I’m going through the slow process of upgrading my desktop (aka, money is tight).  I want to start with the graphics card.  Since PCI Express is coming, I do not want to spend much.  Right now my integrated graphics are old (SiS730S) and I need a boost.  My motherboard only has a 4x AGP slot.

Is there a bargain card out there or should I just wait to upgrade to a new motherboard / cpu?  I am going to eventually purchase a well equipped shuttle XPC. 

Any thoughts?

How about this one ?

(aka, money is tight).

and I thought u were ready to buy a new TR (if it had decent number of enhancements)  :shock:

When I was after a graphics card when the Radeon 9700 it was too expensive & a semi-pro games player told me to get a 128MB GF4 Ti4600/Ti4800 which still could hold its own against a 9700 (DX8 games anyway).

Bought it and never regretted it. Still up there for playing games so long as you don’t want/can’t aford cutting edge. Benchmarks I saw put it better than Radeon 9600.

Just as an example, I have an old P3 800MHz with this graphics card which gives me over 6500 on 3D Mark2001 SE. When my friend bought a AMD system (about 1.8GHz I think) I tried my card in his machine & got over 11,000.

[quote author=“Rahul”]How about this one ?

(aka, money is tight).

and I thought u were ready to buy a new TR (if it had decent number of enhancements)  :shock:

I just plunked 15k into a business venture.  Plans have changed. :wink:

What do you think of this?:

psikey / Rahul, how does this card compare to what you recommended?

:oops: Me above!!

Thanks for the link, psikey.  It looks like my budget will get me either:

GeForce Fx 5600 128mb
or
GeForce4 Ti 4200 128mb

Can anyone help me decide between Ti and Fx cards by NVidia?  My motherboard supports NVidia over ATI.

Sorry TS but I have no idea how any of those cards perform…I just remembered that the 9600’s were available for somewhat the amount specified by you so I did a simple find on pricegrabber and came up with the cheapest (I guess )match for you.

Good luck with the business…may u make plenty and share some with your well-wishers

Thanks for your help, Rahul.

Dont take my word, id do a search, but I think the 5600 is a better card. Overall, if you can somehow get an ATI, i’d go that route.

Erik

Yeah, the 5600 supports DX 9.0, but the 4200 is such an over-achiever!  It beat the 5600 in several benchmarks.

Not sure if you found a better price or whatever but CompUSA has this one on sale:

Erik

Thanks, tifo.  The only thing it is missing is the DVI connection.  If I get the fx 5200, I’ll go with this:

I’d say that either card is going to be a massive improvement over what you originally had so you won’t be disappointed in either. It really depends on what you’re going to be using the card for. I know that you’re not really a super huge game player so it a lot of these benchmarks aren’t going to really mean a lot unless you’re playing all these games.

I’d say the more important thing to look for is DVI ports (assuming you have an LCD monitor that supports it) or a high RAMDAC with high refresh rates for a crystal clear/sharp display (on CRT or analog LCD). Nvidia cards are notorious for having poor video output while ATI cards typically have the best 2D output second only to Matrox video cards.

Unfortunately, by board only supports NVidia.  From the research I have done, it appears that ATI has a distinct advantage for the money.

NVidia is likened unto Intel.
ATI is likened unto AMD.

.......so I’ve heard.

Now I am thinking of getting a nicer ATI card and just springing for the Shuttle system all at once.  Screw my old SiS motherboard.

:?

why do u say your board supports only nVidia? If it has AGP 4X it should support any AGP 4X (compatible) card..atleast thats how it should be, I guess :?

btw, here’s the system I’m planning on building a few weeks after arriving in the US:

ASUS A8V deluxe mobo
AMD Athlon 3500+ processor
ATI Radeon X800 XT card
WD 10,000 rpm SATA hdd (forgot the model no.)
some dual layer dvd-rw drive
Ogre gaming case
Thermaltake w0014 480w power supply
1 gig (512x2) Crucial RAM (CT6464Z40B) 

:twisted:  :twisted:

you too should get 1 with the same config

[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]NVidia is likened unto Intel.
ATI is likened unto AMD.

Can’t totally agree with that, ATI has been around a lot longer then NVidia.

Erik