What card should I get now?

[Lumen]

Ok so I am building a system, and hoping to have it mostly operational by december. I was thinking it would be a very smart idea to buy a cheap ass, 16mb graphics card in the near future to be able to set my comp up and then buy the NV30 when it comes out. Does this sound like a good idea? Should I just buy a G4 4600 now?

[A380]

if you got the money and if you can wait until december, then i'd get an AGP 8x Geforce4. id doesn't give you that much more performance than the AGP 4x Geforce4 but a bit more. but you could also buy a 4x card in december, as the prices will drop till then
A380

[BaldHeadedDork]

I'd have to see more about the NV30 before I'd lay in a cheap card to get me through.

But if that's off the table and we have good information on how much better the 30 will perform, then I gotta ask why you're buying a high horsepower card?

If its for game performance, the 4600 will handle anything you can throw at it, and will for the forseeable future. Remember there was nearly a two year gap between the release of DX8 and the first DX8 games. No one is predicting a faster migration to DX9 whenever it ships. Ditto for the extra game performance that will be offered by AGP 8X.

One card I want to see before I order a GF4 is the Hercules Radeon 9700, due out in the next few weeks. If Hercules is tweaking the drivers, as they did back in the day, that could be a mother of a video card.

The only strong case I could make for holding out for the NV30 is if you want the fastest benchmarking card on the block...for a few weeks, anyway.


BHD

[quicksilver984]

buy a geforce 2mx400 or a geforce 2ti/ultra/gts

that is enough for games nowadays..... then when it starts to fail get the new card of your choice

[A380]

well i wouldn by a MX. The Geforce4 Mx is as good as the Geforce3. So you only got the number, the price but not the performance. the GForce2 is ok, that's true. But the GForce3 is not that expensive, so i'd go with the GForce3.
(Or somekind of Radeon, but i'm not informed on that one.)
A380

[Demont]

radeon 8500 from newegg.com will run you about 87 dollars i think. free shipping too if im not mistaken. those will overclock real nice and stomp all over the gf3 line and gf4mx line. it will play ANY GAME with AA and ANISO up to a reasonable level too. very nice card for the money, especially if you plan to buy a nv30 in the near future.

[SemiCycle]

Since you don't really need the card right now, I would hold off and wait for the cheaper Radeon 9500 to hit the streets. The card has a good chance of being the new "TI4200" card on teh block (best performance vs price). If you can't wait, I would consider a 128MB "built by ATI" Radeon 8500LE card from newegg. About $104 with free shipping.

[Lumen]

Yah, im not really concerned with having the latest card, just as long as it perfroms well and will more than take care of current games.:) I think in December the 4600 cards will be much more managable.:cool:

[Wommalong]

Originally posted by A380
well i wouldn by a MX. The Geforce4 Mx is as good as the Geforce3. So you only got the number, the price but not the performance. the GForce2 is ok, that's true. But the GForce3 is not that expensive, so i'd go with the GForce3.
(Or somekind of Radeon, but i'm not informed on that one.)
A380

The GeForce 3 Ti range is beter then the GeForce 4 MX Range you can check this Here (http://www.gamershq.com)

If i was to wait for the NV 30 i would get the GeForce 3 Ti 500 or 200 depending on the price.

[A380]

The GeForce 3 Ti range is beter then the GeForce 4 MX Range you can check this

That's what i said just that i did it the other way around.
(At least that is what i wanted to say.)
A380