Best Video Card for under $150

[Robbie]

OK so right now I have a VooDoo 3 3K and now I want to upgrade so I can play some of the newer games without the slowdown. I was thinking about a Creative Labs Anihilator. What do ya think?

Rob

I have

athlon slot A 700@800
384Megs
30 gig WD hard drive @ 7200 RPM
VIA MB KX133

[jeff_harrison_344]

Get a Geforce2 GTS 64mb DDR. You can find some at pricewatch.com for less then that

[dozier768]

i just upgraded froma a savage4 to a gforce2 mx 32 for under 100 bucks and its serriously like ten times better i can imagine what a gf2ultra 64 would be like. a hell of a leap from a crappy old voodoo

[AKDUDE]

www.newegg.com has some good deals on GTS's for under 150 I think... check them out.
AKDUDE

[Pinky]

AKDUDE (Jun 25, 2001 02:11 p.m.):
www.newegg.com has some good deals on GTS's for under 150 I think... check them out.
AKDUDE

Ditto!! Newegg rulz, and the Geforce 2 GTS (I think Pro) is around your price range right now.

[Nagorak]

The Radeon LE is the best video card available because it costs only $70 and offers performance equal to a Geforce 2 GTS while costing less than a Geforce 2 MX. Radeons also look a lot better than any Geforce based cards. But after a Voodoo 3 any card will look good, including an overrated and overpriced Geforce 2 MX.

[supraway]

Gainward is coming out with a Geforce 2 MX that is based on 3.5ns SDRAM, and it outperforms the Geforce2 GTS in most areas.

[batboy]

If your budget is $150 then I suggest the GeForce 2 Pro (64 meg), although you might have to do some serious shopping to stay within budget. Maybe add another $10-$20 onto the budget at most. It'll be worth it, better and faster than the regular GTS. Wait another week or two and it will be right at $150 I bet. These pro cards now use the same GPU core as the Ultras from what I've read.

[Blue Jester_2112]

The Radeon 64 w/ VIVO is $149 on pricewatch.

[Robbie]

ok I found a Geforce2 pro. I'll be kicking down $140+ So this card better kick some @$$!!


Clock on

the wicked one,

Rob

[Pinky]

So this card better kick some @$$!!

You gonna lick me to death if it doesn't ??

Narf!

[AKDUDE]

Whoa, if you can get a Radeon 64 meg with VIVO for 150 DO IT!
AKDUDE

[el]

Blue Jester_2112 (Jun 26, 2001 09:44 a.m.):
The Radeon 64 w/ VIVO is $149 on pricewatch.

what is vivo video in/video out?

[AKDUDE]

Yes.

[dabhpr]

Kudos to newegg.com - they now have the MSI GF2 PRO for $142.00.

I got mine about a week ago - and it is humming along clocked at 235/490 (core/mem)! Hey - that's nearly ULTRA performance for the price of a Radeon...

I can honestly say, I'm DANG happy with my MSI GF2 Pro!

[Superman53142]

My tweaked and overclocked Radeon LE will preform about equal to a GTS/Pro at half the price. Keep in mind my card has only 32MB of DDR. The VIVO has 64MB. That will really kick the GTS/Pro's butt. Still $70 for a Radeon LE, and $140 for a GTS Pro. $149 for a VIVO Radeon 64MB DDR on pricewatch today. I say go with the Radeon LE and spend the extra cash on memory or something else.

[Superman53142]

Forgot the chart:

[Froggy1]

Yea the Radeons will work like that AFTER you screw with the registry and a bunch of other lame set-ups for each and every game to optimize the damn thing. If ya wanna save some cash and like to Tweak till ya hurt then go for the ATI. If ya wanna plug in add a 1 registry tweak to OC and run with it get the Nvidia. I had a ATI Radeon 64DDR and I personally don't see the visual difference. Besides you are trying to "sell" something based on an objective opinion.

[blujay]

I agree, went from a vd5 agp to a geforce2 32mg ddr and wasen;t impressed with it. So I returned and purchased the radeon 64 ddr and have not been dissappointed.

[rashly]

get radeon 64ddr vivo. 152 on cnetpc.com. im currently building 2 systems with it.

[Superman53142]

Froggy (Jul 13, 2001 12:57 p.m.):
Yea the Radeons will work like that AFTER you screw with the registry and a bunch of other lame set-ups for each and every game to optimize the damn thing. If ya wanna save some cash and like to Tweak till ya hurt then go for the ATI. If ya wanna plug in add a 1 registry tweak to OC and run with it get the Nvidia. I had a ATI Radeon 64DDR and I personally don't see the visual difference. Besides you are trying to "sell" something based on an objective opinion.

Subjective or not, I have just as much right to my opinion as anyone else. Wouldn't you say that your opinion is subjective also? RadeonTweaker makes overclocking as simple as an Nvidia, if not easier. ONE registry tweak to enable HyperZ and a simple sliding bar to overclock (with the option to enable settings at Windows boot) is all that is necessary to bring this card to top preformance. I too feel that Nvidia makes great cards, but I think ATI makes better.

[earthdick]

For me it was a matter of performance versus cost. I had a GeForce 2 32mb originally and sold it for a Radeon LE. With just a small amount of tweaking, via Radeon Tweaker, it performs as well as the GeForce 2. So I wound up saving $70 with no trade off in quality, IMHO.

[William]

ok, well to step in on the debate. I have the Radeon 64. I like it, but I do wish I had a Geforce2 64mb. They just work better, and even a tweaking freak like me, I just don't want to spend my time tweaking everything to get a game to run. I also like that Nvidia is constantly updating drivers, since I got my radeon, ATI has done 1 update. The only reason I got the Radeon was the DVD decoding, which is nothing short of spectacular. I think I would go with the Geforce 64 Pro if I was you.

[bdf24]

I don't have my Radeon 64 DDR w\ vivo tweaked at all. And all my games run fine and very fast. Well they do since I got this T-Bird 1.2 gig.

[FerrariF50]

lol did you have alot of lock up's with the card too? I have this card too still and I'm trying to get another video card soon!

dozier768 (Jun 25, 2001 04:17 a.m.):
i just upgraded froma a savage4 to a gforce2 mx 32 for under 100 bucks and its serriously like ten times better i can imagine what a gf2ultra 64 would be like. a hell of a leap from a crappy old voodoo

[FerrariF50]

Thats chart is right about my s3 Savage4 if you can't find it it's the last one I was shocked to see the score i got in 3d mark 2001 around 625 lol time of a upgrade!!!

Superman53142 (Jul 13, 2001 10:10 a.m.):
Forgot the chart:

[Robbie]

ummm ask your gf about my licking abilities!!! hahaha


Lick on

Rob

[Mord-Sith]

supraway . I would like to know the exact test setup. Im not interested in the GeForce/Radeon debate at all but Im pretty sure you didnt test the Radeon at default settings due to the fact that it cant perform all the tests and that would significantly drop the score. A graph with numbers doesnt mean crap if you dont give the test setup. Infact the default ATI Radeon DDR score looks to be 3008 ... which is well below the average GeForce 2 Gts/pro.

Further more showing that your overclocked and tweeked LE can outperform a stock GeForce 2 says nothing. Comparing a tweeked and oced LE to a tweeked and oced GeForce would be the proper comparison, or comparing 2 stock cards.

Would you care to compare you radeon to my quadro hacked geforce 1 using specview perf ? Your card wouldnt even come close. Im not trying to say that my card is better than yours but what I am getting at is try comparing apples to apples.