Bang For The Buck Video Card ...Not gaming

[RVN]

I'm looking for a video card for a P4 3.2 Ghz/Intel 875P system. I use 19" Flat CRT TRinitron monitors. Pictures and photography are important ...scanning large folders and files. But, I don't play games ...yet. I may in the future.

Currently on other systems I have a 64MB SDR Nvidia Geforce and a 128 MB DDR 4200 Compro video card. I don't know whether to move an existing card and down grade or buy upscale. I want cheap!!!

Please give me some suggestions.

 

Use the 4200 for your system.

 

[RVN]

Thanks for the quick reply.

How about a name-brand? I want to buy new or buy new to replace.

 

As far as I know, Gainward produces the best nvidia based cards. But it would help if you put a price in place of cheap.
If we know your maximum dollar amount that you want to spend, we can recommend the best available card for that price.
GM

 

[Tab]

TNT2

 

[Blastman]

A 9100 can be had in the $60 range and is the best bang for buck in it?s price range IMO.

 

[Pete]

Yeah, just pick up a $60 Visiontek 9100 64MB from CompUSA: guaranteed good signal quality, which is important on a big CRT, and decently fast for games. Or just order a cheaper (<$50) Radeon 9000 or perhaps a GF4MX online, if your main concern is just good signal quality (a sharp, not blurry, desktop)--though both will be (much?) slower than the 9100 in games.

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: Tabb
TNT2

Can't get much cheaper than that

 

[RVN]

Originally posted by: gorillaman
As far as I know, Gainward produces the best nvidia based cards. But it would help if you put a price in place of cheap.
If we know your maximum dollar amount that you want to spend, we can recommend the best available card for that price.
GM

About $100 or so.

 

[McArra]

MSI 4200Ti should be great. Also gainward, ASUS, Leadtek....

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: RVN

Originally posted by: gorillaman
As far as I know, Gainward produces the best nvidia based cards. But it would help if you put a price in place of cheap.
If we know your maximum dollar amount that you want to spend, we can recommend the best available card for that price.
GM

About $100 or so.

If you are not going to game get the radeon 9100

if you are going to game get either a

radeon 9500/9600 pro

or

ti4200

depending on how much you decide to spend

honestly if you just want a cheap card and you MIGHT do a LITTLE gaming the 9100 is a great choice at 60$

 

[marko44]

I've been in the market for a new card as well. I use it mainly for business apps but do occassional gaming.
Looking at Newegg.com, I see a couple of options:

ATI OEM RADEON 9100 64MB DDR DVI/TV out BULK -- $61.00

Sapphire OEM RADEON 9100 128MB DDR DVI/TV out BULK -- $75.00

Guillemot Hercules ATI Radeon 9000 PRO 128MB DDR - RETAIL -- $82.00

ATI OEM Sapphire ATI RADEON 9000 Atlantis PRO 128MB DDR DVI/TV-out -- $84.00

64 MB VisionTek 9100 from CompUSA -- $60.00

Considering driver support, cost etc, which one would you recommend?

Thanks

Mark

 

[Blastman]

Stay away from the Sapphire 9100?s, they have a 64bit memory bus.

 

[marko44]

Originally posted by: Blastman
Stay away from the Sapphire 9100?s, they have a 64bit memory bus.

I couldn't find the 64 MB Visiontek on CompUSA's site so which one would you suggest? Also, is the 9000 PRO better
than the 9100?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: marko44

Originally posted by: Blastman
Stay away from the Sapphire 9100?s, they have a 64bit memory bus.

I couldn't find the 64 MB Visiontek on CompUSA's site so which one would you suggest? Also, is the 9000 PRO better
than the 9100?

9100>9000pro

 

[marko44]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: marko44

Originally posted by: Blastman
Stay away from the Sapphire 9100?s, they have a 64bit memory bus.

I couldn't find the 64 MB Visiontek on CompUSA's site so which one would you suggest? Also, is the 9000 PRO better
than the 9100?

9100>9000pro

Ok, I'm getting closer here . . . so I need a 9100 but not a Sapphire. What manufacturer should I look at?

 

[ponyo]

If you want 9100 and can't find one at CompUSA for $60, you could try TigerDirect if you're brave. I think they have Visiontek for $60 plus shipping. But I would just go with Transcend ATI Radeon 9100 at Newegg for $64.50 plus shipping. Transcend is 250/250 and has 128 bit memory bus.

My wife has Visiontek 9100 on her machine and it's great card. Great image quality and can run all our games at 1024x768 perfectly. It only cost 1/4 of my 9800 NP yet lot of times I can't tell the difference between the two. Great card.

 

[Pete]

IMO, the best budget choices are a $60 64MB 9100 (Vtek @ CompUSA is apparently YMMV, or the Transcend Naustica mentioned), a $78 64MB 4200 (currently OoS) , and what appears to be a $100 128MB 9600 (Rage3D thread seems to indicate it's a full-speed 9600).

 

[marko44]

The only places I could find the VisionTek was Comp-U-Plus and CompuVest, both of which had poor scores at resellerratings, TigerDirect had the OEM version for $59.99 with a rebate which you'll never see on an OEM card, and Amazon who had it for $89.00

Monarch Computers has the Power Color 64MB 9100 for $65.00 for the retail and $45.00 for the OEM but I'm not sure if the Power Color has 64 or 128 bit memory bus as Blastman (post above) made me aware of. What's the concensus of Power Color?

At this point the Trancend @ Newegg ($64.50 + $6.00 S/H) seems to be the best bet . . . what do you think? Thanks

 

[RVN]

I'm thinking about the Gainward Model#: GF4PUltra\650-8X XP and spending $50 more bucks above the $100 I was trying to stay at to get the VIVO (I already have a box).

What is Gainward's reputation in the Video Card community here?

 

[modedepe]

Gainward's cards are solid, though they did have problems with bad caps on some of their gf4 ti's.

 

[RVN]

How about Asus? Model#: V9280 VS(VideoSuite)?

 

[CyberZenn]

If you are absolutely not going to do any gaming, try a Matrox card. From what I hear they still are the best for 2d image quality (but ATI is getting very close and many Nvidia manufacturers are churning out good cards as well). You can find something like a g500 fairly cheap. Another nice thing about them is they have cards with lots of different output options. Quad DVI, etc.

 

[RVN]

I ordered this card MSI Ti4200-VTD8X (MS-8894) GeForce 4 Titanium 4200 DDR/SDRAM 128MB 8X AGP Video-in TV-out Dual VGA CARD ...it comes with games ...maybe I'll have to start gaming.

Thanks for the recommendations! I went a little over $100 ...HardOCP had excellent reviews.