Now that I have my lcd all rigged up I'm moreso noticing my memory useage.. during a game of quake my memory useage goes 100% physical, and uses about 400mb of swap.. Anyway, I got about 100 bucks I can afford to spend, I was looking at some pc2100 512mb chips.. what would be money better spent, the memory or a new (cheaper) (ie, g4 mx400) video card? currently my system has 256mb pc2100 and a geforce2 mx400 64mb card.. what do you think would give me a better performance boost for the buck.. -scoob8000
memory the card wont be a prob im runnin 1 of those now with a 1700 with 256 pc 133 sdram and mine seems to be ok
the GF4MX cards are pretty poor, infact very poor IMO. - outperformed by GF2 GTS and above cards in some instances, if not all. definately go for a gf3 ti200 based card, the memory you have is fine
hrmm.. that seems to be the decision so far.. I see the ti200 on pricewatch is down around 100 now, what do you guys think.. gf3 ti200 64mb ddr - 120$ with shipping or gf3 128mb ddr - 145$ with shipping or ati radeon 8500 64mb ddr - 120$ with shipping those pretty much look like my choices.. -scoob8000
64Mb Ti200.....the 128Mb one is no better as the extra memory isnt used! The Radeon 8500 still has some driver issues I believe..........
driver issues my bum, thats an nVidia user's excuse to put ATi down funny how whenever you ask an ATi user if they've had driver probs, the majority never have done!
However, a radeon at that price will be an LE version, which will not perform as well as the Ti200. The 64MB Ti200 would be my choice. It seems that ATi have come good on the drivers, and not before time, since that was what crippled all previous attempts to break into the 3d market (Radeon, Fury MAXX, Rage). However, interesting things are happening in the graphics market, with Matrox's 3 year product cycle about to bear new fruit, 3D Lab's P10 announcement, and ATi's R300. Geforce 4 Ti4600 is just putting the gauntlet down for these competitors, and we can be assured that NVidia will not stand still. Gonna be an interesting ride folks!
a g4 mx is designed for 2d graphics as it has no 3d chipset. Getting memory would probably increase the performance of the whole system. I have a geforce 256 32mb ddr in my system. I am going to upgrade to the radeon 8500le as it is cheap and i will overclock it so that it runs at the same speed as the 8500 version.
I would like to point out that lazydemon's statement is incorrect. The GF4MX IS a 3d card, and is more capable than the GF2MX which it replaces. What the GF4MX lacks is DX8 support, but as yet there are very few DX8 games. However, with XBox using DX8 as the API, we will see many titles appear in the near future, as developers can create games for two platforms while programming for a single API. Best bang for buck remains the Ti200 in my opinion, as it will overclock a very long way.
Not really. You pays your money, etc... Compared to a GF4Ti4600, most things can be described as "a pile of poo". Everything is relative.
ya know, im really bad at this.. (blowing money on junk i dont need), but im really considering spending the 60-70 extra and getting the new gf4 ti4200.. it ranks third best at tomshardware, right next to the 4400 and 4600.. the model im lookin at is 128mb, TV out and DVI.. 199.99 plus 20 for shipping.. man, i dont know.. im soooo indecisive with stuff like this.. -scoob8000
Really? Let me quote some Radeon 8500 users over at the OcUK forums.......... How long has has the Radeon 8500 been out? Longer than the last month thats for sure Another person happy with ATIs driver support........ Now Nvidia cards aren't problem free, but they rarely get a bad rap in terms of driver support. The same cant be said for ATi, which is a shame really as the cards are very fast and extremely competitively priced. ATis drivers are improving with every release, but they are still not up with Nvidias..... My money would be on the Ti4200 if its anything less than £200.....
Since it is already possible to get Ti4400s for around £220, there's no market for the 4200 unless it gets well under £200.
as said by everyone go for the gfx card, as theres no point in the extra ram....i got 512mb of ddr and the only time it uses more then about 230 is when i run photoshop 7 with some other applications ie corel draw 10 at the same time...
Actually what you might want to do is flash the card with a retail bios, then it will run @ the retail speed. I've owned the Radeon 8500 for quite awhile and never had any problems with the driver support for it. Since the release of the 6052's OpenGL screams on it. Besides that I've never run the actually ATI supported drivers. The Radeon still is a very competitive card, and I miss the 2D quality of it. I have a Geforce 3 Ti500 now because it was on clearance at Best Buy for $133.40. BTW, Scoob. Save your money and get a 4400. You can easily clock it to 4600 speeds. If your going to spend the cash might as well get what will make you happy. If anyone would like to try some very good tweaked drivers, dry the Omega's or Redsoftware drivers. I like both brands of cards myself. Each one has it's own little quirks. I seriously think if you never owned the card yourself you shouldn't comment on the quality of it. There will always be some bad apples in the bunch.
well, i just ordered a Gainward gf4 ti4200 128mb.. with tv out and VIVO (vid in/vid out) plus the lcd flat panel connector.. read the reviews, looks easily oc'able too to above 4400 levels.. paid 220$ (us) after shipping and insurance.. plus its slick lookin, red PCB with red hsf and ramsinks.. -scoob8000
mmm i Neeeeeeeeeeed™ one of those to go with my MSI kt333 red mobo that would look shweet! then i need a red sound card and nic
