3d gfx card (1 Viewer)

[anti]

I'm looking at getting a 3d gfx card, since running games on an onboard card is not my idea of fun. I prefer nvidia (always have, I guess) but change is as good as a holiday

I'm not a hardcore gamer, I just like playing 3d games every now and again (gb, pt, ro, ut2k3, q3, d2 etc) and I don't want to spend heaps on getting the latest stuff. Budget is probably < $300.

my computer is:
* p4 2.6ghz
* 256mb RAM
* running xp, but may soon dual boot linux

 

[Frigid]

probly a (slightly older) radeon 9800? auspcmarket has one for 258 dollars:
http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_image_products.php?input[category_id]=426

if you wanna save more money go get a radeon 9600 or 9600xt.

 

[Collin]

If I were you, I would invest in both a 3D card aswell as an extra 256MB of RAM.

The Radeon 9800SE Frigid mentioned, you can also get at http://www.cworld.com.au/ for about 10 bucks cheaper, but if I were you I would save up for a Radeon 9800 PRO or XT.

Like the MX versions of Nvidia's Geforce series, the SE version of ATi's Radeons really are pretty low-end and old, and lack several important plausible features like pixel shaders etc.

In the past, my old Geforce 2 Titanium scored similar benchmarks to the lower end Geforce 4 MXs in several tests.

So save a few more hundred dollars if possible, and since ATi is now heavily competing with Nvidia's new 6800 ULTRA with their new X300, X600 and X800 series cards (since they ran out of marking numbers after 9800), I speculate that good cards like the 9700 PRO, 9800 PRO and 9800 XT will drop well in the next few months.

Similar story for the Nvidia Geforce FX series.

Just my opinion that you should keep away from the MX series of Geforces and the SE versions of the Radeons. 300 dollars is pretty good, save up another 100 bucks and you should be able to get a good 9800 PRO or a decent Nvidia FX card.

 

[jm1234567890]

no, get 5900XT much faster than 9800SE, can be found for around $299 (which is <$300).

btw, the XT doesn't mean faster

And, yes get more ram.

To run most games a regular 9600 is good enough.

 

[Collin]

The GeForce FX 5900 Ultra blows the socks off the Radeon 9800 Pro when running OpenGL apps and ATi wins by a landslide running DirectX 9.0 apps. If your favourite games are mostly in OpenGL then the 5900 Ultra is the card you want and if your favourite games are mostly in DirextX 9.0 then ATi is the route to go.

In general: Radeon 9800SE < 5900XT < 9800 PRO.

So for around $300 it would be a worthy purchase.