A few questions :] im thinking of spending up to about $70 (pounds) on a gpu but i do you get alot more performace for your money if you were to spend about $40 on a ati 9550se compared to a $70 9600? what would the best graphics card be at about $50? and is how old and how good is a geforce3 gpu, and would it get an ok gpu performace if it was overclocked i dont realy know anything about spec but it has ms-8870 ver:100 printed on it.? i think it might be a micro star international gpu
first off, a GF3 or a 9550SE are pretty slow. a 9600 is acceptable, but its moving on. It may not be fast enough to play with the highest level of graphics in newer titles . Imo save up 70pound and find a second hand 9700. It will be alot faster then all those cards, and although is over your budget, it is so worth it .
Yes 9600Pro or 9600XT is a good minimum, anything else is a good deal slower and you'll surely be needing to upgrade far too soon. The FX cards are poorer IMHO but still good, comparitive ones being the FX5600ULTRA and FX5700ULTRA. The FX5900 series and 9700/9800 (non SE) are a big step up and second hand ones should be within your budget. The 9550SE is much slower than the 9550 which is slower than the 9600 which is still a fair deal slower than the 9600PRO. The GF3 came in three flavours; GF3TI200 (slowest), std GF3 (fast) and GF3TI500 (slightly faster). Only the TI200 gained much by o/c'ing but even so the fastest GF3 is decently slower than the slwoest GF4TI (the 4200). The GF3 & GF4TI are only DX8 and you'd be wiser to get somethign DX9 if you want it to last. In raw speed outside of DX( and AA+AF the GF3 should be able to keep up with the 9600 (non PRO) as the GF4TI4200 could often keep up with the 9600PRO and FX5600ULTRA.
Are you a professional CAD engineer? If not, any half-good video card will be fine. High end video cards are for CAD engineers.
eh? that was a bit vague. Depends what you consider "high-end". An X800 would be considered high-end is its strong point is Gaming. Tbh i'd go for the best card that you can possibly afford. No point settling for a slower card, you'll just kick yourself later on becuase you didn't spend that extra $$$.
would it be a good idea just to install the geforce 3 card and then wait untill christmas to get a better one spending about $70 on a 9600? or should i get a nf4 mobo when they come out and just get a pci express gpu? they should have a good range of graphics cards by christmas?
