Suggestions needed! Budget $110 What to get??

[AMDSoldier]

My freind want's to upgrade his pc. I'm gonna be building it for him. And I need to know which video card would you guys recommend.

GF2 GTS 32mb $109 +shipping (the one I'm leaning towards)
Kyro 2 64mb $107 +shipping
Voodoo 4 4500 $58 +shipping
Voodoo 5 5500 $ 89 +shipping
Radeon LE $68 +shipping

Out of those which would you guys go for?

I'm leaning torwards the GF2 GTS 32mb because the person I'm building it to knows nothing about computers and just plays games. I don't want to go to his house and update his drivers every other day or whatever. This is why I'm not looking to favorable at the Radeon LE.

Also this is on a very tight budget so the lower the price the better. That's why I put a Voodoo 4 4500 in there. Looking best bang for the buck here.

Right now he's on a Via intergrated video card pos, with a K6-2 500mhz. So anything will seem good to him, don't go overboard guys!

Here are his to be specs:

750mz Duron (mine, sell for cheap)
MSI K7T Turbo
pc166 256mb ram (my ram, sell for cheap)

Basically he has about $250 or so bucks and he wants a whole new system! But with some old parts from his other parts though.

 

[AMDPwred]

My vote goes to the Kyro II.

 

[jobberd]

i would suggest the Radeon LE. All that would be required is a BIOS flash and he'll have a Radeon DDR with similar performance to the Geforce2 GTS and at almost half the price. Best bang for buck ratio there. But if not, then why not consider a geforce2 mx? It gives MUCH better performance compared to a voodoo4 and at a similar price

 

[arod324]

I'd have to say that the Radeon DDR LE is the best choice if are really wanting to save money. The Voodoo's aren't that great, and there is virtually no more support for them. However,if you want to spend a little more money, I would put it towards the Kyro2. IMHO Radeon DDR LE is the best bang for your buck.

 

[Archknight]

For money saving, the Radeon LE win. But your problem seems to be compatibility and less troubles to fix his simple problems.
Although I will pick a Kyro2, but in this case a GTS suit him more.

 

[danii8]

My vote for Kyro 2 64mb
He's gamer, right?

 

[Kingofcomputer]

definitely Radeon LE

 

[RobsTV]

I agree with the GF2 GTS. While the other cards may work well, for all around performance and compatability, you can't beat the GF2 GTS. But, I've seen them going for $75 to $99, so do some more checking, especially in the Hot Deals and For Sale forums. Forget pricewatch type places.

 

[RaymondY]

GF2 GTS

 

[BreakApart]

Well from that list lets work backwards...

-Dump the Voodoo4 the 5500 is soo much better.
-The KyroII is an excellent card, however i have read you won't unleash it's power until you have a 900Mhz or above CPU.
-The Voodoo 5 is nice, but long term? I'd have to pass...

That leaves (2):
-The GTS is an excellent 3D gaming card, can't go wrong here... Unless you like 2D, geforce stinks.
-The Radeon LE is actually the MOST bang for the buck here, at that price considering it can be patched to full speed, and 2D quality is tops in this group. Also will scale nicely if he upgrades the CPU next fall...

So with that CPU combo i'd go Radeon LE. Plenty fast, and saves him some money to buy you lunch with for helping him...

 

[crzyc]

get the le, its nice

 

[Teasy]

Get the Kyro II, there's no way you need a 900mhz CPU to get great performance out of it thats simply a fairy story that some people like to spread around (not saying your lying BreakApart I'm just saying your wrong), anyway my CPU is a Duron 750mhz but I have it running at 975mhz, most Duron's will overclock just as well and lots of them will overclock even better then that.

 

[AMDSoldier]

Hmm wow many choices here.

I got some new info. The Voodoo 5 5500 is actaully about $120+. So that is much too high of a price..

Here's what I was thinking..I have a Radeon 32DDR. What if I sell him that for cheap? Cause I find it too slow for my taste and I'm sure it will be fine for him, after all he is on a intergrated video and has a 500mhz K6-2.

I think this may work out well, as I sell my old stuff anyway. Good idea or bad idea?

 

[ToeKnee]

I can say for experience that the LE is an awsome card.It is easy to flash and OC'ed like a Beast(with the additon of an old cpu fan and homemade ramsinks)i reached 195/195 stable.IQ was top notch as well.Upgraded to a Visiontek Geforce3 though =).

 

[Ciber]

if this guy knows nothing about pc's then go with the gts, this guy needs 100% compatibility and zero driver problems, which you will most likely only get with the gts, not to mention higher fps at higher res and settings.

Edit: you will just cripple that system for gaming if you put in an LE or kyro.

 

[Chusher3]

Damn, and to think I recently bought my ASUS Gf 2 MX 2V1D for 130

 

[Jeff7]

E-mail is on the way.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

KYRO all the way, for under$110 you cant go wrong with this card. and it will be better off in the future as games will feature more overdraw and that is where the kyro excels.

 

[Einz]

if you want pure speed, then go with the gts or the kyro. if you want image quality, then the voodoo cards are the best. i've never seen better implementation of fsaa and even nvidia's new drivers aren't that good. i showed my friend ff7 on my computer at a LAN he had and he said i didn't know those guys had eyes