Video card upgrade?

[blazer2boy]

I'm looking to buy a New video card and was wondering what others users
were using . This machine will be for on-line gaming.
Games like Diablo 2, Halflife, etc.

Looking for AGP card with at least 32mb Memory.

Cost is an issue prefer to stay under $150

Any recommondations.

[BigBlue66]

Hey Blazer,

I play HalfLife with a Voodoo 4500 PCI 32mb board, and it does just fine. However, others on here swear by the Geforce. The Voodoo 5500 is a nice card also, but apparently you need at least a PIII to reap the benefits of its performance.

If I had known the rave reviews about the Geforce beforehand, I would have purchased it instead of the Voodoo, and now that the company (3DFX)is going out of business, I wish I had.

So, I guess my answer is the Geforce.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

[hiredgoonz]

A card based on the geforce mx is a good bet in that price range...I'm using a v5 5500, which has been a great card, but as mentioned previously, now that the company is going out of business, I'm not as happy as I was...

ATI isn't bad either if you're looking for a card with other features like video capture...

[orangehack]

You can get the raedon 32 ddr card for less than 150. I saw it for 110 somewhere on price watch. I haven't tried it but heard good things about it.

[blazer2boy]

Well looked at Price Watch and found the following.

ATI Rage Fury MAX Pro GL 64MB OEM. AGP, 2x - DVD Support-
Direct3D/Open GL OEM

ATI RADEON 32mb SDR AGP OEM,Radeon 32MB DDR Version AGP OEM

Creative Labs GeForce Annililator Pro DDR 256bit 32MB DDR, no tv-AGP-NVIDIA
OEM

The Max Fury looks good with 64MB.

The Radeon listed states Single Date Rate in the product description and below it states Double Data Rate.
Can it be Both?

The GeForce by Creative Labs I thought that there were some issues with compatablity or has this been worked out.

Does anyone use these? Do they work to your expectations?

[scada]

The ATI Radeon 32MB DDR card is great and second only to the 64MB version of the Radeon and Geforce cards. ( the SDR and DDR your seeing are 2 different cards. They don't both have the same type of memory. The SDR is slower than the DDR version and IMHO not worth getting.) Picture quality is second to none and it has great DVD playback quality.(It beats any card out there in 32 bit color.) The cheapest I've seen it is for about $190. So you may have to shop around a bit.

I have it and my only regret is I didn't buy the 64MB DDR Radeon.

Oh and one tip: Stay away from the OEM version I've heard that there is some confusion on just what speed those cards run at.

[This message has been edited by scada (edited 01-17-2001).]

[blazer2boy]

Well after doing some online homework about the video cards I have decided to go with The ATI Radeon 32MB DDR that you recommended Scada. I also made sure it was Retail not OEM. They do sell alot of OEM but finally found a place under 160.

Thanks for the help.

Blazer

[yajaboat]

I've been looking for a graphics card also, but haven't seen any comments from anyone on the Matrox G400 32m AGP Dual-Head OEM.
Does anyone have any feedback they could provide on this one?
Thanx. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Hex]

I'm using an G400 32MB Dual-head and I would say it's almost as fast as any similarly priced 2D/3D graphics card. I switched to it from a Viper 770D Ultra 32MB, and with my anecdotal evidence I'd say the G400 is just a hair slower, which I find wholly remarkable in a card that can support two monitors at once. I'd recommend you go look at ZDNet for more info - I remember it had a really good comparative review of the G400DH and it's competitors.

Hex