Baptizer

hi once again! alright, you guys have helped me tremendously so far....now for something that has been plaguing me for awhile: what 3d card would you recommend for purchase?
My personal price range: 300$$ max
I have a 1gig athlon,256ram, kt7-raid motherboard. I currently have a voodoo3 3000.....Thanks for the input guys, have a safe and happy holiday.

Aristo

Depends on what you want to do with your system. If it's mainly for 3D games, go with GeForce2 GTS. If you want nice features, like video capture and etc, go with ATI All-In-Wonder RADEON.

Baptizer

well, it is definitely for 3d gaming. Games such as unreal tourney, counter strike, eq, etc. I am just clueless.....seems to be tons of cards now adays! thanks for input!

Aristo

Then no doubt go with GeForce2 GTS.

Bires

For $300...you can prolly p/u an "ultra" Geforce2. I'm partial to the Radion's DirectX8 feature set, but the Geforce has it beat in raw power.

sbp

You won't get an Ultra GeForce 2 for $300 but for $289 you can get a whitebox 64meg 3D Prophet II Pro at mwave.com:
http://192.216.185.10/mwave/doc/A10412.html

Its a GeForce 2 GTS with faster memory.

You could save over $100 and get a 32 meg GeForce2 GTS or 32 meg DDR ATI radeon. Both these cards are fast, provide good image quality and will perform well for quite some time.

http://www.g256.com/features/gfpricewatch.html Look for GeForce GTS list 1/4 of page down.

The 32 meg Radeon costs $199 before a $50 mail in rebate from ATI on it good through 1/15/2001. The rebate is good at computer stores like CompUsa and Best Buy. This rage3d thread {an ATI fan site} has details on this: http://www.rage3d.com/forum/ubbhtml/...ML/001109.html {2/3 of way down page}

[Edited by sbp on 12-23-2000 at 09:23 PM]

Aristo

Since you already have 1Gmhz athlon with 256MB memory, I doubt that having GeForce2 Pro would affect much performance instead of having GeForce2 GTS.

For the money/value, I'd go with GeForce2 GTS. And if you a serious hard-core gamer who always want the fastest your money can buy, be my guest, go with GeForce2 Pro.

I'd rather save the money to buy me another harddrive.

JarrettH

That would have to be the Radeon 64mb DDR ViVO because it not only serves one purpose. I leave you with that, i'm sure you know what I mean.

Heihachi

I agree.. Definitely the Radeon. Yes you'll have to pay about $100 more than the GTS, but reviews say that it's faster than the GTS along with it being a LOT better in image quality.

It got a Kick ASS rating from Maximum PC.

GTS vs. Radeon

quake 3 demo001
gts:57fps
radeon:66.4fps

quake 3 quaver:
gts:76fps
radeon:79.6fps

3D mark 2000
gts:42.1fps
radeon:47.8fps

Now for $300 dollars you should definitely go Radeon. I know the Geforce ULTRA almost double's the speed of the radeon but image quality is still lacking compared to the Radeon. PLUS the ULTRA would be mistaken in price for a down payment on a house.



[Edited by Heihachi on 12-28-2000 at 01:25 AM]

sbp

In that Maximum PC review from the October 2000 issue {page 72} the Hercules Prophet II card was using detonator driver 5.22 (detonator 2). The release of the detonator 3 drivers increased performance for GeForces at 32bit color high resolutions.

The GeForce2 GTS beats Radeon handily in 16-bit color and up to 800x600 in 32-bit color. At 1024x768 {and higher} in 32-bit color the picture changes. The performance difference between GeForce2 GTS and Radeon is close. Basically GeForce2 GTS leads the Radeon by a few frames in most games. The GTS beats the Radeon in Quake 3 engine games. The Radeon beats the GTS in Unreal/UT games.

GeForce image quality varies. Even cards from the same manufacturer. My Annihilator GTS 2 videocard has good image quality.

The Radeon drivers in win2000 leave a lot to be desired and need work.

I have both a 32 meg GTS and 32 meg DDR Radeon in systems right to each other connected to the same monitor. On my Creative Labs Annihilator 2 the resolution is at 1280x960x32 and it looks good. To my eyes the Radeons image quality is a bit better and sharper than GeForce2 GTS but its not a big difference. Other people say the Radeons image quality is much better than the GeForce2 GTS's they had.

K2

definately Geforce2 GTS ultra... get the asus one

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Heihachi

The ultra is a BIT too expensive. I still say get the 64meg Radeon.

Bandito

Some of the early tests may have shown the Radeon had better performance, but current reviews say otherwise. The Geforce2 GTS does have better frame rate and visuals.