Nearly there- bargain video cards?

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

So my PC is back, and heading towards being up to par - new mainboard, new memory and processor- but I’m wondering if I should get a cheap stopgap video card until I get around to getting a decent one at some point in the indefinite future.

Is it worth binning my old GeForce 3 if I am only going to replace it with a GeForce FX 5200 or Radeon 9550 type £40 part that claims to support all the latest and greatest but isn’t that quick about it? Surely just having twice as much video memory will make quite a difference?

#2

GF3 should be pretty much adequate unless you’re a Doom3 fan.

Cas :slight_smile:

#3

I switched my GF4 out for a GF FX 5200 (just for some shader programming) and its not been kind to me:

  • Generally slower, more sluggish graphics
  • Doom3 is even slower, with weird texture wrapping seams
  • Odd sparklies on DVD playback.

All rather crap really. Thank goodness I didn’t pay for it. :wink:

#4

I actually did the same thing a while ago, got a fx5200 after my gf4 ti4200 went kapoff, and I agree with orangy’s view, it is slower then the gf4, but on the other hand, it has better support for vertex and fragment-shaders and that makes me happy :slight_smile:

// Gregof

#5

I guess I’ll leave it for now then- we’ve chucked the still working bits of my old system into my wife’s machine and we’ll get one of the Radeons to replace her GeForce 2 ( the particle effects in morrowind seem to be doing it’s head in ) and see how that works out…

#6

Did you guys never read any hardware magazins?
Its known that the GF5200FX and serveral other cards from that series is really slow. Technical they are very pretty, but to slow.

#7

I put a GeforceFX 5700 LE in my new system, and have no complaints. I mention it because the 128 MB version (what I have) is generally only around $20-$30 more than the FX5200.

#8

I say wait…

Cause the SLI MBs are beginning to appear… Imagine taking TWO Gforce 6800 LE(cheap versions with fewer working pipelines) and sticking them together into one. Just like the old Vodoo cards… WROOOOM

Anyway the point is. That one can take two cheap gfx cards and make them into one, each rendering half a screen. So I am waiting for the SLI MBs to be avaliable and the Gforce 6800 to drop in price

#9

The motherboard was the broken part so that was the one thing I absolutely wasn’t going to wait on…

#10

I never heard that Nvidia planned to release a GF6800 with SLI support. I only know that the GF6900GT (PCIe Version) comes with SLI support. But would be great anyway if also the bugget and mainstream cards would have sli capability :slight_smile:
But that would also be only on PCIe Machines. Cause there can’t be 2 AGP Slots on one board and normal PCI is just to slow.

#11

You don’t need SLI, honest! A single GeForce 6800 can handle anything available at the moment, and the future, as they say, can take care of itself. ;D

#12

I real hardware geek does not listen to reason… MORE SPEED!!!

Its not about what it needs to handle. its about getting a great score at 3Dmark2003.

pfft… :stuck_out_tongue:

#13

3D Mark suckz

You have to get the highest fps with the UE3 in Highest Details Mode :smiley:

#14

Why no mention of a Matrox Parhelia card? You can get 3 video outputs from one card! It works great too. We’ve used them here at work.

The card has 2 DVI connections on the back so you can use 2 DVI outs or some combo of DVI and analogs. For triple head you get either all analog or 1 dvi and two analog.

Regards,
Dr. A>

#15

Well, probably because Matrox cards - while phenomenal 2D accelerators - rather fall behind when it comes to 3D. Oh, they’re still bloody good cards, but if 3D is more than just a secondary concern, you’ll tend to get more bang for buck out of a GeForce/Radeon instead.

#16

I’m a tad confused though. The Radeon can push out a scene at 3072 x 768 ( I think higher) with no problem. The others can’t. So if you have the power to do that huge a video area, wouldn’t you expect to see tons of power for doing 1024 or 1280?

I don’t profess to be a video card expert, so feel free to educate me. :slight_smile:

Dr. A>