Best Video Card for Old CPU

[toss12]

I recently put together a PC out old spare parts for a friend. I have everything but video card. What <$60 card would give the best performance for a PC with these specs:

Pentium III 550
Abit BX6 (maybe BE6)
256 MB PC100 RAM

I have a Riva TNT card I could put in it, but was thinking a GeForce2 series card would allow the user to play games from 2 years ago and most emulators (Project64) more efficiently.

Please link if you have any specific cards in mind (i.e. used).

Thanks in advance.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Geforce 3, under 60.00 dollars in the For Sale/Trade Forum. You should be able to play most of today's game with that card. Do a search.

Edit: Though your cpu would be big bottle neck for some games.

 

[dmw16]

I have a 4MB Trident card and an 8MB Voodoo2 accelerator...it would make your graphics super fast...

But in all seriousness...a GF3, being as cheap as they are, is the way to go.
-doug

 

[LesPaul]

agreed.. any of the geforce3 series cards would be your best bet... check FS/T forum or soemthing like ebay to find a really nice deal on one.

 

[apac]

Keep in mind that your processor and PC100 ram will be seriously capping the performance of that card. When I was building my computer I had some problems so I sent back the processor and had to wait 2 weeks for another one. During that time I replaced the Voodoo 3 in my 400mhz p2 w/ 256 PC133 with a gf4 Ti4200 and the performance increase when gaming was negligible. In counter-strike (the game I was playing at the time) my average FPS went up roughly 10 fps.

If I were you I'd stick with the TNT (aren't those 16mb like a voodoo 3?) and spend the $60 on something else, like a good sound card.

 

[ed21x]

radeon 7000 perhaps?

 

[Athlon4all]

I seem to recall the GF3's being very, very, limited by the CPU. However, a R7000 is not a good gaming card at all. I am almost leaning towards maybe a R7500, GF4MX, or for DX8 support a R8500/R9000 although I cannot recall how the R8500/9000 did on older CPU's. I am thinking that you should check out Ace's Hardware's "upgrade" articles where they look at issues like this. Check out this page of Ace's very first upgrade artcile. He says that "Compare however the yellow line with the black line and you will see that the Geforce 3 can only flex its muscle if it plugged in a motherboard with DDR SDRAM." also in a table further down that page he says that he lost 17% of performance from going from a GF2 GTS to a GF3 on a Duron 850 system.

Here's links to some of Ace's other "upgrade" article's:
Upgrade Decisions: Better CPU or Video Card (Dated 9/11/00)
2001 Hardware Upgrade Guide (Dated 1/11/01)
<a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://
[L=T-Bred Upgrade Article]http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=45000368">Palomino Athlon XP Review/Upgrade Article</a> (dated 6/10/02)
2003 Gamers' Hardware Upgrade Guide (dated 2/6/03)

There might be others but there should be a ton of other info in those article. Please don't hesitate to email me if you would like to have some more help or would like to find out more about some Good News! I would not PM me because I don't come to AT Forums too often anymore.

 

[charlie21]

Emulators are more CPU than GPU dependent. And for $60 you could pick up a GeForce4MX.

 

[Ionizer86]

Radeon 9100 or an 8500. You may find one for $30 to $50 with 128MB of ram. That way, even when the other stuff is upgraded, the Radeon can still do light gaming. Performs like a Geforce 3 Ti500, but you may find one for cheaper than the GF3.

 

[xSauronx]

personally, id put a gf2 in it for 15 or 20 bucks
a gf3, radeon 8500/9100 would be a waste. a gf4mx more of a waste; if your going to spend the money you owuld on a gf4mx then get a gf3

but in all honestly i doubt anything would suit it better than a gf2. by the time any upgrade is possible hed be better off to get a new rig. if you have the extra cash a gf3/8500 may be nice, but probably a waste

 

[bluemax]

Radeon LE !! Or just the original Radeon DDR 32MB or 64MB VIVO.

I remember reading a review (magazine) that pitted all the graphics cards of 3 years ago on low-end processors (Celeron 400) and the Radeon cards performed the best by a noticable margin.

Then again, if you're into oldies, a classic Voodoo3 would be nice.

 

[toss12]

I have decided that because this person wants TV out, I will get a GeForce2 TI 64mb MSI w/VIVO. This card is $44 shipped on Pricewatch. I am not ordering until Monday so if this is a bad idea let me know.

Which is a better buy a Geforce2 GTS 64mb for $38 or the card mentioned above?

thanks

 

[Whitedog]

SIX / HALF-DOZEN