best card to buy?

[jdmcnudgent]

could someone please let me know what they think the best crd to buy is? im debating right now between the ATI 8500, and the ABIT SILURO GF3, and am open to other suggstions. thanks.

[RangerJoe]

abit siluro gf3...best overclocking gf3 out there, with stock cooling no doubt...it comes with all the hookups you need, and the card has vivo support.....hardocp got the card to 245/550 with stock cooling...so just imagine if you upgrade the hsf's....go that way for sure

[Emericana]

dont get ati, horrible horrible drivers. Get any of the gainward geforce 3 (ti200, normal gf3, or ti500) golden sample cards. these all come with faster memory and great cooling and you can oc a ti200 up to ti500 speeds w/ nvmax.

[PipeBom]

Yes, get a GF3 ti200 or ti500. They are great. Go for a brand name such as abit or asus ( will cost a bit more though, as they will o/c more ).

[jdmcnudgent]

thanks guys, but what about a MSI GF3 822 starforce? how do you rate that card? thanks.

[jdmcnudgent]

the GF3 by PNY Technologies? is that the one to get? thanks.

[Cisco Kid]

The 2 best cards out now are the G3 Ti500 and a retail Radeon 8500.

Many with the 8500 have said that driver are okay now with a couple of minor issues that should be fixed. Both cards are pretty much equal in speed.

Radeon is the better all round card, slight edge to the Ti500 for the hardcore gamers card, but be prepared to drop about a $100 more depending on brand.

So it is your call, you will not be disappointed if you are adept with drivers and trying a few different ones. The person to talk to is SilversinkSam he knows all there is to about the 8500.

Either way you will be happy with one of these cardss or if you can wait, there is the Geforce 4 to come out in a few months at obviously a ridiculous price, lol.

Cisco Kid:D

[RangerJoe]

the best card, in my opinion, is one that works, without problems (basically) and it works RIGHT out of the box, why should i have to suffer because ati didnt get their $h!T in gear at the beginning, they should not have put out a card with drivers that do not work completly. nvidia has driver updates every month or two....meaning, their product is only getting better.....i would much rather pay more for a product that works right when i get it. just my opinion though

[cmcquistion]

www.tomshardware.com has a good article comparing the various Geforce 3's out there. It's worth reading. They even tested maximum overclocking ability of the cards. I believe their recommendation was the ASUS cards. The Ti 200 was easily overclockable to Ti 500 speeds.

[Pinky]

Radeon's newest drivers (http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2277) are great.

Don't knock 'em until you've tried them :D

[jdmcnudgent]

thanks for all the responses fellas, but i decided to to go with the 8500. now all you guys can tell me what stuff i need to bump the 8500 up, i want a bench mark of atleast 9000. P.S. i reaaaaaaaaaallly want that 2.2 NORTHWOOD chip bad, i was at a site today that had it clocked to 3675, and i think they said that it was the current overclocking world record, LN2 cooled. but, they blew up the chip, and the motherboard. later.

[paupton]

I have owned both MSI video cards. The 200 oc'd to 225 core and 444 memory very stable. Got 7054 on 3dmark2001. I gave that to my son and bought a TI 500 which i have OC's to 251 core and 544 memory. It runs at 34* C. Pushing 8000 on 3dmark2001. This is an awsome card. I would recommend the TI 500 over the =ATI 8500 any day. There are driver issues with ATI and Win XP issues also. You will get better clock out of the ATI but better real time performance and picture out of the MSI. If you game you need to remember that most games are written for the nvidea chip set. If you just want high numbers on oc'ing the ATI will do.


AMD XP 1700@1467 now 2000@1600 mhz.
MSI GF3 TI 500... 200core 500mem now 251 core 544 mem

[RangerJoe]

hey paupton, did you know that the ti500's have a stock speed of 240/500....somehow i doubt that yours is 200/500 from the factory.....

[wildone]

I have a PNY ti 200 that I pushed to 233/534 and have a 3d mark score of 8332 ,I need an XP chip to push it further I think though,this is stock cooling and the card packs a lifetime warranty.

wildone