Need a new video card. Which one?

[Gizmo]

I'm looking to upgrade my current GeForce4 MX 440 64 MB video card. I'd like to get something a bit better, but I'm not wanting to spend over about $150 or so (preferably less). I'm not wedded to either ATI or nVidia, I just want the best bang for the buck, and I'd like to have something that I can stand a reasonable chance of getting an OC out of.

I've found this Albatron FX5600 at newegg. Is it a decent card. Is there something better that I could get in the same price range?

I don't want to spend too much now, because I'm figuring about this time next year I'll be going to Socket 939 and PCI-Express.

[graftonater]

you can get a 9800 pro for about 120$ on ebay nowadays and thats quite a good overclocker as well.......

[Gizmo]

'k. Would I be better off to go with the 9800 pro?

[robbie]

Originally Posted by gizmo

I'm looking to upgrade my current GeForce4 MX 440 64 MB video card. I'd like to get something a bit better, but I'm not wanting to spend over about $150 or so (preferably less). I'm not wedded to either ATI or nVidia, I just want the best bang for the buck, and I'd like to have something that I can stand a reasonable chance of getting an OC out of.

I've found this Albatron FX5600 at newegg. Is it a decent card. Is there something better that I could get in the same price range?

I don't want to spend too much now, because I'm figuring about this time next year I'll be going to Socket 939 and PCI-Express.

If you keep your eye's peeled I'll be putting a high end card in there very soon.
Rob

[Gizmo]

Dang, I seem to be buying ALL your old junk! LOL

[graftonater]

the 9800 pro is definately best budget card around :P

[cadaveca]

5600 compared to 9800 is like 9800 to 9200....
and the 5600 is a bastard for heat too.
personally giz...i'd just wait until you do the 939 pci-x...especially if that is something you really plan to do, or IMHO your wasting your money.

[robbie]

Originally Posted by gizmo

Dang, I seem to be buying ALL your old junk! LOL

Well, I don't know if I'd call it junk!!

[Staz]

I have to ask what you are upgrading for? Are you wanting to play Doom 3 or just a general upgrade for more power? Cause if you just want more power any modern video card is going to give you a hue boost over the GF4MX.

I have a Radeon 8500 and 9600 and both are comperible in DX8.1 games (I'd actually give the 8500 the edge) in DX 9 games the 9600 does better.

You should be able to pick up a used 8500 retail ( if you get an 8500LE make sure it is clocked at 250/250, some are clocked at 230/230 or 230/166) for about $50 shipped or a 9600 Pro for $100 shipped.

Good luck

[DimViesel]

Heh Staz. Another who still rates the 8500. It is the grandaddy of all the cards that came after at & if you look at all the functionality it introduced it is an awesome card.
gizmo - I would look at what you are trying to achieve. Since I would postulate the reason you are considering a gfx card is because you are trying to achieve some sort of framerate @ some quality setting in a particular game/ set of games.
You need to look at the relative perf. of those cards in those games.
Then rope in your budget & see what options are out of the question. From those left which gives you the closest to your desired perf. at the lowest price - or vice-versa, what is the highest specced card you can find within your budget (say on eBay for example - you may get lucky / you may get shafted too you may want to give it a try this way).
If you are wishing to play Doom 3 then its simply a case of heading over to HardOCP for their detailed breakdowns of real world perf. with various cards/chipsets/cpu combinations.
If only they had done this for every major release - it is the data we all require when attempting to make our hard earned cash convert into the most guaranteed fps in our system for our desired games.
While discussing the 8500, it is a bit of a controversial option - but do look for a Ti4600 or Ti4800SE these are getting cheaper all the time & are again the top of the line cards of 2 gens back.
Go for 128MB versions of course.
The advantage with going nVidia is the potential for gaming on Linux. What games?
UT 2003/2004, ET etc. clients, I have been told run smoother on this OS (by someone who was dual booting Slackware / XP ).

As Staz put it. May the GPU wisdom be with you.

[Gizmo]

Turns out XeroHour was selling his 5950 for $150, so I'm taking it off his hands. He's getting a 6800 I believe, so he won't be needing it.

I was looking at a combination of gaming and benching. I've got a pretty decent system right now, being held back by a lousy graphics card.

Edit: Actually, it's a 5900 flashed to a 5950.

[DimViesel]

Not bad.
Again as I said the very real upside of an nVidia chip card is in Linux 3D usage.
I could quite happily do with one of those - I naturally want the 256MB 'flavour'.

[sasrob]

i did have the geforce mmx440 and upgraded to the ti4600 i could not beleave the speed it gave my pc u should look into the TI CARDS i think u could get it for a good price now adays!!!!!!!

[DimViesel]

The only prob. with the Ti family of cards is that they do not support DX9 in hardware. Does that mean that they ignore DX9 instructions all together? Or can the CPU emulate some of the effect via some software emulation layer (if it can cope with the overhead!)?

[cadaveca]

you'll get texture exclusion. no PS 2.0 and such. will use 1.1 or whatever the next closest thing is for rendering the texture.

[DimViesel]

Which is part of the reason why installing an older gen card can deceivingly seem to give such a plentiful performance boost.
Because it is not going through the more complex, more calculation intensive shaders & other routines more recent cards are designed to carry out.

[Howard]

I'd go 9800PRO for sure, you probably can find one on ebay in your price range. I just bought an MSI 9800PRO for my kids PC and it had the R360 Core. It overclocks in excess of 9800XT speeds. It's a few bucks more then what you wanted to spend, but well worth the money.