View Full Version : which geforce3 ti500?
krakerman
11-13-01, 12:41 PM
ok, which is best, the geforce3 ti300 from gainward, visiontek, or msi? i noticed price on the visiontek and msi is lower, but ive heard a lot of good things about the gainward. price isnt a necessity, but id like to get what i pay for. which would you all suggest getting?
I dont own one but if I were to buy one I would pick the one with the best stock cooling as I don't like to mod video cards.
If I remember right the gainward would be the best cooled out of the box of the 3 you listed.
Ritteri&Bubbles
11-13-01, 01:18 PM
i WOULD GO WITH vISIONTEK OUT OF THE 3, tHE GAINWARDS TEND TO HAVE REALLY BAD COLORS FROM WHAT i HAVE SEEN.
I run a visiontek gef2 gts - and if given those choices i would go with visiontek again.
krakerman
11-13-01, 01:41 PM
1 for gainward and 2 for visiontek, although one is for visiontek because the gainward is a bad color? hehe. those were my two primary choices actually, leanin toward the gainward for slightly higher quality, but leanin toward the visiontek for lower proce. good to hear they all should perform well though
Despotes
11-13-01, 03:02 PM
I opted for the Gainward Ti/550 for the quality issue. Should get it in a few days. The color?? RED is pretty :)
I'd get visiontek over gainward.
krakerman
11-13-01, 03:47 PM
any particulatr reason yodums? or is it just a personal preference?
Originally posted by krakerman
any particulatr reason yodums? or is it just a personal preference?
After reading how Visiontek makes such succesful card while the Gainward has such bad 2d in its GeForce 3.. thus leaving the superior Visiontek to get my vote.
Originally posted by krakerman
any particulatr reason yodums? or is it just a personal preference?
Do you play quake or Unreal Tourney?? - my visiontek has been awesome!!!! my elsa was good but the visiontek is far better!
Broke my 1,000 post cherry with this one..... Thank god it wasn't in GD!!! LOL
Ritteri&Bubbles
11-13-01, 04:26 PM
Just to clear up what I said, Im talking about ONSCREEN colors, not the PCB of the videocard. The onscreen colors of the visiontech are superior to the gainwards colors, both OC well regardless.
Despotes
11-13-01, 04:33 PM
Ohhhhh...:) hehehe
Despotes
11-13-01, 04:42 PM
I chose the Gainward based on a review by HardOCP. This is a quote as far as image quality .
http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/vidcards/shootout/gf3/
"I'm going to touch very lightly on 2D and TV Out image quality because I am obviously in no qualified position to tell you objectively which one is better. I can only see with my own eyes and my own monitor and TV which ones 'look better' to me. Now keep in mind I do not have an S-Video capable TV or VCR, so I could only use the analog out for TV out. On the 2D front I set each card at 1600x1200x32 at 72Hz on my 17" monitor. Just by looking at text such as in notepad and browsing the Internet I found that my eyes were slightly more comfortable looking at the Gainward Geforce3 in that resolution. Text just seemed a bit clearer with less fuzziness around the edges. I would then have to place the Absolute Morpheus GF3 as second place and the ABIT Siluro GF3 as third place. Of course this is just by my eyesight alone, so take that for what it's worth. As for TV Out, they all seemed blurry for me, I would not use it in day to day tasks. The only point I could see for the TV Out right now with my setup would be to play games on the big screen, which does look very good. However, on my cards it is limited to 800x600 resolution TV Out."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image Quality:
"This has to go to the Gainward GeForce3, as it had the best VideoMark 2000 quality as well as the best 2D quality that I observed."
I'm sure driver selection is a factor in image quality too.
If anyone can find a review site for the Ti/500 cards, let me know.
Thanks
Despotes
11-13-01, 04:55 PM
To confuse the issue even more :) Read this review about the Leadtek--(looks good)
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/winfastti500/
krakerman
11-13-01, 05:36 PM
ahh lol ritooro. ok, that makes MUCH more sense now. thanks for the links, gonna read em asap (have to finish up this stupid organic lab report.... :-( )thanks for you views all, will make my decision a bit better. gotta call dell first though and make sure they cancelled my order like that said they were. for some reason it still shows 'inproduction' on their website....
funnyperson1
11-13-01, 06:10 PM
i would go with the visiontel as it has an enormous heatsink.....huge......i eould just screw a case fan onto that baby and let her roll....or am i thinking of Leadtek?
RangerJoe34
11-13-01, 06:18 PM
dont get vision tek, get an abit, these are the best ti500 for overclocking with stock cooling
Originally posted by RangerJoe34
dont get vision tek, get an abit, these are the best ti500 for overclocking with stock cooling
thinks about it ...... ok I will look at it...
The visiontek by FAR has a better heatsink set up!!!
]-[itman
11-13-01, 10:44 PM
Originally posted by funnyperson1
i would go with the visiontel as it has an enormous heatsink.....huge......i eould just screw a case fan onto that baby and let her roll....or am i thinking of Leadtek?
hmmm is this what you were thinking of?
http://www.leadtek.com/graphics/gf3ti500/ti500.htm
funnyperson1
11-13-01, 11:01 PM
Originally posted by ]-[itman
hmmm is this what you were thinking of?
http://www.leadtek.com/graphics/gf3ti500/ti500.htm
yup, i would take that weak little fan offa that huge heatsink and strap on an 80mm, now that is some serious video card cooling...
]-[itman
11-13-01, 11:05 PM
yep that's a huge heatsink. The visionteks don't have as big of a heatsink but they have a lot better fans. Look at that puny thing on that heatsink lol. If you stick a good fan on there you could get a serious oc outta that thing(for air).
I'd say if you don't want to mod the card at all then go with visiontek! If you don't mind replacing a fan then go w/Leadtek. However(just something to remember) the visiontek's do have really good image qualities(best I'VE seen for a geforce3). Just my opinion.
FrozenInHI
11-14-01, 02:39 AM
get the Vistiontek, i've had both, the VT overclocked higher by 5mhz on the core and 15mhz on the memory with stock cooling. Looks better too. Then you can take all that cool looking cooling gear off it and make it look like this:
http://www.homestead.com/new2it1/sigpics.html
Originally posted by FrozenInHI
get the Vistiontek, i've had both, the VT overclocked higher by 5mhz on the core and 15mhz on the memory with stock cooling. Looks better too. Then you can take all that cool looking cooling gear off it and make it look like this:
http://www.homestead.com/new2it1/sigpics.html
now that is sweet!!!!!!!!!
Originally posted by krakerman
ok, which is best, the geforce3 ti300 from gainward, visiontek, or msi? i noticed price on the visiontek and msi is lower, but ive heard a lot of good things about the gainward. price isnt a necessity, but id like to get what i pay for. which would you all suggest getting? I would also include Hercules, Leadtech, and Asus as all of these are excellent cards as well. Then find out which is has the better price.
Abb
RangerJoe34
11-14-01, 05:35 PM
trust me, the abit is the best card if you are going to want to overclock it, the visiontek doenst overclock worth crap, if you are wanting to get really high quality with a good overclockability without voiding the warranty(changing the heatsinks) then go with the abit, or the absolute media morphues (this one comes in a sweet wooden box)
quoted from Hard OCP for the abit siluro gf3
"it does pack one hell of a punch in the performance/overclocking area."
"By far this is the BEST overclocker I have come across yet using stock cooling options."
"If you are looking for a very fast overclockable GeForce3 with VIVO functions, the ABIT Siluro GeForce3 deserves some attention."
i recommend getting this, this is what i plan on buying around christmas time and im gonna watercool the entire card. comes with a really good DVI port also
Gravity Man
11-14-01, 08:04 PM
VISIONTEK
mine overclocks to 260/590 w/stock cooling.
*edit*
I read somewhere that it has 3.6ns memory, but I can't remember where, can anyone confirm this?
RangerJoe34
11-14-01, 09:36 PM
woops, i posted that because i was thinking about something else, yes the ti500 will do that....i was thinking of the gf3 normal....my bad.....visionteks dont have many options, abit has much higher quality, vt is much more mass production and does not focus on the detail........
edit: no all ti500's come with 3.8..you read it wrong
[OC]_SR20DE
11-15-01, 09:19 AM
RangerJoe,
I'm thinking the Abit GF3 siluro. How does it stack up to the rest of the popular GF3 cards like Visiontek, Gainward, Leadtek, etc.. in terms of FPS gaming performance and 2D quality? are they about equal to the others beside the overclocking part? and yes I'm into OC'ing the vid cards so that would be a definite plus. Do you have some review site for us to see? and doesn't the Abit GF3 have the Ti500 version? I'm planning to get a GF3 Ti500 line (haven't decided what brand yet) around Christmas time. Currently I own a CL GF2 GTS 32mb.
FrozenInHI
11-15-01, 09:20 AM
vt is much more mass production and does not focus on the detail........
i dunno what cards you have seen that were low quality. I'm a 2m technician for the military and looking at my VT, there's nothing at all that suggests they don't quality check their cards very well. get ur facts straight, have you actually owned a ti500 from them? Ive gone through 4 diff manuf. cards (Leadtek, GainWard, VT, PNY) and out of all those, the VT was the highest overclocker stock cooling, and no, image quality is never different between these cards, they're all standard reference boards, all use the same stuff on the card, and to be honest, the PNY used the highest quality ICs of all of them, but didn't overclock well at all, the Leadtek had the worst overclocking results, due to it's crappy cooling, one solid heatsink on everything, the Gainward did okay, just artifacted at speeds the VT did not. Ur statements were based on a reviewer's comments that didn't know what was up or had a bad board or something, because clearly VT being the more popular brand would suggest that it is a decent manufacturer. I've modded the heck out of mine too and it's still running strong.
RangerJoe34
11-15-01, 11:35 AM
[OC]_Me....from everything that i have read...all the abit gf3 are either on par or above the line other gf3's....yes abit makes a ti500 version http://www.abit-usa.com/eng/product/mm/gf3-ti500.htm there is the website, i have yet to find a website to review it but they should be doing this soon...and from what the normal abit gf3 will do id say the ti will be excellent
[OC]_SR20DE
11-15-01, 11:51 AM
Originally posted by RangerJoe34
[OC]_Me....from everything that i have read...all the abit gf3 are either on par or above the line other gf3's....yes abit makes a ti500 version http://www.abit-usa.com/eng/product/mm/gf3-ti500.htm there is the website, i have yet to find a website to review it but they should be doing this soon...and from what the normal abit gf3 will do id say the ti will be excellent
Ok, thankx for the info =)
That is tempting... I see what you're getting at.. about the current Abit regular GF3 doing good and available for the Ti500 version.. hmm sounds good. I'll check on the link you posted.
I've got a gainward card and have absolutely no problems with it. I will eventually upgrade the heatsinks and cpu cooler just because I can't resist, but its working great right now.
Oh, and one thing: I have NEVER heard anyone say anything bad about the gainward cards. All the reviews I've read said it was great and a bit cheaper than the competition.
RangerJoe34
11-15-01, 06:42 PM
alrighty... FrozenInHI
yes i have used many diff ti500's and the visiontek was one of my least favorite, i like asus, abit, msi, and absolute media cards the best.....and these all seem to beat the visiontek in all the reviews ive seen from HARD ocp, in which they do not use bad hardware, they use great stuff. so thats not the problem, and all the setups that ive used with ti500s have been exactly the same and everything is high quality.
btw, of course if you mod the crap out of the card it is going to do better, my whole opinion is that abit makes the best overclocking card with STOCK!!!! cooling....which it is.....
Consider these features of the Leadtek:
8-layer PCB (not sure what the other brands are using)
3.8 ns Elite brand memory, which some people think is better than the Hynix stuff on some other cards
Biggest heatsink out there, slap an 80 mm fan sucking on the thing and no cooling problems there
TV-Out at 1024x768 with the Conexant 258xx chip
DVI connector
Hardware monitoring of CPU edge and surface temperature, as well as fan speed
2 full games bundled with it, optimized for Geforce3 cards
All necessary cables and connectors
3-year warrantee
The card also overclocks pretty well, think one reviewer got it up to 266/580. Now the Asus has temperature monitoring of the ram also, but the card is like $375, and not sure of 2D quality.
Even if the Leadtek does not have 2D as good as a Matrox (more than likely), the features above are worth it. Beware as some cards only come with a 1-year warrantee. Some come with a lifetime, but who needs that?
RangerJoe34
11-15-01, 11:11 PM
dude...266/580 isnt very special, some guy on here got his gainward to 270/602.....most of the good ti500's have dvi and come with the cables, if you replance anything on the hsf then it voids the warranty i believe....all the cards have 3.8 ns memory, a few of them come with games, not sure about the hardware monitor....warranty depends on the brand, and you can get this stuff for under $375
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