Bang for Buck Vidcard

Hi all, N2003 is coming soon, and so will all the upgrade posts, so I thought I'd start...........Current system is Plll @ 1G, 512m pc133sdram, GeForce2 64 Meg GTS/PRO(AGP version), WinXP Pro, and I'm looking to upgrade the vid card to gain a few frames in 2003, since I can't afford a new system at this point, and it appears that my system will run 2003 passably well, based on the leaked demo. So what I'd like to ask is, what flavor of card will show the best improvement? Will a Geforce3 be enough, or should I look at a lower level GeForce4? Any opinions on what brand or model would be most effective? Since I'm not splurging on a new system, my budget for a vid card is looking good, but I don't want to buy a card that the processor just won't support, so......any ideas? Thanks, Ed

On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 21:38:27 GMT, "Ed White" <[email hidden]> wrote: >Hi all, N2003 is coming soon, and so will all the upgrade posts, so I thought I'd start...........[snip] I made a similar decision recently, and went for the 128mb GeForce 4 Ti4200. Seems to the sweet spot right now for $/performance. Avoid the GeForce 4MX. The price looks too-good-to-be-true, and it is. The card is little more than a gussied up version of the card you already have. I have a P3/933 and a 2ghz Athon running the NASCAR demo, and both perform well with the 4200's. Tim

I have almost the exact specs as you Ed and I am currently close to buying a GF4 TI4200 to hold me over for a while. "Ed White" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ntDY9.373623$[email hidden]... Hi all, N2003 is coming soon, and so will all the upgrade posts, so I thought I'd start...........Current system is Plll @ 1G, 512m pc133sdram, GeForce2 64 Meg GTS/PRO(AGP version), WinXP Pro, and I'm looking to upgrade the vid card to gain a few frames in 2003, since I can't afford a new system at this point, and it appears that my system will run 2003 passably well, based on the leaked demo. So what I'd like to ask is, what flavor of card will show the best improvement? Will a Geforce3 be enough, or should I look at a lower level GeForce4? Any opinions on what brand or model would be most effective? Since I'm not splurging on a new system, my budget for a vid card is looking good, but I don't want to buy a card that the processor just won't support, so......any ideas? Thanks, Ed

Skip the GF3. I went from a GF@ to a GF3 last year and was less than impressed. So either a lower level GF4 card or an ATI 9500 Pro would be good options. I have been kicking it around myself and have been leaning towards the 9500 Pro myself. MadDAWG

As a former ATi user (2 years or so on my AIW Radeon) my one warning to you would be ATi is horrible about driver updates compared to nvidia. Jonathan "MadDAWG" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Skip the GF3. I went from a GF@ to a GF3 last year and was less than > impressed. So either a lower level GF4 card or an ATI 9500 Pro would begood > options. I have been kicking it around myself and have been leaningtowards > the 9500 Pro myself. > > MadDAWG > >

I just purchased an Asus GeForce4 TI4200 (128mb DDR) from http://newegg.com ($159.00). I have a P3, 733mhz Dell. I about doubled my FPS in N4 and also doubled my benchmark score using 3DMark2001. I upgraded from a 64mb GeForce2 MX400. hth, jeff "Ed White" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:ntDY9.373623$[email hidden]:

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> Hi all, N2003 is coming soon, and so will all the upgrade posts, so I > thought I'd start...........Current system is Plll @ 1G, 512m > pc133sdram, GeForce2 64 Meg GTS/PRO(AGP version), WinXP Pro, and I'm > looking to upgrade the vid card to gain a few frames in 2003, since I > can't afford a new system at this point, and it appears that my system > will run 2003 passably well, based on the leaked demo. So what I'd > like to ask is, what flavor of card will show the best improvement? > Will a Geforce3 be enough, or should I look at a lower level GeForce4? > Any opinions on what brand or model would be most effective? Since I'm > not splurging on a new system, my budget for a vid card is looking > good, but I don't want to buy a card that the processor just won't > support, so......any ideas? Thanks, Ed >

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Actually I too have owned ATI in the past. They have gotten their "stuff" together as far as drivers go these days, and IMO their image quality has always been far superior to Nvidia. MadDAWG

"JCanar" <jcanar@nosp/-\m.attbi.com> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > I just purchased an Asus GeForce4 TI4200 (128mb DDR) fromhttp://newegg.com > ($159.00). I have a P3, 733mhz Dell. I about doubled my FPS in N4 and > also doubled my benchmark score using 3DMark2001. I upgraded from a 64mb > GeForce2 MX400.Thanks for the input guys, since most of the replies mentioned the 128m Ti4200, that is the card I just ordered from newegg.com, should be here and in the box by the time I'm ready to play N2003........Thanks all. Ed

"Ed White" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:ntDY9.373623$[email hidden]:

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> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > > Hi all, N2003 is coming soon, and so will all the upgrade posts, so I > thought I'd start...........Current system is Plll @ 1G, 512m > pc133sdram, GeForce2 64 Meg GTS/PRO(AGP version), WinXP Pro, and I'm > looking to upgrade the vid card to gain a few frames in 2003, since I > can't afford a new system at this point, and it appears that my system > will run 2003 passably well, based on the leaked demo. So what I'd > like to ask is, what flavor of card will show the best improvement? > Will a Geforce3 be enough, or should I look at a lower level GeForce4? > Any opinions on what brand or model would be most effective? Since I'm > not splurging on a new system, my budget for a vid card is looking > good, but I don't want to buy a card that the processor just won't > support, so......any ideas? Thanks, Ed > > ------=_NextPart_000_0013_01C2DCEC.54017750 > Content-Type: text/html; charset="Windows-1252" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > > <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> > <HTML><HEAD> > <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; > charset=windows-1252"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0"

I`m running a AMD Athlon XP 2700 with a ATI Radeon9700 Pro and upgraded from a GeForce2.Running 3DMark 2001,I more than tripled the benchmark of my old GeForce.

"Ed White" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ntDY9.373623$[email hidden]... Hi all, N2003 is coming soon, and so will all the upgrade posts, so I thought I'd start...........Current system is Plll @ 1G, 512m pc133sdram, GeForce2 64 Meg GTS/PRO(AGP version), WinXP Pro, and I'm looking to upgrade the vid card to gain a few frames in 2003, since I can't afford a new system at this point, and it appears that my system will run 2003 passably well, based on the leaked demo. So what I'd like to ask is, what flavor of card will show the best improvement? Will a Geforce3 be enough, or should I look at a lower level GeForce4? Any opinions on what brand or model would be most effective? Since I'm not splurging on a new system, my budget for a vid card is looking good, but I don't want to buy a card that the processor just won't support, so......any ideas? Thanks, Ed Best bang for buck at the moment is ATI Radeon 8500 LE. Usually found under $100, it can be cranked up to almost rival the Radeon 9500 in performance. --KC