Graphics Cards. Which One?

TrolleyBoy · Aug 29, 2002

Hey Y'all
To cut a long story short, turns out my Leadtek A170 DDR Geforce 4 MX 440 is slightly incompatible with my Gigabyte GA - 8IDML Mobo. Anyone got any recomendations for a new Vid card. I'm lookin at a Gigabyte GV-R9000 PRO ATi Radeon 9000 PRO Graphics Accelerator. Not quite sure what to go for tho.
Cheers

Sammie · Aug 31, 2002

What chipset you're using?

TrolleyBoy · Sep 1, 2002

I'm using the Intel 845 AGPSet Chipset

Sammie · Sep 1, 2002

Okay I have the same chipset D845 Intel BG motherboard and I'm using Leadtek Winfast A250 LE Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB without any problems. I also have Athlon XP machine and worked perfect with my video card as well. I just ordered ATI 8500 Radeon 64mb today , probably will get it on tuesday and install on my machines to see how it comes out.
Can please tell me exactly what you mean by your Leadtek "being slightly incompadible"?
The ATI Radeon 9000 PRO is similar to Nvidia's MX range and I'm not so sure if it supports TRUFORM but if you are a hardcore gamer step up to something more powerful.

TrolleyBoy · Sep 2, 2002

Yeah, my system restarts whenever I'm playing major 3d games like Q3A, NBA Live etc. I took it back to the place I got it from and they have tested it with 3Dmark (I think), and the same problem came about. They stuck it into a different machine and it ran fine, so I'm calling it slightly incompatable as it runs for a while then shuts down. It's as though something is overheating and shutting the system down. Not too sure though. I tried replacing my heatsink thermal goo stuff thinking it may be the CPU but from what I've read and now found out, 28 - 43 degrees C for a P4 is OK. The place I got it from tried throwing in a different Card and it seemed to work fine. Not too sure what it was though. The guy has recommended that I don't get a MX series card.

Sammie · Sep 2, 2002

Are you in USA? How much is your budget for a video card?
If you're playing NBA live 2002, the game has issues that I experinced, so it is hard to blame the video card. Why don't you try some other games like MOHAA or Ghost recon and make sure you download latest patches for the games.

TrolleyBoy · Sep 3, 2002

Hey,
I have NBA Live 2000, and it has always worked fine (although choppy) on my old 8MB video shared from the RAM system. I'm from New Zealand and my Budget is around NZ$300.00, or US$150.00 approx. I have tried a couple of other games like Shogun Total War (in the 3d battle scenes it restarts, rest of the game it's fine), Rugby 2001 (Also used to run fine on my old Voodoo 1 system), so now I'm lookin at my options and budget wise, the Radeon 9000 is coming out pretty well on top. the site I'm using to buy from is ***.ascent.co.nz. Some of their stuff is over priced, but around here its not too bad.
Cheers

Sammie · Sep 5, 2002

Radeons?

Sorry for late reply. I would definately recommend Leadtek Geforce4 A250 LE 64MB which is faster and has more features than the Radeon 900 PRO . Also note ATI drivers are not always the greatest. Thay always have little inconsistances, don't believe ATI by bragging their CATALYST drivers. I've tried all the Radeons when come out also when they faze out. I have many experiances with graphic cards or else I would'nt talk about it. You also want to try Nvidia's beta drivers Version: 40.41( gave me 550 more points in 3D MARK 2001 SE, I was just testing if Nvidia claims were true, which is: that thier 40.41 drivers give 25% increase performance) so if you ever think of buying a Nvidia based graphic card, don't hesitate just try and find out yourself. Don't beleive who says what, experiance yourself the true performance.
Any questions or opinions just reply.
Thanks. Sako
p.s. Forget about the MX or 9000 series since their not considered as hard core gamer cards.

LTR12101B · Sep 6, 2002

Geforce 3 Ti200's are reasonably priced, overclockable and DX8 hardware (which the GF4 MX is not!).

For a GF4 MX - beater in ATI, you need to be looking at the faster clocked 9000 PRO - or perhaps an 8500LE or full.

You WERE looking at the 9000 pro - it's a later chip than the 8500, but has some hardware trimming - but is still full DX8 hardware. Doesn't really deserve the 9000 tag though, as ATI had a session of matching the first digit to the DirectX hadrware support, and this is a DX8 card LOWER the the 8500.

Artelion · Sep 6, 2002

Do not buy ATI Cards even they are really good - better choice for Nvidia cards - not all the games work on ATI Boards - you will have to search for game patches all the time...

rePsyke · Sep 6, 2002

Superior NVidia

I have owned both ATI and NVidia boards.

Over three years ago I bought a (then brand new model) ATI Rage Fury in preference to a Voodoo 2 board... A rather bad decision. It could never run Quake 2 (the eargerly anticipated version 3 was about 6 motnhs away and I was still at Nashkel in BG1) at anything better than 640x480 with a smooth framerate. As for the fantastic effects of the year old 'Unreal'... Absolutely pointless... It lagged even during the Vortex Rikers introduction...

This was made even worse because I was running the board through a top-notch MSI motherboard, a (WOW how fast????) 450 Mhz PIII and 256 MB memory... At the time I had friends who still had smaller hard drives... Yet the complete system was outdated and laggy within about two months of purchase simply because of the graphics card...

So when I next faced the showdown between a Radeon board or... (Not 3dfx unfortunately - being bankrupt) a Geforce 256(FANTASTIC a GPU... cool...) the choice was not difficult.

Currently my GF3 ti500 is running VERY nicely and I am trying not to be too envious of the GF4's until they become cheaper (still £200+ at any component outlet near my location).

ATI... No thanks. My advice - a GF3 ti500 (some people seem happy with the 200 but I swapped mine after three weeks - not wanting to overclock), ignore NVidia's GF4 MX con trick - or splash out on a top full GF4.

Shakari · Sep 6, 2002

Got a friend with a ati 9000 LE and my parent machine has a 8500 LE and as I maintain both machine (Drivers etc) I have had major trouble with both cards with a wide range of games and 3d apps.

About a month ago I bust the bank and bought a gainward geforce 4 Ti4600 128MB card, cost £320, but I am very pleased with it any fps at 100 fps+ at 1024x768, and I don't regert spending that much money on it.

It may seem expensive but the high end geforce 4's (4200, 4400 and 4600) are by far the better cards at the moment, don't be fool, as has been mention above by the MX, they are basically hyped up geforce 2's, (except for the Light speed Memory architechure), and are missing the emviroment bumpmapping and pixel shaders of the GF3 (has 1) and GF4's (has 2) if you cannot afford a non-MX geforce 4 then go for a Geforce 3, But since a 64 MB GF4 is about £120, It would be a better buy.

Also Nvidia based cards have a major advantage over ati cards..... Stable, reliable drivers. Because no matter how powerfull the card without decent drivers, it a pile of junk IMHO

Hope this helps!!!