its that time, I need a new vid card...

[Briab Guy]

I built this pc, I think, 3 yrs ago. The VooDoo5.5AGP, pretty much, was just out. And ^&%6uing expensive. But this was super PC!!!
I NEEDED IT!!! I HAD TO HAVE IT!!!
Well, anyway, we all been ther I think. 300 bucks broker and 3DFX goes out a business. THANKS.
Time warp to now, and I have a Plll800 512MBR and need a new video card. Dont get me wrong. I still believe 3DFX had a good product, its just that there are more and more games coming out that I can't play. Even when I reduce the to 16bit, 20fps, look like old DOOM games.
So, what to buy? I was looking at that Matrox Parhelia-512 - but I can only guess what that will cost. And I am not going down that road again.(yea, right).
I need something that will help the Plll along. I can't afford to build a new system for some time. And I want the best performance I can squeze out of this one.
Any suggestions appreciated.

[Furius92]

Depends on what you want to spend on it. If you are willing to spend another $400 you can get the Radeon 9700 Pro which will, in benchmarks at least, have up to double the performance of the Geforce 4 Ti 4600. If you aren't willing to spend $400, I'd say look at something like the Geforce 4 Ti 4200 or perhaps the Radeon 8500 LE 128MB.

The Radeon 8500 LE 128MB can be overclocked quite a bit, if you buy the BBA (not the "Powered by ATI" one). This will give you performance beyond that of the regular Radeon 8500, at a cost about $50 less than it. If you go the Geforce 4 Ti 4200 route, I'd suggest something from Asus, MSI, Gainward or Leadtek. HTH

[wolfie]

g4 4200, or if you want to throw money out the window again the ati 9700

wolfie

[Briab Guy]

thanks guys,
I guess I have it narrowed down. let me ask you why no one seems to mention the GF4 4400 4X AGP. I have asked at other boards also, but most ppl bring up the 4600 or 4200.
the 4600 is a little pricy, but I can afford more then the 4200. Then I saw the 4400, but no one has even mentioned it. Is there a reason for that? Bad card?
I can get a 4400 for around 190, from PNY or MSI.
I thought PNY was ok? yes? no?
I cant afford to make a mistake here. I will work up the other cash if I have to, rather then end up with a disapointment.
Thanks for helping me out.

[Briab Guy]

I found a Leadtek and a Asus Tek for a couple bucks more. Is it worth it?
tnkx

[Briab Guy]

Me again,
I have it down to the Gforce Ti4400. Unless someone tells me that they are crap.

But the price discrepancies are amazing. I can buy the Gf-Ti4400 for $260 or more at some sites, or go to another and find it for $190, or lower. Now I know who makes it has to make some difference, but $100 and more?
Am I missing something? I was looking at going with Leadtek or PNY. But they all seem to be about the same.
Any inside info on this? Whats the difference?
thanks

[wolfie]

i had the pny g4 4400. great card. some might be retail and some will be white box version. so that could be the difference in price.

wolfie

[glc]

The difference in price between the 4200 and 4400 isn't really worth it for the minimal performance difference in my opinion. I would look at one of the Gainward "Golden Sample" cards - they are supposedly very overclockable, it should be able to give you 4400 performance at a 4200 price. If you are running a P3-800 you can't really get cutting edge performance out of a top line card anyway - you should consider what's going to match the rest of your system. Take the $$$ you save and put it away into your "new system" fund. I think the only way you are going to tell the difference between a 4200 and a 4400 in your system is with synthetic benchmarks - real world performance differences will probably not be noticeable.

Note - MSI makes all the PNY GF4 cards. Same thing.

[Blakhart]

The 8500/9700 may give a prettier picture than the gf series.
Something to consider.

[wolfie]

Originally posted by Blakhart The 8500/9700 may give a prettier picture than the gf series. Something to consider.

i really could debate that one.

wolfie

[DilLy]

I don't think the 9700 would compliment a P3. An 8500 maybe, but I would get the GForce3 ti500 if I were him, maybe a GForce4 ti4200.

[Briab Guy]

Yea, this is the problem. Plll800. What will go with it? I agree, that there is no sense in getting a high end card that will not make a diff in my system.
Would it be safe to say that going any higher then a 4400 would be a waste/ SAME WITH THE RADON, IS A 9700 GOING TO BE THAT MUCH BETTER THEN AN 8500?
If I knew I was going to build a new sys soon, then I could justify it. But I am not.
How hard is it to overclock the 42000? I have never done any of that. My MB does not overclock as far as I know(jumperless),
and I dont think the V00D005.5 does, with the exception of some software that is out there, and I tried that and didn't see any difference.
As far as price, some were OEM but most seemed [whitbox(?)]
retail. The cheapest I found was at pricewatch.
Thanks for all this help, I really do appreciate it.

[wolfie]

if you have a 300 watt power supply go for the g4 4200. then there are some beta drivers out 40.41 that have a program called "coolbits" that tweak the card pretty easy.

wolfie

[DilLy]

Briab Guy, this may be why a Gainward or Asus golden series 4200 will be nice. The manufacturers actually recommend overclocking those cards quite a bit, and you should not need any extra cooling unless you want to go overboard with it (they have excellent cooling on the card and are made for OC'ing).

But wolfies right, you may want to make sure you have a pretty good power supply to do it with out power loss.

[Mac Medic]

Dude, stick with the voodoo. Thats a fantastic card.