Shopping for a new card

Best value? GF4-4200, GF3-200, ATI-R8500LE, other?

Having been shafted by 3DFX long ago (just been too busy and poor to do anything about it), I'm looking for a new video card for my humble Athlon XP 1600+ system. I got the new Need for Speed the other day and get a whopping (estimated) 20FPS on the lowest possible settings, dropping lower to near 5 FPS when scenery/action gets more complex on this POS Voodoo3.

I'm not looking to spend more than $100, so I'm wondering what would be considered good deals in today's budget-card landscape. I do intend on pairing the card with a "PVR" (TiVo)card in the future for video entertainment And I could care less about bundled drivers or games.

Here's what I'm going on right now. Please let me know if there are better values. Prices below are quoted from Pricewatch: not necessarily the best prices, but good ballpark figures.

Option 1: Geforce4 TI4200. As low as $107 shipped right now for the 64MB variety. I would likely wait for it to sink a little more but I'm leaning more toward this class of card.

Option 2: Geforce3 TI200 or ATI Radeon 8500LE. Both 64MB. Both around $70. Performance for both is slightly below the GF4-4200, but the price is significantly lower.

Option 3: Sit and wait for the $200+ cards to plummet when Geforce5 comes out sometime next year.

Also what advantage does having 128MB onboard have over 64MB, and is it worth it?

Thanks,

Gary

Basically the ti4200 is your best bet, The real advatange of the 128 meg cards is they will last longer as games start getting more complex and writing more to your video memory.

8500LE 128MB is around 100...maybe 105 tops. That's the best card for the money right now.

Also since you seem to wait for ever to upgrade, going with 128mb is almost a must. doom3, and even UT2k3 start to show that 128 helps a lot.

I'd go for option #1 and #3..... I would get a gf4 ti4200 now for about $107 or so, then in another 3/4 year or so prices will drop for the newer cards... then it would be time for upgrade again! haha But yeah I would get a gf4 ti4200... good luck!

Trent said:

Basically the ti4200 is your best bet, The real advatange of the 128 meg cards is they will last longer as games start getting more complex and writing more to your video memory.

Click to expand...

Read his post the Ti4200 is $107 for a 64 DDR card.

His best buy right now is the R8500 LE w 128 DDR and it can be found for $90 right now online. Call to find out clk/mem speed of this card it should be 250/250 and that will get you an overclock of 300/300 99.9% sure. This is a better buy than the Ti4200 w 64 DDR cause the card will last longer with the new games coming out, ram should be at 3.6 or 4 ns on it (R8500). The R8500 is slower by about 10% which would really be unnoticeable imo.

this is the description:

RADEON 8500LE 128MB DDR AGPx4 w/software CRT/DVI/TV OUT VIDEO CARD W/s-video cable White Box w free shipping to the USA 1 day, mention pricewatch

enet marketing inc.
Info...
866-850-3638
626-855-0370

You can find a retail built by ATI R8500 64 DDR clocked at 275/275 for $87 including shipping from Alpha International Business Inc.
Info... Mention pricewatch ad for free shipping and price, comes with 5 yr warranty LOL ( as if you will have that long)

800-933-5455
909-595-1668

Cisco Kid

hope the above helps, with the way cards are going my motto is buy the cheapest bang for your buck , forget about the Ti200 G3 card

Sold on the Radeon 8500LE 128MB+ but...

First: Thanks for all the replies guys

Ok, I'm sold on the R8500-LE 128MB. Granted, I'm going for the most bang for my buck. Likely I'll O/C this thing (maybe not the first day I have it, but eventually.) Can I just buy *any* card advertised as "Radeon 8500 LE 128MB"? Am I better off gettting one straight from ATI? Are there 3rd-party manuf's that I should NOT get cards from?

-Gary

Make sure you get built by ATI. Other companies may clock their's lower

as long as it's clocked at 250/250 it doesn't amtter really who made it. for the most part most cards that are built by people other than ATI are just as good if not better, there are a few exceptions but these cards coem clocked ridiclously low.

Re: Sold on the Radeon 8500LE 128MB+ but...

Fliptech said:

First: Thanks for all the replies guys

Ok, I'm sold on the R8500-LE 128MB. Granted, I'm going for the most bang for my buck. Likely I'll O/C this thing (maybe not the first day I have it, but eventually.) Can I just buy *any* card advertised as "Radeon 8500 LE 128MB"? Am I better off gettting one straight from ATI? Are there 3rd-party manuf's that I should NOT get cards from?

-Gary

Click to expand...

if you do not buy an ATI BUILT card just make sure when you order they confirm clk/mem at 250/250, the links I have provided are reliable it seems, just call first

cisco kid