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Lower end PC video cards
mal - Jul 5, 2003
    mal Jul 5, 2003 
I'm looking for a cheap AGP video card to go in a low end PC. It currently has a S3 Virge DX PCI card and I want something a little better.

The mobo only runs up to AGP 2x and I'm not looking for blazing performance, just a good all round card.

Any suggestions?

(I'm not looking to buy any cards ATM, I just want some suggestions)

    antime Jul 5, 2003 
The Radeon 9200 and 9000 look pretty attractive and have the benefit of being available in fanless configurations.

    mal Jul 5, 2003 
Sorry, I should have specified second hand and really cheap.

Possibly even a few generations old.

    IBarracudaI Jul 5, 2003 
probably a geforce1 32mb sdr, should be pretty cheap by now... or a geforce2...

IMO they are good all-round video cards <_<

    Gear Jul 5, 2003 
I you are going to be a real cheapass, these are your options for a 3d card:

S3 savage 4/2000 (they have serious compatibility issues, specially with VIA chipsets like a kt133 motherboard)

Nvidia riva tnt or Geforce 256/mx

Any old Ati card is most expensive; but you can try to find an Ati Rage

You can try any product of the SIS family (cheapest ones) since the 305/315 model; but use it at your own risk (they are pure shit)

And stay away of the 3dfx cards (voodoo family), they are a pain in the ass

Tell us wich card you bought.

    racketboy Jul 6, 2003 
I used a higher end voodoo card in a few older machines -- worked pretty well.

I never used them with a NT based OS though

but I would suggest a GeForce 1 or 2 card for the best bang for the buck

    Shitface Jul 6, 2003 
Did anyone see the Halo representation of the GeForce cards long ago. Like comercials. Maybe i can go find them!

    Tagrineth Jul 6, 2003 
That representation and stuff is for very early tech demos (the Voodoo5 5500 has a Halo screenshot on its box).

And if you want REALLY cheap, and surprisingly good, look for a used SiS Xabre-based card.

    Alexvrb Jul 6, 2003 
Xabre has very poor visual quality. I've seen it in action, it managed to make Quake 3 look ugly and blurry even compared to older cards. If you tune the drivers to look decent, it loses all of its speed. Try to pick up a Geforce 2 MX 400, they have 32MB and 64MB variants and both are very, very cheap. If you don't need 64MB of VRAM, get the 32MB version. I can pick one of those up including shipping for around 39 bucks.

Speaking of Radeon cards, ATI's naming scheme is getting bad, at least for their lowend cards. The 9200 is basically a relabeled 8500 Retail. The 9000 Pro is faster than 9000 and 9100, but slower than 9200 (8500 as well). When I say "slower" I don't mean clockspeed. I mean actual performance. Pretty annoying.

    Tagrineth Jul 6, 2003 

  
Originally posted by Alexvrb@Jul 6, 2003 @ 04:48 PM

Xabre has very poor visual quality. I've seen it in action, it managed to make Quake 3 look ugly and blurry even compared to older cards. If you tune the drivers to look decent, it loses all of its speed. Try to pick up a Geforce 2 MX 400, they have 32MB and 64MB variants and both are very, very cheap. If you don't need 64MB of VRAM, get the 32MB version. I can pick one of those up including shipping for around 39 bucks.

Speaking of Radeon cards, ATI's naming scheme is getting bad, at least for their lowend cards. The 9200 is basically a relabeled 8500 Retail. The 9000 Pro is faster than 9000 and 9100, but slower than 9200 (8500 as well). When I say "slower" I don't mean clockspeed. I mean actual performance. Pretty annoying.


Not quite. The latest Xabre drivers fix the 'turbo texturing' issues and clean up output tremendously, resulting in IQ at least as good as the GeForce4MX series but with better features and the old speed.

And the Radeon 9200 Pro is slower than the 9000 Pro which is slower than the 8500 and its identical twin the 9100.

    IceDigger Jul 6, 2003 
You can get a radeon 7500 or geforce 2 for less then $40

    mal Jul 7, 2003 
Yeah, I'm kind of leaning towards a GeForce 2.

    Alexvrb Jul 8, 2003 

  
Originally posted by Tagrineth@Jul 6, 2003 @ 11:27 PM

Not quite. The latest Xabre drivers fix the 'turbo texturing' issues and clean up output tremendously, resulting in IQ at least as good as the GeForce4MX series but with better features and the old speed.

And the Radeon 9200 Pro is slower than the 9000 Pro which is slower than the 8500 and its identical twin the 9100.


The new TT=3 mode is much better, I see that now. But its still not as good as TT=1 or TT=0. I'd have to take the performance hit just to get better texture quality, if I used a Xabre.

Whoops, I mixed up 9100 and 9200, the 9200 was meant as a replacement to 9000, not the 9100. The 9200 still only has one texturing unit per pipeline. But, uh, the 9200 regular almost performs as well as the 9000 Pro. I'd think the 9200 Pro would outperform the 9000 Pro. I haven't seen any benches on the Pro variant yet though.

    mal Jul 19, 2003 
I ended up getting a GeForce2 MX 400 64MB.

It's very nice.

   racketboy Jul 21, 2003 

  
Originally posted by mal@Jul 19, 2003 @ 10:37 AM

I ended up getting a GeForce2 MX 400 64MB.

It's very nice.


is that fanless?

I'm gonna be looking for the same type thing when I build my box

    mal Jul 22, 2003 
No, it has a fan, but it's not loud enough to worry about.

The room I use it in is much louder.