Best Video Card for under $80 (or around there) [Archive]

Gregory_WE

06-27-02, 07:57 PM

I'm gonna do a little upgrade to this current system I have (still planning on building the new one I have in my sig)... P3 800MHz, 512 MB RAM, 16MB TNT 2.

Definitely not looking to pay a bunch for it since I'm not going to be using this system much longer, but I want it to be able to play a lot of my games with decent frame rates and stuff.

Not going to be OC'ing it since I didn't build this system and I don't think it'd work too well anyways.

On a side note, any of you guys experiencing any problems since you've updated to Direct X 8.1? I installed GTA3 and the Direct X 8.1 that came with it, and now I have to reboot like every 30 minutes or else I get errors and stuff when I try to play my games - I also crash A LOT. I'll try updating to 8.1B (I'll d/l it tonight since I'm on dial-up) and see how that works out - but any other suggestions or anyone have similar problems? Thanks!

JudgeDredd

06-27-02, 09:29 PM

GeForce3 Ti200 should give you some pretty good performance for a pretty low price.

Chaintech's Ti200 is only $98 here. (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=14-145-004)

Maxvla

06-27-02, 09:37 PM

my card! Gainward Geforce 2 MX 400 64MB 65.00

link = http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=48&manufactory=1387&DEPA=1

ive got mine clocked 250/193 stable. 260/200 suicide (doesn't work very long).

definately the best buy for the money. it doesn't have all the newfangled tech like the gf3/4's have but you can't beat the performance for the price.

Da Whip

06-27-02, 09:41 PM

The GF2 MX400 is not in the same league w/ a Ti200. I had one and the best 3Dmark was 2850. My Ti200 worst was 6900.

http://service.madonion.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/orb/componentcompare&projectType=6&cCriteria=1

Sorry Maxvla, but that card is not worth $68.

Get the Ti200, you will be very pleased.

Maxvla

06-27-02, 09:51 PM

well i haven't ever used a gf3 of any kind... so im just saying i recommend what i've used.

my latest 3DMark results are 3145
http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=3807244

still nowhere close... i don't claim to know everything. i just know what i do know well.

oh and thats MaxvL a :p

Maxvla

06-27-02, 09:53 PM

also... he's not looking for a great card... he's looking for something to get him through right now and that makes the 65$ price tag much more lucrative. i would not spend 98 bucks on an inbetween card just to spend 150 in a month or two.

advanR

06-28-02, 12:03 AM

I know he is going to upgrade later. But if he is thinking of spending $65 on an mx card he might want to think if he would want to spend $35 more for a card that would perform twice as good.

My brother has an old mx400 and my $99 8500 smokes it. Of the main dx 8 cards (gf3, gf4, 8500), this is the best choice definately. This is faster than the gf3 for the same price and a gf4 is a waste since you arent spending that much.

If you get the $98 250/275 8500 from newegg you will most likely hold on to it for much longer because it is a topend card. Compared to a mx400 its over twice as fast easily. Compared to a gf3 ti200 it is probably almost 20% faster.

Maxvla

06-28-02, 12:16 AM

Originally posted by advanR
I know he is going to upgrade later. But if he is thinking of spending $65 on an mx card he might want to think if he would want to spend $35 more for a card that would perform twice as good.

My brother has an old mx400 and my $99 8500 smokes it. Of the main dx 8 cards (gf3, gf4, 8500), this is the best choice definately. This is faster than the gf3 for the same price and a gf4 is a waste since you arent spending that much.

If you get the $98 250/275 8500 from newegg you will most likely hold on to it for much longer because it is a topend card. Compared to a mx400 its over twice as fast easily. Compared to a gf3 ti200 it is probably almost 20% faster.

are you a salesman? if you only spend 35 bucks more you get this shiny new thing... for an extra this you can get that...

if you buy the 8500 your only 45-50 bucks away from a gf4 ti4200 so this is why i said what i did about getting the mx400.

later.

ps. this would be alot easier if we had feedback from the thread starter!

advanR

06-28-02, 12:23 AM

maxvla haha this is funny we keep going back and forth arguing on 2 threads. Now its your turn to go and respond to my comment on the other thread.

Anyways, I'm not a salesman damnit. What do you mean "only $45-50 within"?? That's 50% more $$ for a card that doesnt even perform 10% better. Besides $100 is still within what he wants to spend, maybe, I dont know because he hasnt responded yet.

BTW how am I a salesman? lookat you just said, "for $50 more you could get this...."

Maxvla

06-28-02, 12:32 AM

Originally posted by advanR
maxvla haha this is funny we keep going back and forth arguing on 2 threads. Now its your turn to go and respond to my comment on the other thread.

Anyways, I'm not a salesman damnit. What do you mean "only $45-50 within"?? That's 50% more $$ for a card that doesnt even perform 10% better. Besides $100 is still within what he wants to spend, maybe, I dont know because he hasnt responded yet.

BTW how am I a salesman? lookat you just said, "for $50 more you could get this...."

yeah. don't think i'm angry or anything. i love spirited debates.

1st... i didn't say for only 50 more you could get... i said your only 50 bucks away. which by that i mean you are almost spending as much for the inbetween card as the final card. which is like buying a $40k lexus waiting to get a $80K mercedes when a $20k honda accord would do for the time being.

and the ti4200 definately performs better than 10% you must realize this.

your turn :D

ssgohan434

06-28-02, 12:45 AM

i agree with maxvla and would go for the mx series card.

Maxvla

06-28-02, 12:57 AM

Originally posted by ssgohan434
i agree with maxvla and would go for the mx series card.
WHAHOO! 1 vote for the Sane portion of the board. :p

hehe. :D

advanR

06-28-02, 02:00 AM

I'm not going to post anymore because it is all up to him. The facts are that for:

$65 he can get a slow card
$99 a very fast card
$150 a slightly faster card

Its his decision as to whether he is for sure ditching this card later, and how soon. Even if he is, the 8500 is just such a better card than the very outdated gf2mx's that he could atleast sell it and get a decent amount. It doesnt make sense to me to buy something for $65 that is pretty much worthless for when you have it, and completely worthless when your done with it.

EDIT: Even on a 800mhz p3 the 8500 will kill. I have it on a 700E@945 and I get 6000 untweaked. When I upgrade to 1.6 woodie @ ~2.4 I will get over 11k 3dmarks.

Now we are comparing a very kickass card to one that is very much the opposite. $35+ this is such a friggin bargain.

Maxvla

06-28-02, 02:04 AM

Originally posted by advanR
$65 he can get a moderately fast card
$99 a pretty fast card
$150 a mack truck with jet engines card

there... i fixed it for ya! :cool: :p

advanR

06-28-02, 02:16 AM

Originally posted by Maxvla

$65 he can get a moderately fast card
$99 a pretty fast card
$150 a mack truck with jet engines card

there... i fixed it for ya! :cool: :p

Im sorry this is so untrue. Have you used these cards and compared? 8500 beats 4200 in many tests and is barely behind in others. And the gf2mx has less than half of the power of the 8500.

Maxvla

06-28-02, 02:30 AM

Originally posted by advanR

Im sorry this is so untrue. Have you used these cards and compared? 8500 beats 4200 in many tests and is barely behind in others. And the gf2mx has less than half of the power of the 8500.

just messin with ya. i know my card is slow. but until you provide proof of the 8500 beating the 4200 in a quality review i'll stick to tomshardware reviews which show even the gf3 ti 500 stomping the 8500.

ah... there it is... 100posts in 2 days. goodnight.

Zuck Gou :)

06-28-02, 02:52 AM

Tom is biased and he's really turned kind of crappy lately, but if thats what you like here.

http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020625/parhelia-12.html

rogue1979

06-28-02, 02:56 AM

advanR

06-28-02, 03:27 AM

Hehe, I wouldn't weigh too much on that benchmark either. But it shows that different cards do differently in different games. I wasn't saying the 8500 is faster, I was saying in some games it beats the 4200 and in the ones that it loses in (the majority), it is trailing by very little. Certainly not the 50% that would make the price difference worth it.

3dmark 2001 for one, which is only a synthetic benchmark, shows 8500 trailing by less than 10%. Goto their website, www.madonion.com , and you can see a bar graph summing all of the results in their database. gf2 mx400 is definately way down there.

Actually here are my results because depending on your setup the graph may be messed up. With a p3 @945:

gf4 ti4200 avg - 6668
ATI 8500 avg - 6204
gf3 ti200 avg - 5102
gf2mx 400 avg - 2356

And of course, if you think 7% is a lot I can make the cheap excuse that most of the 8500 scores in the database don't make use of the newer catalyst drivers. That on average improve scores by 200pts+.

EDIT: He's right. Here are their scores.

gf2 ti - 3139
radeon ddr - 2978

Gregory_WE

06-28-02, 08:59 AM

Sorry about not replying :D

Ok, I could probably squeeze $100, and sorry to say this but I want to stay away from the MX series - all I've seen is poor performance from them.

Before I posted this I was looking at a couple of em on NewEgg: The GF3 TI200 JudgeDredd posted, GF2 TI450 64MB (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=14-128-114), VisionTek GF2-V (if I want cheap) (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=VGA), Chaintech GF2 TI 64MB (http://directron.com/g22064.html).

Right now I'm thinking that if I'm spending the money I might as well go with the GF3.

Tracert

06-28-02, 09:14 AM

Originally posted by Gregory_WE
Right now I'm thinking that if I'm spending the money I might as well go with the GF3.

This would be a very good choice for you, second option is keep what you got for another month and learn how to Overclock the crap out of it. Trial and error on it like crazy and beat it like the red head... well you know what I mean.

This way, you can really learn how to get more out of a card and if you destroy this card it gives you an even better excuse to buy another.

Then when you do pop for the GF3 TI200, it will be down to around $80 or $90 and you will know how to OC it to TI500 speeds.

Just my 2 cents.

Da Whip

06-28-02, 09:34 AM

Trying to overclock a TNT2 is like converting a Ford Escort into a street racer. Why bother.

Tracert

06-28-02, 09:56 AM

So he can learn,

besides I have seen nitrous kits for escorts. I think it would be cool to see one smoke the tires for 50 feet down the road, don't you?

Maxvla

06-28-02, 10:54 AM

Originally posted by Da Whip
Trying to overclock a TNT2 is like converting a Ford Escort into a street racer. Why bother.

obviously you've never seen a Cosworth Escort.

Maxvla

06-28-02, 10:54 AM

Originally posted by Zuck Gou :)
Tom is biased and he's really turned kind of crappy lately, but if thats what you like here.

http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020625/parhelia-12.html

hm... push the previous page button and i see this:
http://www17.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q2/020625/parhelia-11.html

and i'd already seen this review before. jedi knight is not a good benchmark. can't understand why they use it. its more cpu dependant than anything they use to test with.

Grande Juan

06-28-02, 11:50 AM

Greg, Greg, Greg the answer is obvious. Buy the ti 4400 now! you'll be one step closer to your future rig, and you won't be stuck with 2 crappy cards. Thats what I'm doing, why else would I have a 1.6a with ti 4600 on a sdram mobo? New mobo and ram this week I hope.

Arkaine23

06-28-02, 11:59 AM

1. Best sub $80 card... mine. But's I've already agreed to sell it to a friend.

2. GF3. For DirectX 8 and 20-30% more performance over most Geforce 2's.

ssgohan434

06-28-02, 01:31 PM

Why get a Geforce2 MX-400 when you can get the Geforce2 Ti for $60 shipped on pricewatch? The crappiest ones come with 5ns ram and should hit 275/440 at least. It will smoke any MX. Also the Radeon 32MB DDR is listed for $42 shipped, it will still beat the Geforce2 MX.

Dont get the Radeon 32 MB ddr, im not sure but i think that this card has only software T&L support not hardware. Also surely a 64 MB geforce 2 MX will probably be better than this. also the gforce2 ti is also a good buy.

Tracert

06-28-02, 02:13 PM

Originally posted by ssgohan434

Dont get the Radeon 32 MB ddr, im not sure but i think that this card has only software T&L support not hardware. Also surely a 64 MB geforce 2 MX will probably be better than this. also the gforce2 ti is also a good buy.

Your thinking of the Radeon VE or 7000. Those dont have the HW T&L.

The original Radeon 32MB ddr is actually in the same area as a GF2 GTS.

YoungstaxGx

06-28-02, 04:55 PM

I was wondering does the GF4 support DX 8.1? or even 9?

By the way the new radeon is suppose to be out soon?

Sworkhard

06-28-02, 06:41 PM

I'm on a 1gig athlonddr with a gforce2mx 32 original and when ocied to 240/230 I am outperforming matching a gforce2ti. and yes it is air cooled with default heatsink and no ramsinks.

Gregory_WE

06-28-02, 08:11 PM

Only problem is I don't think the LeadTek GF4 TI4400 would fit in my system... I hear it's a pretty damn big card. I've been playing NWN and so far it seems like my TNT is actually doing pretty decent (FPS is actually ok), so I might just hold off altogether until I build the new system.

But, buying the 4400 now sounds like a good idea, anyone know if it would probably fit or not? Sometime sooner or later I'll open up this system and look inside (it's such a hassle!) to see how much space I actually have for a Video Card.