmark... Wait for newer cards that support DX9...

 

[10GHZ]

wait for the R300 ... it's worth it

 

[williamc]

There's an infinite number of answers to this question, the bottom line is it depends on what you want, what you want to do, and what your budget is like.

If money is no object go buy the TI4600, you'll love it to death. If money is an object, stick with the TI200 untill the R300 or NV30 comes out. You'll love those even more and they can't be far now. But please do yourself a favor and wait for both of em to come out and then judge which is better from all the reviews.

**has a sinking feeling ATI's R300 will be a bug farm when its released**

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out

 

[phsstpok]

Fortunately, it's not an all or nothing decision. You can build the system with your old video card and take it from there. If performance is good enough then great. If it's not good enough then upgrade the video card. If performance is somewhere in the middle, not bad but also not quite where you would like it, you can postpone the upgrade and make your decision later.

It's simple as that.

If it were me, I would buy an Athlon XP 1800, instead of the 2100, and I would only buy 512 MB of memory. That would save enough to buy a Ti4400 outright.

By the way, you should decide now if you plan on overclocking. A7V333 and PC2700 is a waste of money if you aren't overclocking. You need to overclock to get any benefits from PC2700 memory.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[KloBoCoP]

Heh, thanks y'all for the advice so far. Funny thing is I have everthing 'cept the 2100+ sitting here waiting to be built and newegg is sending that to me as we speak. I did buy the Asus board in hopes of overclocking, just wanted to know everything about it before I did and I'm still trying to get all of that info. So do you think 1 GB is overkill for memory?

So the system will the following:

Antec 1040B /w Antec 400 psw
Athlon XP 2100+
Asus A7V333 w/o RAID
1 GB PC2700 Samsung RAM
Swiftech MCX462
2 stock Antec fans
2 Vantec stealth fans
Thermaltake Hardcano 5 HD cooler
IBM 13 GB 7200 RPM
2x60 GB Maxtor HD 5400 RPM
Pioneer 16x DVD
Sony 24x burner
Audigy Platinum
Visiontek geForce3 Ti200

I know this probably isnt the best thread to ask this but does that sound ok to everyone? Would the Ti200 be a bottleneck at all?

I guess my insatiable need for the newest stuff makes me want a GeForce 4, whether it would actually be worth it or not. Im a CS and Math student with more of a budget than the above would denote, I've been savin' =)


Id like to fly but my wings have been so denied - Layne Staley

 

[AMD_Man]

I would recommnend you get less RAM (512MB instead of 1GB) and get a better graphics card.

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[phsstpok]

CS as in Computer Science?

What the h@ll, if you've got the money buy everything and get some practical experience. Get some applications that will use that system to its full potential.

I thought you were just trying to build something for gaming. Put that thing to work.

One reason I recommended the XP 1800, other than price, is you might have better luck overclocking. It's possible to increase FSB up 166 mhz, and actually utilize the speed of that PC2700, without having to unlock the processor. An XP 2100 is already 1733 mhz (if I counted right). To get FSB to 166mhz with that processor you would be pushing 2166 mhz which I don't think the Palomino core can do air-cooled. This means you have to lower the multipler which in turn means you have to unlock the processor.

You can still overclock the 2100 you just won't be getting the most out of your memory (unless you unlock) because it won't be running at its rated speed of 166mhz.


<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[williamc]

Gaming is the ultimate use of any computer, You can work for the pentagon and play war games. You can work for the CIA and play typing games. You can work for Anderson and play deleting games. You can work for Nasa and play space sim games. You can work for micrographics and play drawing games. Then you can go home at night and play shoot em up games. See? Gaming is the ultimate use of a pc. OR, you can work for Codemasters and BUILD GAMES!

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the empires state building, along came goblin, wiped the spider out

 

[KloBoCoP]

Yeah, CS = Computer Science.

I am actually done with the coursework in cs and math and am getting a business minor. Probably will go to grad school just not right away...maybe an MBA. I develop mainly in a unix/linux environment but in the past couple years have done a lot of win32 stuff. i just bought Visual studio .net for $11 cuz the university pays microsoft and we get deals =P I also do a lot of math-related programming in matlab maple and mathematica. I am currently teaching myself flash and messing with php and other web dev stuff so i thought the 1 GB of ram would let me do that a lil better and have photoshop flash dreamweaver ultradev winamp and anything else i could think of open with no prob.

This will be my first build. I am excited. =) I plan to run mandrake 8.1 or redhat as well as XP Pro.

Id like to fly but my wings have been so denied - Layne Staley

 

[phsstpok]

Don't think I said that very well.

I thought you were just building a gaming system which can always use top performance but does not need 1 gig of memory.

When I learned that you are/were studying Computer Science, well that changed everything. I then assumed you were doing some kind of software development. You are certainly someone that can put the extra memory to use.

That's all I meant.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[Pwent]

Errr... Whats with the 5400 RPM HDD? Personally, I'd replace those, that'll be your largest bottleneck!

<font color=black>Need Money!! Accepting Donations to help better my future. Thanks!</font color=black>

 

[KloBoCoP]

Yeah the drives are a lil slow but theyll mostly have just mp3 and other data on them ill probably just get a bigger boot drive like 80 GB WD w/ 8mb cache. All the proggies will be on the boot drive. I don't have the money right now to replace 2 drives

Id like to fly but my wings have been so denied - Layne Staley

 

[10GHZ]

heheheh alrite alrite.... i won't say nothing about the R300. but i know it' going 2 be exciting when it gets released
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