Purcahsing a video card.

suplexx · Post by **suplexx** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:26 am

And I don't have an agp slot. And that creates a problem. I've found a few cards for PCI, but I'm not sure whether to go nVIDIA, or ATI. The current options are as follows:

nVidia choices:
FX5700LE 128 MB DDR
FX 5200 256 MB DDR

ATI choices
Powercolor 9250 256 MB DDR
9250 128 MB DDR (non powercolor)

And yeah, these are older cards. I'm looking to run a few newer games, even if I ran them on lowest settings. I currently have integrated gfx, so any of these would be much better than my current card.

Games I would like to play
Half-life 2
FFXI

Keep in mind I don't mind running at lowest settings. And as for my system (excluding a video card of course):

P4 2.8 GHz
512 MB Ram
80 GB HD

Thanks in advance. This advice is terribly needed.

BEEF!!! · Post by **BEEF!!!** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:57 pm

A good idea is to look at www.tomshardware.com
There are good video card reviews with comparisons to other cards for different games. I personaly could not give you any advice.

james587 · Post by **james587** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:59 pm

well, 512mb of ram sounds a little weak for ur comp, i would recommend either getting a gigabyte of ram and a 256mb card or getting a 128mb video card with the ram u have. ya see, if u get a 256 for 512mb of ram, ur comp is gonna be slow and laggy cause the vid card is taking up so much power. so i guess if u can afford it get 1 gig of ram and 256mb vid card

Spartan Foods · Post by **Spartan Foods** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:44 pm

james587 wrote:well, 512mb of ram sounds a little weak for ur comp, i would recommend either getting a gigabyte of ram and a 256mb card or getting a 128mb video card with the ram u have. ya see, if u get a 256 for 512mb of ram, ur comp is gonna be slow and laggy cause the vid card is taking up so much power. so i guess if u can afford it get 1 gig of ram and 256mb vid card

dont listen to him. (he does not know what he is talking about)

Anyways, I would suggest going with top-of-the-line video card if you are going to upgrade. Why pay that money for a sucky video card, when you can get the better ones for the same price?

G0DF47H3R · Post by **G0DF47H3R** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 2:58 pm

Those all suck. You should look on eBay for an nVidia ti4200, ti4600, or ti4800. Those are still outperforming the cards you listed above and you can get the highest one for like $120. I picked up my VisionTek ti4600 for $70 for a NEW one and I hit 15000 3dMarks. If you are not familiar with how it works, that's haulin' a$$. I got my friend the ti4200 Brand New in the box for $45 and it hits 9000 3dMarks. The FX series of nVidia all suck and those ATi's bottle-neck your performance as well. GL, hope this helped.

Tack122 · Post by **Tack122** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 3:11 pm

i dunno why you are saying the fx series sucks... i personally love the fx series..

i have the fx 5200 256mb and i can play half life 2 at maximum graphical specifications without a hitch

halomodder · Post by **halomodder** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 6:17 pm

I'd personally go with the FX 5200 256 MB DDR if those are your only choices. It out-performs the others in a benchmark test for HL2 that I checked...