What is a very good video card ?

[whitegabriel]

Hi !

I'd like to have a very good video card, the things what I expect from the card :

AGP8x and I don't need TV Tuner on it.
If there is video in, I need that option only if the card knows not
only the NTSC mode.
The video out must know more system too.
128MB DDR

but I don't know ATI or NVidia /I prefer this name better regarding what I've read/ and which chipset...
TI, 4200, 4400, 4600, GeForce2-3-4, MX440 ... etc...

I heard very soon if is not already out the new Nvidia GeForce FX chipset .......

Any suggestion ????

Thanx in advance !

[Fuze]

As of right now, your best bet is the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. There are some Nvidia 8x cards I think, but the ATI will take you further into the future.

[v1r4L fr3nzy]

Yes the 9700 pro supports AGP 8x as well as DX9, but so will the GFFX but it will be pretty pricey. I would wait for the FX to come out, and then buy the 9700 pro when the prices drop.

[Andrewxcav]

I agree, with v1r4L fr3nzy, and I plan on getting one when the FX is out(although right now you can make a 9500 into one, but I'm after AIW)

opinions on putting the 8x card into my 4x board(how big of a performance difference)?

[RenegadeKing]

8x has almost no performance increase over 4x (except in benchmarks, and still not much of an increase at all)

[TwoRails]

Hi whitegabriel,

From an old Jazz tune, "The Best is Yet to Come".

The GeForce "5", a.k.a. GF "fx" is coming out very soon now. In a couple of weeks by many accounts. Prelimary BETA benchmarks show it to spank the 9700 Pro, which is currently the hottest thing out there.

I'm going to wait to the retail cards hit the street and then see the real benchmarks before I update my Geforce 3.

TwoRails

[Andrewxcav]

What do you think about keeping my geforce3 ti200 128mb with a faster cpu and more system memory
(which I plan to do for my own reasons anyway)

[TwoRails]

Originally posted by Andrewxcav What do you think about keeping my geforce3 ti200 128mb with a faster cpu and more system memory (which I plan to do for my own reasons anyway)

That's exactly what I'm doing

TwoRails

[Ryan2318]

you won't believe how much a faster cpu helps. I had the same card in my old system and new one. old one had 900 althon and new one has 2.4 p4 (overclocked to 2.7 for ram to be 400) and on the old one i got around 3,000+ 3dmarks. The picture looked good from teh video card but it had some problems running games at good fps and all that. Once I got it in the new system it is now almost 13,000. (ti 4200 btw)

[KoOk]

Today (1/27/2003) a few places released benchmarks for the GeForce FX (Ve3d.com has links) they are still early but the FX doesnt seem to be destroying the 9700p like everyone expected (usually only about 10-15 frames more then the 9700, extra few hundred marks in 3D mark) but overall on the forums people have been disappointed. There were no DX9 tests yet, but if the drivers dont up the performance like they did for the initial release of the GeForce3 (up 50% with one driver release) you should wait till it comes out and then look into getting the 9700Pro (R300) for the price drop or wait for ATIs next card the R350. Thats what I may end up doing.

[TwoRails]

That's why I've said in other thread that I don't put much weight in the Beta card benchmarks, and will wait for the retail version benchmarks. I do like, however, that even the Beta benches are 10-15 fps higher than the 9700, since I'm a GF fan. As KoOk mentions, the benches should get higher.

[Ryan2318]

yeah wait till they officially come out then the new 3dmark to come out for newer tests and also nvidia to release their awesome drivers.

[HAL9000]

The reviews on the GeForce FX are out and it's only marginally beating the 9700, but at a much higher price, not to mention... HEAT. Take a look on the cooling of one of those suckers... takes up 2 slots on your system so it can vent the heat directly out of the computer.

[TwoRails]

Not sure about the "much higher price" thing... I still haven't found anything definitive on pricing, but it seems like most are expecting a price of about $399 US, which is what the 9700 Pro goes for in my area.

It's like the benchmarks, I think we'll have to wait until they're out to be 100% sure. I've heard extremes of $300 to $800.....

TwoRails

[Andrewxcav]

The 9500 can be made into a 9700 though, and I've seen the 9700 all in wonder complete deluxe and such on newegg for 300 bucks

I wont be getting a new video card for along time htough, so I can wait for ATI and Nvidia to duel it out another year

[Jeradln82]

Originally posted by HAL9000 The reviews on the GeForce FX are out and it's only marginally beating the 9700, but at a much higher price, not to mention... HEAT. Take a look on the cooling of one of those suckers... takes up 2 slots on your system so it can vent the heat directly out of the computer.

Yeah I was just reading the Rage3D forums. Seems like the FX is kinda dissapointing consider all the hype and how a lot of ppl thought it would blow the 9700pro away. THIS is just one thread about the FX.

Hopfully the FX isn't a bust. I like to see competition

[Ryan2318]

trust me the thing hasn't even come out yet. besides you'll prolly want to wait till more graphic intensive games come out to see it shine. and like i said you have to wait for official nvidia drivers and better tests like the upcoming 3dmark2003

[Jeradln82]

Originally posted by Ryan2318 trust me the thing hasn't even come out yet. besides you'll prolly want to wait till more graphic intensive games come out to see it shine. and like i said you have to wait for official nvidia drivers and better tests like the upcoming 3dmark2003

I hope your right.
They do need to find a quieter way of cooling that thing though. The GPU runs just as hot or hotter than AMD processors. While at idle the video card runs no louder than the 9700pro but when D3D or OpenGL games are ran it gets over 2x louder were the 9700pro stays the same. I couldn't imagine the noise you'd have if you had my system with that video card, It would get on my nerves. But thats just me.

Hopfully this stuff will be fixed after its release.

[keifir]

77dB !!

hell, even if i had the money i wouldn't buy that card.Just imagine:

- son, r u vacuuming your room again?
- no Mom, just checking my email...

they better do smthg about all that noise - even thou it seems they got the fan to spin down when the card is underclocked - it still has the same noise levels as 9700 - which is loud.

hmm... the benches, thou preliminary seem to be dissappointing - i was expecting more gain from the .13 chip and that fast memory they got.

Oh well, it's nice to have a bday in march - by then the prices usually come down on the older gen cards

keifir

[RenegadeKing]

77dB? Where does it say it will be that loud? I highly doubt it would get up to 77 dB. Delta 80mm fans don't get that loud.

[TwoRails]

I haven't read anything about excessive noise... yet...?

[Andrewxcav]

3 more db and you can have permanent hearing damage !

smaller fans are defineatly more annoying, but they arent as loud in db, just higher frequency for the most part so if you had a 77dba small fan you'd have no friends