View Full Version : video card suggestions please?
i think i want to stay away from ati (poor driver support)??? - but would like tv out/dvi in....will be going into an AMD 1800xp Athlon, Soyo Dragon Plus moboard...using for novice digital photo editing and some gaming. i'm not all that familiar with the specs listed on video cards....should i be looking for 64mb or 128mb? and whats the agp 4x and 8x indicate? would you please suggest a solid card....thanks in advance.
How much are you looking to spend?
From what I've heard in this forum, 8X won't really matter that much (I posted once about gettin a mobo that supports 8X and everyone said that it's not important right now).
Most cards, even the GeForce 4 MX series has 128 MB offerings, so I'd say 128 MB would be a good bet no matter what your budget.
I've always bought NVIDIA cards, but my current one's a Radeon 9500 Pro, and I've been really happy with the 2D performance in Windows and also gaming (beats out all the GF4's, even 4600 when overclocked and with AA/AF on). If you're not lookin to play many games, the GF4 Ti4200's a good bet -- you can get one for around $100 now.
rajatQ2
03-09-2003, 12:04 PM
Originally posted by sox
[snip] - but would like tv out/dvi in [snip]
dvi in? That doesnt sound right, but if you really want DVI input, you may need a special sort of card, because i didnt even know that was possible.
IF you want DVI Out, i have a good ,beginners card, to recommend. Its an ATI Radeon 9000. I have a tyan model at work, and the actual ATI model at home, and they are just about identical, with a $10 price difference. I highly recommend this card. Its only a 64MB version, but from the reading i've done, 128MB is a lot, and only worth it if you're a real gamer.
I game some, right now i am running two displays (Dell 1800FP (dvi) and 17" CRT), and do lots of 2d stuff, and they both perform really well.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?sku=W450-7000
sorry....i saw "dvi connector" on a gforce4 ti4200 box and thought that meant dvi in....must be 'out' - sorry. as far as how much i'm willing to spend - i'm wanting to stay around $150....
another possible stupid question - is there any difference in "brands" of geforce4....ie: visiontek xtasy, asylum, evga etc. thanks again.
sho.gun
03-09-2003, 01:44 PM
The drivers for the radeon 9xxx series are nothing to complain about. They're great, ATI has really improved in that area. I have a Radeon 9700pro and I love it. I personally would recommend ATI over nVidia as of right now.
Cantacuzene
03-09-2003, 02:12 PM
Its hard not to recommend ATI right now. They have Nvidia beat on everything above $100.
Aristo
03-09-2003, 03:27 PM
I know ATI has a poor history of driver support but now they update the drivers a lot more frequently than before. If you are looking for high-end, wait til R350 is out and grab either 9800 or 9700 (which I have). It's cheaper than GeForce4 Ti4800 and it kicks GeForce4's behind like no tomorrow. Also feature-wise, it's better than GeForce4.
bachviet
03-09-2003, 09:08 PM
You can't complain about ATI driver release nowaday! It has been pretty over the last year or so in releasing new drivers for its Radeon line! I wouldn't mind owning an AIW R9700Pro!
rajatQ2
03-11-2003, 04:18 PM
i just got unreal tournament 2003 and its running at 1284x1024 and screaming on my Radeon 9000! WOW. Best 90 bucks i ever spent!!
For $150, you can snag a Radeon 9500 non-Pro... the Pro version may have come down since 3 months ago when I bought a retail ATi 9500 Pro... but the 9500 is going to be a huge bang over any GF4 for your buck... good luck!
If you are going to get the Radeon 9500 {Pro}, get them before they disappear. AT news said ATI is apparently going to discontinue production of the 9500 core. The recently announced 9600 {Pro}'s will replace them. From what I've heard the 9600's series underperform the Radeon 9500 Pro {which is no surprise-got less pipes?}.
Aristo
03-12-2003, 07:27 AM
If you are going to run ATI with Dell (Samsung rebadged) LCD along, most likely you will be having problems.
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33649176&perpage=20&pagenumber=1
rajatQ2
03-12-2003, 01:22 PM
Originally posted by Aristo
If you are going to run ATI with Dell (Samsung rebadged) LCD along, most likely you will be having problems.
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33649176&perpage=20&pagenumber=1
i disagre. I use a radeon 9000 pro with a dell 1800FP ultrasharp ( and a 17" crt for ext desktop), and have absolutely no problems. That post you linked to was a little old (11/02) and better drivers for the monitor and Radeon cards have been released since.
I think its an awesome combo and have had no problems so far.
Aristo
03-12-2003, 05:38 PM
First of all, the problem occurs on 8500, 9500, and 9700 series. Nobody reported problems with their 9000 yet. Second of all, if you connect 2 monitors to your 9000, it will work. The problem occurs when you run ONLY 1 Dell LCD, no additional CRT. I'm running ATI 9700 non-pro with Dell 1800FP along and it does not work. I've tried Cat 3.0 and 3.1 and the driver came with Dell LCD.
The link I posted may be a little outdated. But if you search Rage3d forum, you will see many problems pop on with varies LCD (but mostly Dell).
rajatQ2
03-13-2003, 12:01 PM
touche :)
I hope they release drivers for you soon!
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