need gfx card advice

[Belm0nt]

OK the j.o demo is forcing my lazy ass to finally upgrade my useless pc (athlon 750/256mb/radeon 9000) which has been hobbling along in bhd at low detail.

I'm snaffling a new mobo/cpu 2.8gig p4 , 512 ram.
I'm kinda skint so need some pointers on a budget gfx card, have seen a gf3 ti500 for £30, tho this is only dx8 card, is this any use.
I'm not particularly fussed about running super high res/detail/fps, just needs to be playable n smooth at 1024 x 768 med detail. Ideally, the card would have heatsink only and no fan (pc is used for audio work too and needs to be as quiet as possible) though I guess cards without fans are pretty rare now.
Any tips appreciated..

[Steve]

what's your absolute max amount of money you have to spend?

the gf3 is a nice card but it will struggle i think, but you do have a great processor.

i take it you are from the UK? well tough deal here with prices but you can pick up a ATI RADEON 9600SE for around £50 brand new > http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...ics_cards.html

u can probably pick up a 2nd hand TI4600 for about £60 which is great if you dont want to make use of AA or dx99 features

[Belm0nt]

i could probably stretch to 70 bucks or so. I'm in the UK and having a rummage on ebay shows quite a few dx8 cards on sale at low prices. Does the dx9 capability of newer cards add much? And does 64/128 vid ram make much difference.
What kind of results are you getting with your Ti4200 on j.o demo B:P:R?

[Steve]

havent tried the demo yet :O
i struggled on team sabre but i was packing an AMD 1.4 GHz, since i have upgraded i have no probs on any games (inc FarCry).

the 4200 is a great card because it performs great, u can overclock it and it is dirt cheap. performance increases very well with faster processors so is a good choice.

you will pretty much all cards need a fan though :/ and a silent cooler : http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/ZM80C-HP.htm will cost about £25

[V99]

only £32.00 for a radeon 9200SE I payed $100 bucks New Zealand money, yes I would takes steves advice

[Cody 7]

I got a couple of questions for u guys. I have a nVidia GeForce 2 (32mb) video card 1.6 Ghz processor, and 512 mb ram. If i crank the details way down to the lowest i can get by playing the demo pretty well. But i sincereley need a new video card! should i get a nvidia or ATI? i heard Joint Ops had some trouble with the ATI cards. How much memory should i get with it? 128? should i get it on e-bay and what do i need to do to install it?

[Steve]

even though i have always had (and am usung now) nvidea, i would get an ATI card for gaming.

u wont need more then 128MB, probably not even for HL2 and Doom3.

u could get it on ebay but make sure the seller has a good rep.

make sure u have an AGP slot on your motherboard

[SAS*PR*]

I have a ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB works great in the game.. Seen 128mb SE version of the card for as low as $55 USD. With a 2.8GHZ P4, you should be able to get away with a GeForce 4 (long as it's not MX version) and play at acceptable rates, and still get the full effects. JO, BHD all use the Comanche 4 engine (although of course modified) which is CPU intensive. And I know BHD was taken advantage of some Direct X 8 effects, so I don't think Direct X 9 is that important.

I would stay away from the Radeon 9200 caues I've seen alot of people have problems with that, and I'm not sure if it's the quality of the boards or just something with the cards.

And I would try to get a 128mb card.

[Cody 7]

well from what i've seen, the best choice seems to be the Radeon 9600Pro 128mb. At this point i feel like any 128mb card would be a major improvement over my 32mb. Yes i do use AGP cards

I was looking at this card (it is cheap) and a dont see how this card would be bad at 256mb but i have heard to stay away from this card. Take a look: XfX nVidia GeForce FX 5200 256mb

[Cody 7]

oh and is what would be the ideal frames per sec for a game like joint ops? is there a way i can measure it in the game?

[Steve]

fps is nice over 80
any lower and you might notice the frames.
for some ppl this is less then 60 fps.

TBH don't be fooled by 256MB you dont need it

really though just buy the most expensive card you can afford, if you buy cheap you will be dissapointed

[SAS*PR*]

Originally posted by Cody 7
well from what i've seen, the best choice seems to be the Radeon 9600Pro 128mb. At this point i feel like any 128mb card would be a major improvement over my 32mb. Yes i do use AGP cards

I was looking at this card (it is cheap) and a dont see how this card would be bad at 256mb but i have heard to stay away from this card. Take a look: XfX nVidia GeForce FX 5200 256mb

Ugh, stay away from the GeForce FX 5200, it's a cheap budget card, like the GeForce 4 MX440. You'll be highly disappointed with the card, it's only slightly faster then the MX440, and slower then the GeForce 4 Ti4200.
http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2...0/index.x?pg=8 look at the Comanche 4 benchmarks, the 5200 scores even lower then the GF4 MX460 And BHD/JO is built on the Comanche 4 engine (modified/updated) which is very CPU intensive.

If you look here http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...iew/page11.asp u c that these Mid Range and High End cards all score about the same in Comanche 4 benchmark cause their all powered by the same speed CPU


If you have the bones, and want Nvidia, for ~$180 bucks get the GeForce FX 5900XT, that's a great card for the price, and it's a good overclocker.

Like the Geforce 4 Ti4200 was the cheaper spinoff of the Ti4600, the GeForce FX 5900XT is the cheaper version of the 5900Ultra. It's a good card with image quality on par with the Radeon 9600 Pro, but it's faster then the 9600Pro and 9600XT.

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/20...t/index.x?pg=6

u can see the GeForce FX 5900XT beat the crap out of the 9600XT.. and both are about the same price.