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Video Card

PostPosted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:45 pm
by smartin4
I am really out of the loop when it comes to the latest and greatest components these days.

What would the reccomendations be for a good video card that has both analog & DVI capabilities, really good performance, with a cost of <$250? Top of the line is a little too rich for my taste these days.

Primary use would be 3d gaming, DVDs, etc, eventually to be hooked to a flat panel LCD.

Thanks in advance.

PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:10 am
by Asrale
The Radeon 9800 Pro is a good solution...when it's on sale, either at retail stores or online. You usually need to check regularly to see when it's on sale for $200. Apart from that, the 9700 Pro still edges out with the best price/performance ratio. You'll have to buy it online since they aren't sold in stores anymore.

And of course, this all depends on what your computer's specs are; should be high-end to match a high-end video card. If your PC is more mid-range, go with ATi's Radeon 9600XT or nVidia's GeForce FX 5700 Ultra.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2004 12:40 am
by smartin4
I'm looking at the Asus V9570 (256 MB version) video card. Also looking to upgrade to an Asus P4S800D-E mobo (SiS 655TX chipset) coupled w/a 2.8C (512k cache, 800MHz FSB) P4. I have 1GB of PC2700 (DDR333) in my machine now which I will transfer over to the new mobo. What do you think?

PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2004 5:23 am
by Asrale
I don't know too much about the latest mobos, procs, and RAM types, or which chipset that Asus V9570 uses, but for a high-end P4 system, either nVidia's GeForce FX 5900 Ultra or ATi's Radeon 9800 Pro would be a great match. Neither is top-of-the-line anymore but both are extremely competent. They're also expensive, probably out of your budget (haven't kept track of their prices), but they do go on sale sometimes, both online and at retail stores.

And on a general note, a 256MB card is pretty much useless right now. Very few games will take advantage of that much onboard RAM, and 256MB cards have slower-clocked memory than 128MB counterparts, making them perform weaker than their 128MB versions. 256MB cards won't be viable until they can be fabricated with high-bandwidth memory at low cost, which won't happen for a while...