Best Video Card money can buy.... GeForce3 for $400?!?!

[Steve]

I'm sellin a whole bunch of old stuff on Ebay and if I can scrape enough together I plan on gettin the big boy: GeForce3... However, I have a decent shot at getting $400 together... If I do manage this should I jump at this price?? I kid you not.. I saw on www.pricewatch.com that the ASUS GeForce3 boards are going for $409!!!! Seeing that many places sell thier GeForce2 Ultra cards for much more than this I am immediately sceptical... I'm not interested in buying a piece of crap that says "nVidia GeForce3" on it... if I end up getting a Leadtek or Visiontek GeForce2 Ultra then I'll do that.... but... I know these GeForce3 boards aren't no chump change and if I can get a quality one for $400 I'll do it!!

Question: What are some good brands for nVidia boards??

Hercules - pricy
Leadtek - good
Visiontek - good
eVGA - ? ? ?
ASUS - ? ? ?

 

[SickBoy]

I was under the impression that the Asus cards were good.... a lot of people have the V7100's and the V7700's.... I would steer clear of the eVGA cards though. I know for a fact they're an off brand. Anyway....

SickBoy

 

[DennisC]

Asus makes fine cards, I've had three of them. They tend to be priced slightly higher than some other cards, but they're very quality-built.

I would strongly hesitate to buy this card, even at a good price, this soon. I see you kicking yourself in a few weeks. Not only will prices drop, but they will be tweaking this thing some more in the near future, I'm sure. It sounds like a great card, and technologically probably represents the future of graphics cards, but it's still a bit "green" for my tastes.

If you can wait that long, I see a GF3Ultra in the cards for the next product cycle, with a faster core, faster and/or more memory, and maybe even at 128.

 

[Steve]

I've heard rumors from more than one source that Hercules (they of the super expensive cards!, ain't that an understatment!) they are planning a GF3 128M version....

 

[Nagorak]

DennisC (Apr 20, 2001 04:51 p.m.):
I would strongly hesitate to buy this card, even at a good price, this soon.

LOL! Do you realize that you are referring to $400 as a good price? Come on guys, this is totally insane and anyone who seriously considers buying one of these cards or who actually does is insane too!

Within two months your card will have halved in value and, you will feel like a real sucker for having spent money on it.

I don't know...I just totally can't relate to the idea of buying such a grossly overpriced graphics card. Just remember, contrary to what Nvidia would have you think higher fps do not necessarily make you a better gamer. You'll do fine with a Radeon or a Geforce 2, the Geforce 3 is just a pointless extravagence.

I'm not trying to flame anyone, but I really have a REALLY hard time understanding this at all...

HINT: If you always buy cards that have been out for approximately 6 months, you'll always have a decent card while spending the least amount of money. Buying a card and keeping it for a long time, is not really a good buying strategy. You start out with a faster card, but in the long run you have to hold on to it until it is a very slooooooow card just to make it worth your while. Seriously, think about it, you can buy a $150 card every 6 months. Cards that have been out for 3-4 months generally cost around $150, give or take a few dollars. Once you take into account the resale value of your previous card, you only end up spending $75-$100 to upgrade. So basically for $150-$200 a year you can always be 6 months behind the times (after the initial investment in a card)

Meanwhile with a $400 card you lose about $200 in value just within the first few months. And In the long run your card will become slow and outdated too.

Well, it's your money, do as you will...

 

[jordan]

i'd have to agree with nagorak, i just picked up a leadtek geforce2 pro for under two hundred with shipping included, watercooled and overclocked faster than a ultra card, I'll get the geforce3 when it comes down to like $250.00, that way I can sell my geforce2 for about 125 and only payout 125

keep in mind the geforce3 is the same as the geforce2 ultra right now, there is no software to take advantage of its capabilities, by the time that software does come out it will hba a lot cheaper! Get a geforce2 pro, overclock it and spend the extra dough on a faster harddrive or something

 

[DennisC]

Nagorak (Apr 21, 2001 07:10 a.m.):

DennisC (Apr 20, 2001 04:51 p.m.):
I would strongly hesitate to buy this card, even at a good price, this soon.

LOL! Do you realize that you are referring to $400 as a good price? .

Ha! You're right. I was speaking relatively at the time, but I agree with you; anything over $250-300 US is silly for even the most cutting-edge card.

In fact, since gaming technologies tend to lag behind video technologies, if only due to the longer production time, waiting six months will not only give you your best price on a card, but should put you right in the middle of the best applications of those features. Example: if I buy a GF3, it will be after Unreal 2 is on the shelves and has its initial bugs worked out. A good GF3 card should be around $200-250 US on Pricewatch by that time, and I'll be ready for a new card by then.

 

[Steve]

Good Idea.... I've been having trouble OC-ing my GF2 MX 64M card (screen goes black).... if I went for the GF2 Pro would OC-ing be any easier? ... Concidering I got a 64M MX... what would a good upgrade be? I'm concidering an ultra for $295....