GeForce2 or Radeon

[Dunga Bee]

A graphics newbie question here. I am in the process of building a new rig. It is:

Athlon 1.4GHz @ 1.4 (for now) on an EPoX 8KTA3 mobo.
512 MB Micron PC133
Diamond Riva TNT Video Card
2.1 GB WD HDD (for Win 2000)
HP 9.1 SCSI (for everything else)
32X CD
Ricoh CDRW

I am looking to get a good, yet inexpensive video card. Right now I have an old Diamond Riva TNT card which is not too great.

It seems that GeForce is the way to go, but I thought I'd get some opinions from the group.

Also, what makes would you recommend for the card. I looked at eVGA because of price, but they seem so low that I figure something must be up.

Anyway, thanks for the opinions.

Dunga Bee

[Pinky]

I used to be a diehard nvidia / geforce fan, and I never thought I'd say this, but the radeon is the way to go; but only the Regular 32/64 DDR models, not the cheaper ones. For cheap price/performance, I still use Geforce 2 MX cards in my builds for others.

[Oni]

if you want cheep and good, go w/ a Radeon LE, overclock it and enable the HyperZ buffer. Can't beat that for cheep.

[bdf24]

I cannot compare a Radeon to a Geforce 2 cause I've never owned any Nvidia cards. But I can tell you that the Radeon 64 DDR is a great all around card. It's pretty fast with very playable frame rates. And has excellent image quality.

[Dunga Bee]

for the replies. Where is the best place to look for a card.

Pricewatch and whereever that leads? Auctions? Used?

Thanks again,
Dunga Bee

[bdf24]

I always use price watch myself. Hard to beat the prices they've got listed.

[Dunga Bee]

Oni mentioned in the post above something about getting the Radeon LE card and overclocking it and enabling the HyperZ buffer.

The overclocking I assume I could do with Powerstrip which I am using now, but the HyperZ buffer...???

What is that mod and how would that card perform vs. a real Radeon 32 DDR?

Thanks again,
Dunga

[ymNA]

I have the LE, and it rocks, never use geforce so, don't know the diff. the reg. 32DDR is $72 right now, LE is $64, just spend the extra $8 to get the reg. one, able to clock it faster, I think

and about the powerstrip, it enable HyperZ by default, even with LE , if not, check those check box and see.

[Pinky]

Originally posted by Dunga Bee
Oni mentioned in the post above something about getting the Radeon LE card and overclocking it and enabling the HyperZ buffer.

The overclocking I assume I could do with Powerstrip which I am using now, but the HyperZ buffer...???

What is that mod and how would that card perform vs. a real Radeon 32 DDR?

Thanks again,
Dunga

There's also a feature in powerstrip to enable driver supported features.

www.newegg.com is where I got my card.

[Hugo 59]

Newegg is an excelent vendor. Right now they have the Radeon DDR for only $72 only one dollar over the LE well worth it.

I have the LE BTW with everything enabled and it is great.

[Hugo 59]

Here is a review (http://www2.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1473) for you. The review is done on the Radeon LE but they use a few cards in all the tests.

radeon 32mb ddr le
radeon 32mb ddr
and a couple of GeForce 2 mx400 cards

The radeons do very well.