VERY budget video card recommendations

[mindless1]

bradyapba,
in certain situations you might be right, but only swapping the video card then trying to draw a conclusion about 256MB of memory is only half the story. Last time I noted memory utilization on a system that WAS running a TI4200, it was @ 300-something MB. So, 256MB is light for games, and we havent' established that the primary, most important function of the system is to be gaming. On the other hand, I have played Doom3 on a GF3TI200, it wasn't good at it but it was playable. Even so, modern gaming and budget optimized systems are two opposite extremes, trying to build for playing only a few titles today is a pretty narrow window of opportunity, possibly not worth the other compromise.

As with throwing in another 256MB memory, one could also throw in a video card later, instead. Based on the inital description, "card that can play dvds at the very least" and that gaming was third on the list after Photoshop, it would seem there isn't a great need for higher-grade video on the thin budget, remembering that the games themselves are also another ~$35 per.

 

[bradyapba]

Mindless,


I see your point. The mem will probably help out in photoshop type apps... and the on board video will play Dvd's....


But, the ti4200 will certainly play ALL current games, and will for at least a year. My 2nd PC with the ti4200 in it(now my wifes computer) plays all current games smoothly.

So the extra stick will def help out system up the system, and the VC the games, but neither will do both.

So i guess if it was me, i would buy the video card and spend a few extra bucks for another stick of ram... thats still a pretty tight budget, and will get you plenty of gaming to boot.


I guess its up to the user!!!

 

[PingSpike]

You both have good points, but since games was 3rd on the list with dvds and photoshop before it...more ram is probably the way to go. An onboard nforce2 IGP will play older games acceptably.

 

[WuGahCha]

GF4-Ti will play most newer games smoothly under low-mid settings, but under DX8
at same time, MX440 will do the same but under DX7, u still get decent frame rate but it just looks crapy

so back to the point, I would rather have 512mb ram and a mx440 over 256mb and GF4, cuz GF4 only give u advantage in games, and budget pc shouldnt be used on games anyway. while 512mb will give u a big boost regardless

but then again, a mobo with buildin mx video card may be more expensive than the cheapest mobo+cheap video card, so maybe consider getting a via mobo with build-in S3 video card (those should be really cheap!)...

but u should definately spend money on 512mb ram before GF4

 

[barnett25]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I think I'm going to try to get both the Ti4200 and 512 Ram if at all possible. The way I saw it I couldn't get an integrated graphics motherboard for enough cheaper than a separate mb and graphics card to get another stick of ram. So it seems that the best thing is to try to stretch my budget. I would still like more input on what case/PSU combos you guys recommend. I like the idea of getting a pretty good PSU and a cheap (but solid) case seperately. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[WuGahCha]

good choice on the 512 ram and V/C
oh btw, if u cant find a Ti4200 for cheap, get a radeon9600pro, they are quite a bit better with newer titles and similar with the older stuff

as for case/psu, unless u overclock, any cheap stuff will do, the power supply MAY burn out, my P3 psu burned out after 2 yrs, my friend's p4 psu burned out after 2 days (replaced under warrenty). those only 2 cases i know of. but cheap psu are cheap to replace too

for $60 bucks or so, you get an enermax case w/350W psu, probably the cheapest brand name/quality case u can buy, good quality psu, better ventalation, many come with a temperature display and a side window

 

[Soulkeeper]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Soulkeeper
if you want dx9 i recommend the fx5200 and ultra versions
don't expect anything better than a slide show in benchmarks and having to minimize the resolution and/or details to min settings in this budget range tho
most everything out right now is gonna run very good
last gen games should run alright tho

good luck

We've been through this already, and no.

- M4H

i've owned both cards,
just putting in some input
aim for the most mem bandwidth on yur card purchase that you can afford and you'll generally be happy. the Fx5200 has it's place tho for a mere 60 bucks, just not a gaming card

so yeah, and woohooo

 

[WuGahCha]

omg how can people even consider a GF-FX5200??? the entire FX line sucks price and performance, maybe the FX5700s would have been decent if its priced same as radeon9600s

 

[sbuckler]

My $0.02 is the graphics card is the lowest of your priorities - lets face it she's going to spend most of her time surfing the web/chatting on msn. Thinking about that get the ram, and a really cheap (radeon 7000, geforce 2mx) graphics card. You can always get a fancy graphics card later if she suddenly becomes a hardcore gamer (well descovers the sims). You also don't need a fancy psu, just buy a cheap 300W+ one and you'll be fine - it's not like were talking about some high end o/c'ers system here. On saying that it pays to google whatever you are looking at getting to check reviews - you want to get the best you can. Be careful on your choice of cdrom drive - some cheap ones have a nasty habit of going wrong, and as well as being moderately reliable try to find a psu that doesn't sound like an airplane taking off (a common problem with the cheapest fairly high powered ones)

 

[pkypkypky]

i'll dig the grave on this thread and ask a question:

how do I know which ti4x00 cards have lifetime warranties? Is there just a list of manufactuers that have it?


will it matter much if i get a 4xAGP one even if I can support 8x?

 

[Rogue 2]

OK.. I'll chime in here with another question to add to this discussion. My brother just upgraded his PC from an old Duron 1GHz to this:

ABit NF8 (250Gb)
A64 2800+
512 PC3200 (generic)
WD 120GB SATA

And I'm giving him my old GF3 Ti200 card. He used to have a GF2 MX400. He does a little bit of gaming, but just wants to be able to "keep up" when we do the occasional LAN party. With lower graphics settings, do you think he's OK until I can help him pry open his wallet again?

 

[mindless1]

Depends on what you're playing?
GF3TI200 isn't so great as you already knew by having it. Fine card for older DX8 games but for HL2, Doom3, etc, even lowering res. to 640x480 it's going to struggle. Given enough tweaking, quality hacks/reductions some games may be playable but it won't be nearly as enjoyable, more like playing old games when that many concessions are made.

 

[MalfurionStormrage]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
Err you can forget about light gaming with just 256megs of ram. If you're planning on running Win 2000 or XP, they alone will take up at least 200 megs of memory for background programs.. that's a barebones clean install. The system will be swapping so much you'll barely get smooth performance just surfing or typing. Forget multitasking and forget any kind of gaming (maybe starcraft.... maybe). 512 megs is the minimum for any NT based operating system. In fact, I'd say the memory is more of a bottleneck than the vid card by far.

When you use the registry entry to prevent kernel swapping, a default run of Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4 takes up 92 MB (no programs loaded other than Windows). The only reason I upgraded from 256 MB RAM to 512 MB RAM was because the Desert Combat mod to Battlefield 1942 is so bloated that I had to upgrade to keep running Battlefield at 800x600x32 (non-FSAA mode) with all details turned up and maximum distance enabled.

The game that I bought recently that didn't run well on my video card was Need For Speed Underground 2. I had to swap in my wife's Radeon 8500 (from her old computer) which, as a DirectX 9 card, was able to play the game a lot better. For some reason, the Ti4200 beats the Radeon in every other game on my computer. Go figure.

Don't ask me about HL2 or Doom 3 on this rig because I haven't tried them yet. I'm waiting for the Asus A8N-E (non-SLI) to build out my new system.

 

[pkypkypky]

how about my questions!

Originally posted by: pkypkypky
i'll dig the grave on this thread and ask a question:

how do I know which ti4x00 cards have lifetime warranties? Is there just a list of manufactuers that have it?


will it matter much if i get a 4xAGP one even if I can support 8x?

 

[MalfurionStormrage]

Originally posted by: pkypkypky
how do I know which ti4x00 cards have lifetime warranties? Is there just a list of manufactuers that have it?

I don't know this off-hand. Maybe someone else can answer this?

Originally posted by: pkypkypky
will it matter much if i get a 4xAGP one even if I can support 8x?

There isn't that huge of a jump from AGP 4x to AGP 8x. Most games don't even take advantage of the full 8x anyway. It will depend more on your system specs.

 

[0JK0]

Originally posted by: dderolph

Originally posted by: modedepe
ti4200 is definitely the best choice in that range. 512mb of ram would definitely help.

I don't get it. If you look at the GPU guide for NVIDA video cards, the ti4200 is in the DirectX 8 section; the FX 5200 is in the DirectX 9 section. Why is the ti4200 a better card?

In the link included in the quotation above there are 2 6800's. One with core NV41 and the other with core NV40. What's the differance between them if the specification is excately the same. Sorry, a little off topic but I kinda curious about it...

 

[MalfurionStormrage]

Originally posted by: 0JK0


In the link included in the quotation above there are 2 6800's. One with core NV41 and the other with core NV40. What's the differance between them if the specification is excately the same. Sorry, a little off topic but I kinda curious about it...

Both the NV40 and NV41 are 6800s. The NV40 is a 16/6 (16 pixel pipeline with 6 vertex shaders) card and the NV41 is a 12/5 (12 pixel pipeline with 5 vertex shaders). Both the NV40 and NV41 cores were used in the production of the vanilla 6800 cards; in the case of the NV40, one quad (4 of the 16 pixel pipelines) and one vertex shader were disabled to make a cheaper card.

The NV40 was used to produce the 6800/6800LE, the 6800GT, and the 6800 Ultra. The NV41 was used in the production of the 6800/6800LE. The holy grail of tweakers and overclockers is to find an NV40 core vanilla 6800 and then use tweaking software to enable the disabled quad and vertex shader to basically get a 6800GT by paying for a vanilla 6800.

 

[MalfurionStormrage]

Originally posted by: Rogue 2

ABit NF8 (250Gb)
A64 2800+
512 PC3200 (generic)
WD 120GB SATA

And I'm giving him my old GF3 Ti200 card. He used to have a GF2 MX400. He does a little bit of gaming, but just wants to be able to "keep up" when we do the occasional LAN party. With lower graphics settings, do you think he's OK until I can help him pry open his wallet again?

By "light-gaming", what games are we talking about? I saw a pretty big jump in my playing speed when I went from the GF3 line to the GF4 line.

 

[shiznit]

i say get a Radeon 8500LE 128meg; if you put some heatsinks on the ram and change the gpu cooler like i did you can OC the card up to 280/280 core and ram, making it faster than a gf4, plus it supports directx 8.1.

 

[MalfurionStormrage]

Originally posted by: shiznit
i say get a Radeon 8500LE 128meg; if you put some heatsinks on the ram and change the gpu cooler like i did you can OC the card up to 280/280 core and ram, making it faster than a gf4, plus it supports directx 8.1.

I would second the recommendation of the 8500 (my wife's old computer had one) except that my own Ti4200 beat the Radeon 8500 in every single game with the exception of Need for Speed Underground 2.

In Battlefield 1942 with the Desert Combat final mod, I had the Radeon turned down to 640x480x8 with all details turned down and it couldn't play the game anywhere near as well as the Ti4200 at 800x600x32 with all detail maxed out. (FYI, BF1942 is a DX7.1 game.)

 

[bucd]

Originally posted by: shiznit
i say get a Radeon 8500LE 128meg; if you put some heatsinks on the ram and change the gpu cooler like i did you can OC the card up to 280/280 core and ram, making it faster than a gf4, plus it supports directx 8.1.

I was reading through this post and didn't see anyone mention this card, thought it was odd and as i was just about to recommend it, i see that someone got to it before i did.

For a $40-$50, Ti 4200 is a great choice as well as the Radeon 8500LE or the Radeon 9000 pro is not a bad card for around that price range as well.

-D

 

[shiznit]

Originally posted by: MalfurionStormrage

In Battlefield 1942 with the Desert Combat final mod, I had the Radeon turned down to 640x480x8 with all details turned down and it couldn't play the game anywhere near as well as the Ti4200 at 800x600x32 with all detail maxed out. (FYI, BF1942 is a DX7.1 game.)

my 8500LE when overclocked smoked my old GF3 ti500 so I just assumed ii would be faster than a GF4 4200 but I guess I was wrong, sorry.

 

[mindless1]

There's not much point comparing XXX overclocked video card to others that aren't overclocked, since the others could also be o'c.

8500LE is not at all bad but no match for an overclocked TI4xxx (at DX8, forget about DX9 as neither is worth the bother). Even so, there really isn't such a need to go to elaborate measures anymore, if it's that important to get gaming performance just bite the bullet and buy a more modern card.

 

[shiznit]

agreed; those x800 xl's really need to hit msrp soon, i'm getting impatient

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: dderolph

Originally posted by: modedepe
ti4200 is definitely the best choice in that range. 512mb of ram would definitely help.

I don't get it. If you look at the GPU guide for NVIDA video cards, the ti4200 is in the DirectX 8 section; the FX 5200 is in the DirectX 9 section. Why is the ti4200 a better card?

This is not the best review but it gives you an idea of how a bunch of budget cards perform.
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/value-2003/index.html#p22. It is mostly a review of older games however(except for splinter cell and Halo)