ATI or NVIDIA?

[striderider]

Hi everyone!
I'm a hardcore gamer with a very non-hardcore computer! hahaha
For christmas, I would love a new 3d card. Right now, I am sporting a 32mb GeForce 2 MX 200. It used to work great, but now that games are becoming so much more taxing, I am afraid i am "lagging" behind. Now, here is the dilemma.

I can go for either:

A- 128MB ATI RADEON 9700 PRO- the latest and labeled greatest 3D card out right now. It out performs any GeForce4 card pretty easily. It has some driver issues, and costs upwards of 350, but is awesome.

B- 128MB NIVIDIA GEFORCE 4 Ti 4600. It is the best Nvidia has to offer right now I think, but it doesnt quite match the 9700. It is still great and I should have no problem running the games i want to run. Also, cheape3r than the Radeon.

C- (out there!) GeForceFX!!! Is said to be able to render Toy Story and Final Fantasy the movies in Real Time! The problem is it probably wont be out until february at least! Also, will be mighty expensive, although it does outperform the 9700 by almost 30%.

Now, i was looking mainly at the radeon, but the problem is, how soon will this top of the line 3dfx card be just another ok card. Techonolgy is racing so fast, do i want to shell out 350 for a card, when i can get a better faster one for the same price 2 months later.

Please, discuss openly!
Andy (Striderider)

*From May 2002 Computer Gaming World: In a Geforce4 review. "We're still more than a decade away from Hollywood caliber 3D graphics." cough cough geforcefx cough

See What I Mean!

[zipulrich]

Q: Whats the rest of your system look like?

[Unforgiven Jimi]

ATI ATI ATI ATI ATI ATI ATI ATI ATI ATI ATI


Nope I am not partial

[striderider]

My specs are as following:
Dell Dimension 8200
1.7 Pentium 4 proccessor
512mb pc800 RDRAM
Windows XP
40gig hard drive
the usual speakers, mouse, keyboard, monitor, nothing special
integrated sound (blah)
thats about it !

[zipulrich]

With that system, either card should be nice. Let your wallet$ decide.

[Confused1]

Too bad I didn't see this before yesterday!

After doing a lot of research myself, I settled on the ATI 9000 Pro w/128 MB (with good reason). I have the P4 2.4.

My son has a P4 1.7. He is running an ATI 8500LE w/128MB.

As it turns out, we both enjoy the high-end graphics games as well. In particular, MEDAL OF HONOR. We have the graphics turned to full intensity. Neither one of us are having ANY problems with this game. I don't know this to be the most intense, but it has to be up there.

The whole reason for the choice was that I had been running a P3 450 with a PCI Creative Labs video card and 64 MB. You could play certain levels of MEDAL OF HONOR, but when it came to the higher graphic ends of the game, it was useless.

By the way, I am using 512 SDRAM (PC-133) in my machine. My son is using 256 of DDR2100.

When it comes to price, your right. The RADEON you have your eyes on is pricy! The best I could find was $300 or more as well.

The RADEON 8500LE my son purchased was $119.

I purchased mine last week at an electronics store called FRY'S. They also have a website called Outpost.com. You can order parts by mail. Sometimes cheaper than buying "in-store". Fry's had an "in-store" special the day I arrived. I paid $149.00 and then received an instant $20.00 rebate. In addition, I obtained a $50.00 mail-in rebate coupon. Unfortunately for you, this offer expired by ATI on December 3, 2002. As a result, I have a card which should last for some time at a total price of $79.00. I would also bet that you would'nt see much of a performance issue (at least until next week. You know how electronics are!)

As far as installation goes, if your any kind of computer guy, you'll have no problem installing. It was straight forward. Both of our machines are running XP. Instead of the usual Plug and Pray, it truly was Plug and Play.

Good luck with your search. I hope this was of some help.

Confused1
Texas

[striderider]

thanks confused1. you dont sound so confused. hahahha
too bad i didnt see that offer myself, as i have been doing some browsing at ATI's site. But i have been looking at a few online databases such as Pricewatch.com, which lists all the different companies and their prices for it. The least one is 310! Im wondering if there could be something wrong with that to explain the 89 dollar difference.

Andy

[jtdoom]

one has to read up on this, and gamers do...
I am not a gamer.

the last review I read said that the latest ATI runs circles around the G4ti and states that they have all the things that new FX promises.

the review also says that there are almost no games written that will utilise all that power/features.
not yet anyway.
Also, they mention dirextX9.
they also had some considerations for both types

but, what I remember best is that thus far, the features are largely under-utilised
========


which means?
one has to read up on this, and I ain't a gamer.