Author Topic: Video Card Help (Read 471 times)

Aaron · « **on:** February 04, 2003, 02:54:31 PM »

What is a good low priced video card?

Right now it seems as though a Geforce 2 MX 400, a GeForce 4 440 and Geforce 4 440 SE are the cheaper models.

I have no idea which is better. So thats where you people come in.

Anyways, if you could just give me some advice that would be great. You can also suggest another card, the above are just some of the lower priced ones I see around.

Thanks.

Pfunk · « **Reply #1 on:** February 04, 2003, 03:17:27 PM »

Any MX based GF is a piece, ask anyone here DO NOT BUY ONE. You want a good cheap card, get a radeon 9000 pro. About $80 on newegg.com

Aaron · « **Reply #2 on:** February 04, 2003, 03:30:50 PM »

Oh geeze, I didn't know that.

So all of those listed above are crap?

Also, I'm from Canada, so buying from newegg.com is probably out of the question, assuming it's from outside of Canada. You get hit with taxes on items, so it's not worth while (I found that out the hard way). There are a few stores around me that sell for good prices.

Maverick · « **Reply #3 on:** February 04, 2003, 03:50:04 PM »

I have a GE force 2 mx400. No problems in AH at all. I also play other box games and have good experiance with them too. Don't sweat it, get what you can afford and play. Make sure it has at least 64 meg RAM on board and go look for the latest drivers as well. NVIDEA does a good job with upgrades on their drivers.

Aaron · « **Reply #4 on:** February 04, 2003, 04:14:26 PM »

Okay, here's the scoop.

I have a:

P3 450
576 MB RAM
TNT2 32 MB Vid card.

Aces High runs fine, but some of the newer games don't. Right now I'm interested in buying Simcity 4. The minimum requirerments are P3 500, 128MB RAM and a 16MB video card. Recommended are P3 1GHz, 256MB RAM and a 16MB video card.

So I though that if I got a new video card my pluses will offset my minues and I should be albe to get the game running well.

Now I'm looking for a lower priced card so I'm able to run games with about those requirments. I'll invest more into a new video card when I get a new computer, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.

Anymore thoughts on what I should get/look for?

Pfunk · « **Reply #5 on:** February 04, 2003, 04:19:55 PM »

With a P3 450 your gonna be really limited in what you can play. A GF2,3 will be your best bet. I would say something along the lines of a GF2 GTS, you can find those really cheap. Anything over a GF2 or maybe even a 3 you are wasting your money with the current system that you have.

Aaron · « **Reply #6 on:** February 04, 2003, 04:34:54 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Pfunk
With a P3 450 your gonna be really limited in what you can play.

Yeah I know. I forgot to mention that earlier. I was going to get a better video card then just use it when I upgraded my computer, but I cant afford one right now. Maybe when I get my high paying job after I graduate in 2-3 years.

qts · « **Reply #7 on:** February 04, 2003, 04:41:45 PM »

I've seen a lot of people complaining about SimCity 4's lack of speed on low-end (< 2GHz!) machines.

SKurj · « **Reply #8 on:** February 04, 2003, 05:06:49 PM »

"ask anyone here"

Heh I love my MSI GF4 MX 440 64mb DDR, it runs every game I play at decent speeds, at high to full detail levels at my max res of 1024x6768x32bpp on an XP1800+ CPU. (any higher res and I have to go to 60hz refresh rate.. no thanks!)

Ti cards sure will run AH faster, but the MX supports all the features AH supports in its current state.
AH at the present time is more CPU dependent than vid card dependent also... see if you can find a faster cpu that will fit that board perhaps.

At the time I bought it, Ti 4200's were 2x the price, and I could not find a GF3 locally (I refuse to buy hardware anywhere other than local)

SKurj

bloom25 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 05, 2003, 11:40:31 PM »

I've got Simcity 4. Wait until they patch it before you buy it. It's so buggy that I've stopped playing it until it is patched. If you use a GeForce card and turn on AA and then try to start the game your system will reboot! (That also goes for the install process.) Unfortunately I've also found the game will only run for maybe 2 hours before the screen goes white and Win2k reports an application error.

This is just another example of a game that was released before it was finished...

bockko · « **Reply #10 on:** February 06, 2003, 02:12:00 PM »

i had a gforce2 mx card, replaced it with a geforce3 ti200. I run a 1.8gig p4 but it has the slow memory grrr. 32meg tnt is weak for ah, the mx cards work but are slower than than the non mx versions. But a p3 450 won't run any card faster than the other. You need cpu power. I would recommend some kind of cpu upgrade rather than vid card upgrade.

Aaron · « **Reply #11 on:** February 06, 2003, 03:38:21 PM »

bockko,

I'm just looking for a quick fix, mainly to play simcity 4. AH runs fine on my computer, I'm not worried about that at all. I would upgrade my processor, but cash is the problem (I'm a student).

Now I'm thinking that I might try to save up to get a whole rig by the time summer rolls around. Well, that's not really a new thought.