Looking for video card recommendations AGAIN

[joea64]

Well, folks, I had to pull that GeForce 4 MX440. :( It was a classic case of something that looked like a good idea at the time, but, as far as I can tell so far, it's caused all sorts of instability problems - at first, admittedly, because of badly done driver installs, but then _after_ I uninstalled and reinstalled my VIA mainboard drivers as well as the nVidia drivers as specified over on the VIA Arena forums and recounted elsewhere in these boards, I started getting "black-screen" crashes where not only would the system hang, but the video would zonk out completely and the monitor lose signal from the card (indicating that the card itself might have frozen up or overheated). After I had not one but two of those crashes within two hours last evening, I finally gave up, yanked the bright shiny new card, and put my trusty old TNT2 Riva M64 back in. The TNT2 isn't any great shakes in performance compared to today's card - it doesn't even have hardware playback for DVD's - but it was rock-stable all the time I used it in my system from the day I put it together, and it doesn't even require a fan (does have a heatsink, though).

So, I've got a GeForce4 MX440 I have no real use for any more, and I'm looking for a different card - I'm still on a budget, more so than ever because I'm also looking for a power supply too (see that thread in the appropriate forum). Consequently, I can't really spend any more on a different card than I spent on this one (assuming I can get my money back). Truth to tell, because of all the trouble I've had this past month getting nVidia and VIA drivers to work properly together, I'm about fed up with nVidia. These days, it looks like ATI is the main alternative. What can people here tell me about that, or about any other alternatives that I might have missed?

-Joe-

[Anubis]

Check out this article on the latest batch of tests using the new UT2003 engine.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1647

Your card is indeed at the bottom but I think that it is due to the age of it. Looks like the best value from the Nvidia line is the GeForce Ti4200, pricewatch has the card at about 130 and it shows some real good numbers against more expensive cards. ATI is gonna be releasing the Radeon 9700 soon which blows the door off the top GeForce but its hella expensive.

[BigBlue66]

Not sure about all these troubles with Nvidia cards and the VIA chipset. That's all I ever run and I never have any problems.

Personally, and because I use one, I would suggest going with a GeForce3 Ti 200 or 500. Either of those cards will take you a long way into the future and should be cheap enough nowadays that you'll have some left over to go toward the new PSU.

For what it's worth, I'm using an Abit Siluro GF3 Ti 200. It's a very good card. I overclocked it at first, but then wondered what's the point, so I'm running it at stock speeds. All my games look good and I can play in high resolutions.

[bassvax]

He {Anubis} said:

but its hella expensive

I wonder...do ya think he plays UT ;) Let's rock!!!

I've been hearing mixed talk about what video card will run the new UT and other games. I would definitely think a GF3 would do the trick. Let's rock!!!

[joea64]

Originally posted by BigBlue66
Not sure about all these troubles with Nvidia cards and the VIA chipset. That's all I ever run and I never have any problems.

Personally, and because I use one, I would suggest going with a GeForce3 Ti 200 or 500. Either of those cards will take you a long way into the future and should be cheap enough nowadays that you'll have some left over to go toward the new PSU.

For what it's worth, I'm using an Abit Siluro GF3 Ti 200. It's a very good card. I overclocked it at first, but then wondered what's the point, so I'm running it at stock speeds. All my games look good and I can play in high resolutions.

If you're using a GeForce 3, that would probably explain why you're not having problems. It's the GeForce 4 that especially has troubles, and also Windows 9x users (such as me) because the most recent versions of the VIA 4-in-1 drivers have a compatibility issue with recent nVidia drivers and hardware; also, nVidia drivers have a bad habit of messing up VIA's AGP drivers during installation. Therefore, you need to install the VIA and nVidia drivers in a particular order - VIA first (in Safe Mode), then nVidia, then VIA AGP. (This was discussed in the Core Hardware Forum over the past few weeks.)

-Joe-

P.S. I got an Antec TruePower 430 at a real bargain price on Friday, and traded in the GeForce 4 for an ATI Radeon 7200 on Saturday. (I know that card is not the latest or swiftest, but it's rock-stable on my system and competently handles instances that would have caused the GeForce 4 to black-screen out, and right now, that's what I'm more concerned about.)

[joea64]

Originally posted by bassvax
He {Anubis} said:



I wonder...do ya think he plays UT ;) Let's rock!!!

I've been hearing mixed talk about what video card will run the new UT and other games. I would definitely think a GF3 would do the trick. Let's rock!!!

It probably would, but I chose to go with ATI this time around instead. I don't play UT or other such games, chiefly of the first-person shooter genre (Civilization III is about as graphics-intensive as I usually get) so I really don't need a highly souped-up card. The Radeon 7200 I traded the GeForce 4 in on Saturday draws less power than the nVidia card (doesn't even need a fan though it has a heatsink), and more to the point, is stable and steady on my system and the drivers easily handle instances that left the GeForce 4 floundering uselessly around in a black-screen freeze. (It also helps that I have an Antec TruePower - and I don't really want to hear about why I should have kept the GeForce now that I have an Antec PS, because after all the trouble I've had this past month, I'm not using another nVidia card as long as I use a VIA motherboard until I hear that those compatibility issues have been resolved. See the VIA Forums at http://www.viaarena.com for much more extensive discussion of VIA/nVidia issues.

-Joe-

[BigBlue66]

Oh yeah, I remember now that thread about the problems you quoted with the nvidia and VIA chipset drivers, joea64.

I will certainly keep all this in mind. At present, I'm running the latest 4.40 VIA drivers on WIN2KPro. No problems. I might decide to get a GF4 Ti 4400 or 4600 sometime in the future when the price comes down like it did for the GF3 when the GF4 came out. I gave up trying to keep up with technology. A guy could drive himself nuts trying to do that.

Good choice on the PSU, BTW. I'm running a True330 in one system and a True430 in another system. So far, no problems whatsoever, and they're quiet. You really lucked out on the price, too.