Graphics graphics card (one ebay - in less than 10 minutes (hellllp!)

Winfast TDH3 64MB AGP Geforce 3 Video Card

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Winfast-TDH3-...780977246QQcategoryZ67863QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


is this any good?

for playing age of empires 3 , the sims 2 , sonic heroes , trainz etc

 

Dude for £1.20 do you think it's any good ? I don't think that card wil play anything you've mentioned, also it is extremely old, I've gathered your on a tight budget so your best bet would be a nVidia Geforce 6200 (256) that *will play the games you listed but barely. I'd reccomend you save you money so you could buy something with abit more power behind it, (Geforce 6800 XT/ Radeon X800 GT).

-Fr4nk

 

Not that it matters now but for future reference. It looked like an original GeForce3 (GF3) which is about 5 years old but was a pretty fast DirectX8 gfx card. There were also two 'TI' versions; GF3 TI200 was a little slower while GF3 TI500 was a touch faster. The GF4 TI was a welcome update to GF3, improving performance and a few other little nicities too, they were 4200, 4400 & 4600/4800 in rising order of speed.

The Radeon (Rad) 8500/8500LE was the competing card in that era, equal to the GF3. You should avoid the 9000 and 9200 which are slower (even their 'PRO' versions although they are closer). The 9100 was very similar to 8500 but often had lower clock speeds meaning performance was closer to the PRO versions of the 9000/9200 than a true 8500. BTW definitely give the GF4 MX a miss as they were way slower than all the above and only DirectX7 (they were enhanced GF2). While we're at what to avoid, other than the 8500LE you should avoid all LE/SE versiosn as they are usually a LOT slower than the standard version of the card (ie. minus any suffix). All DirectX8 should be DirectX9 'compatible' which some games demand.

After these cards came DirectX9 (supported in hardware not just 'compatible'). We still use this today albeit with a few little tweaks added (and bucket loads of performance on the top-end cards). Anyway these DX9 cards had extra abilities and were generally much faster than Rad8500 or GF4TI. The slower (yet decently fast) ones were the Radeon 9500 and 9600, with the 'PRO' or 'XT' versions offering a fair amount of extra speed. The Radeon 9700 and 9800 were the daddy's with the 'PRO' or 'XT' versions of these adding a little extra speed. Up until very recently these could still nip at the heels of the current mid-range cards selling for £100. The current bottom-end cards like Radeon X300/X1300 or GeForce 6200/7300 may be too pricey for you as people pay more becasue they are both new and current, despite them generally being no faster than a Radeon 9500/9600.

A lot does depends upon the PC the gfx card will go in, if it has a CPU slower than 1ghz there's little point in exceeding a Radeon 8500, GF3 or GF4TI, save your cash. If it has less than 256MB system RAM there's also little point unless you add more in, 512MB is a modern minimum. If you have a (non-Celeron) CPU 2.0ghz or faster then it's well worth plunking down a little extra cash for a 9500/9600 or better. Just to cover gfx RAM; 128MB is really a minimum but there's very little point in 256MB unless it's on a fast card like a 9700/9800.

So consider the destined PC, I've done a quick summary below. Each row is in speed order with '=' meaning rough equivilence. Do note the faster cards on each line are on the right although differences are often minor. 'GF' means 'GeForce' while if there's just a number it means it's a Radeon (the GeForce's competitor). This should give you a good idea of what to search for on eBay.

GF3 = 9100 = 8500 = GF4TI (all DX8, all below are DX9)
9500 = 9600 = GF5700Ultra
9600Pro = 9500Pro = 9600XT = GF5900
GF5900Ultra = 9700 = 9700Pro = 9800 = 9800Pro = 9800XT = GF6600