Graphics What's the best Geforce 3 (Ti) card?

I want (need) a new graphics card...

And I want a Geforce 3 (or a quadro), so no posts telling me to get a radeon whatever...I'm not interested.

What is the best combination of performance and price though (features are not a big deal)? I kinda like the look of the Hercules Ti500, which I can get OEM for £270, and I've heard that they'll OC to 260/590, and I like the cooling solutions on them as well. A friend of mine has a Leadtek Ti500, and I don't like the cooling so well. Or should I go for a Ti200, and overclock that? What is the real-world performance difference between an OC Ti200 and an OC Ti500 going to be, and is it worth the extra, given that I can get the Hercules Ti200 for £182?

At present I'm using a Creative GF2MX DDR (not as exciting as it sounds, because it's 64bit DDR, rather than 128bit DDR as on proper GF2s), running at 225/395 (stock 174/286).

I also want higher resolution/refresh capabilities (which the GF3 has) and higher image quality (does the GF3 have this?). I almost bought a Quadro 2 pro on ebay (for all of £127) to achieve these goals, but I want the GF3 architecture, and a Quadro DCC is (!!) £640.

 

from what i have heared people saying the Asus 8200's are damn fine cards.

 

Yes I would agree the Asus cards seem the best, and the Hercules Ti500 is good as well

If money is no object go for these cards, but if you only want to spend £200ish and still get a gf3, then the Ti200s will do the job very well, and when overclocked they are the same as a normal GF3! Again the Asus and the Hercules seem the best manafacturers, though the Elsa looks pretty neat as well.

If you want the best Gf3 cards out, go for the Gainward cards....they are pretty hard to find, and expensive compared to some other brands, but they are the dogs wotsits of graphics cards

The Gf3 series also has far better image quality than the gf2s, though still not as good as ATis or Matrox cards in 2d



Hope this helps!

 

Ok, I've been looking at it, and I'm more and more drawn to the Hercules Ti200. The price is good (£182), and hercules have one hell of a reputation with their Geforce cards, and I like the cooling solution they've used. I will overclock this, probably to about Ti500 stock, which I reckon should be fast enough...

Ahhh....1280x1024@100Hz gaming....bliss....

 

Well, as a follow up to this, my hercules Ti200 is winging its way to me now. I will report once I've installed it, and more importantly, overclocked it.

 

Nice card u gettin matey, Good Choice u made there

 

240/490 straight out the box. Thats within 2% of Ti500, for only 66% of the cash...

 

Elsa Geforce 3 Ti200 or Suma GeForce 3 Ti200

 

Gainward baby....look out for the article in a week