Which card for this build would be better?

[JCB]

I am building a comp for this guy and I am going to put either of these cards in his system. Which one do you think I should put in it? It is a choice between this ATI radeon 7000 or this PNY GeF4.

[wolfie]

hi
go with the ati, those gf4 are crap.

[TwoRails]

Hi JCB,

All GF 4 MX cards ARE NOT true GeForce 4 cards!!! They're not even as good as a GF 3. They are crippled cards and do not support the features and instruction set of the GF 4. If you're budget won't go with a non-MX GF 4, try for at least a GF 3.


TwoRails

[HAL9000]

I agree, my preference is for the ATI, but if you're gonna go GeForce, look for a higher end GeForce 3 instead.

BTW, the price on the ATI is high, check out mwave.com, they have it for $20 less.

[DrZaius]

Yep, definately go with the ATI card. If you want nVidia then either go with a GF3 Ti200/500 or a non-MX GF4.

[Orcmonkey]

I'd much rather have something like a geforce 2 ultra of GTS then that ATI.

[DrZaius]

Tom's Hardware recently made a chart comparing quiet a few video cards, old and new. No technical details, just raw benchmarks scores. Pretty good reference for how the cards stack up.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic...418/index.html

This is basically how I interpreted the chart...

• For raw speed, the GeForce4 Ti4600 is tops
• The Radeon 8500 is close to the GeForce4 Ti4600 and cheaper
• The GeForce4 MX cards are very weak, and in many cases beaten by the GeForce3 and even the GeForce2 Ultra scores are close
• The Radeon VE (7000) is close to the bottom and a bad choice for a gaming card, but it'll work fine for regular 2D use
• The "sweet spot" right now (price/performance) would probably be the GeForce3 Ti cards

Hope that helps.

[keifir]

don't forget the upcoming Gf4 Ti-4200. It's probably is gonna be the most popular of them all: simply cause it's a full blown gf4 and is gonna be relatively 'cheap': ~200$US.

[keifir]

hm... i just realized my previous post is completely off topic...

about the choices that you have for the cards: GF4 gets my vote - it's newer, faster and a bit more hyped . Plus i'm an Ati rad7200 horror story survivor - i guess that makes me a bit biased.

[Furius92]

When I read reviews of the Radeon 8500 128MB vs the Geforce 4 Ti 4400/4600, it seemed that the picture quality of the Radeon was quite a bit worse on some parts. Like on some lighting things, or on skies with clouds and such. It seemed like it had "blotty" and unblended clouds and lights rather than the Geforce 4's well blended features. Also, there was this circle thing, and from the Radeon, it looked sorta like a octogon (only part of it was shown) and Geforce 4 showed it as a perfect circle. Have these issues been resolved in the newest ATI drivers?

[Werewolfdaddy]

Doc and Hal have my respect, but I think that the Geforce 3 and 4 cards are the way to go. If money is of concern go with a geforce 3 ti200 or wait for gf4 ti4200, but if not go with the geforce 4 ti4600. I have one and you'll can take it, when you pry it from my cold dead fingers... or when something better comes along.