I'm looking for a new budget 3D card to replace my aging GF2MX. The criteria are performance and price. Visual quality (2D) is important, but I spend most of my time at 1024x768x85Hz on a 19", and most cards look fine at that resolution. DirectX support, 7, 8, or 9 doesn't matter to me since games never require the latest features to run. Overclocking is irrelevant since I won't bother doing it, and most cards would achieve similar boosts anyways.
At the moment I can locally find a Radeon 7500 64M DDR for $60, a GF4MX440 64M DDR for $70, and a Radeon 9000 (non Pro) for $90. I'm also looking at the SiS XSabre400, which is supposed to outperform the MX440, but it seems like it's not currently available in enough quantities to bring the price down. Plus SiS doesn't have the driver maturity of ATi or nVidia.
I need recent benchmarks of these cards, and so far I've looked at Anand's Radeon 9000 Pro Review and Tom's Radeon 9000 series review.
Problem is, most reviews just show the Radeon 9000 Pro, not the more common 9000. And I expect the 200 vs 275 memory clock would make a visible difference. That's over 25% less memory bandwidth, so maybe. . . 15-20% less performance? I dunno. If anyone has a few good links, lemme have 'em.
I'm leaning toward the R7500 for a few reasons:
- cheapest
- faster than GF4MX440 under UT2003 (indicating fitness for future game engines) and seemingly equal or better on most other titles
- compared to the R9000, the drivers are more mature, and if you knock 15-20% of the 9000Pro's scores, you're pretty much left with the 7500 in many titles
Or, I could wait for the Xabre 400 and R9000 to become more plentiful and affordable. But I have time off this summer and I'm itching for some 3D action.
Thoughts?
Modus
At the moment I can locally find a Radeon 7500 64M DDR for $60, a GF4MX440 64M DDR for $70, and a Radeon 9000 (non Pro) for $90. I'm also looking at the SiS XSabre400, which is supposed to outperform the MX440, but it seems like it's not currently available in enough quantities to bring the price down. Plus SiS doesn't have the driver maturity of ATi or nVidia.
I need recent benchmarks of these cards, and so far I've looked at Anand's Radeon 9000 Pro Review and Tom's Radeon 9000 series review.
Problem is, most reviews just show the Radeon 9000 Pro, not the more common 9000. And I expect the 200 vs 275 memory clock would make a visible difference. That's over 25% less memory bandwidth, so maybe. . . 15-20% less performance? I dunno. If anyone has a few good links, lemme have 'em.
I'm leaning toward the R7500 for a few reasons:
- cheapest
- faster than GF4MX440 under UT2003 (indicating fitness for future game engines) and seemingly equal or better on most other titles
- compared to the R9000, the drivers are more mature, and if you knock 15-20% of the 9000Pro's scores, you're pretty much left with the 7500 in many titles
Or, I could wait for the Xabre 400 and R9000 to become more plentiful and affordable. But I have time off this summer and I'm itching for some 3D action.
Thoughts?
Modus