Middle of the road vid card

[ozdream]

Good "middle of the road" vid card

G'day all, I am not a gamer but my daughter is getting older and wants to play some new 3D games et al.


What is a good vid card for gaming that will not cost me weeks pay?

I like ATI but that was in the "old days" when 4 megs of Vram was a big deal


PS I will not say it has to work with Linux as that is a given

[Arjay]

Although i haven't used it yet i did buy a GeForce FX5200 a few weeks ago. It seems to be mid priced at £50. After that the next price was around £120 for FX5600. The Ti4200 cards are still going for around £80 although i think they are DirectX 8.0 while the new FX cards are 9.0, don't know if that makes any difference.

Can't really comment on Radeon cards as i was only interested in a GeForce card. Maybe a good idea to go to a hardware site or shop and see what on offer at the moment.

Hope this helps :-)

[je_fro]

Maybe something like the Abit Siluro?

[ph34r]

Whatever Nvidia card you can get for under $100...

There are others with 3d support in Linux, but they are a royal pain to get working properly... the nvidia cards setup in about 10 minutes, including driver download time.

[Davno]

I bought an Nvidia FX5600 for relatively cheap, installed the proper Linux driver in a breeze and i m very satisfied with it...

[DerekKraan]

I've got a Geforce FX 5600, but the FX 5200 is very reasonably priced, and I don't think you'll be taking such a performance hit from buying it. The FX 5200 is the cheapest FX model you can get, the FX 5600 is the 'middle' kind of second generation, and the FX 5900 is top of the line.

[ozdream]

Thanks for the comments, nvidia it is then :)

[Seph64]

Originally posted by DerekKraan
I've got a Geforce FX 5600, but the FX 5200 is very reasonably priced, and I don't think you'll be taking such a performance hit from buying it. The FX 5200 is the cheapest FX model you can get, the FX 5600 is the 'middle' kind of second generation, and the FX 5900 is top of the line.

Actually I think the FX5900 ULTRA is the top of the line, for the current NVidia cards that is.

[Trogdor]

Nvidia cards are generally the best for 3d, because Nvidia itself makes accelerated drivers. If you find a (cheap ***) geforce 2 MX, it will run Tux Racer, and Quake, and Frozen Bubble, and Potato Guy, and telnet, and cd, and rm, and init, and cron.

:cool:

[raz0rblade]

I would say get a Radeon 9600SE. Comes with Halflife 2 and is quite a decent card. And if your lucky you might get a PRO in the box, I've heard @ HardOCP people are getting 9600PRO in the SE box :)

[Seph64]

Originally posted by raz0rblade
I would say get a Radeon 9600SE. Comes with Halflife 2 and is quite a decent card. And if your lucky you might get a PRO in the box, I've heard @ HardOCP people are getting 9600PRO in the SE box :)

Hard to get HL2 bundled with that video card considering that HL2 has been delayed til next year.

[freakmn]

Originally posted by Seph64
Actually I think the FX5900 ULTRA is the top of the line, for the current NVidia cards that is.

I hate to prove you wrong, but actually, the GeforceFX 5950 (http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031023/index.html) is the top of the line NVIDIA card now. It came out in the last couple of weeks or so.

[Seph64]

Originally posted by freakmn
I hate to prove you wrong, but actually, the GeforceFX 5950 (http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031023/index.html) is the top of the line NVIDIA card now. It came out in the last couple of weeks or so.

Oh yes, I forgot about those.

[raz0rblade]

Originally posted by Seph64
Hard to get HL2 bundled with that video card considering that HL2 has been delayed til next year.

I meant it comes with the coupon for it so get it for free when it comes out :o

[Seph64]

OOHHH! Thanks for clarification.

[terribleRobbo]

I'd go for the nVidia GF 4 440MX card. You can pick one up for about $100-ish (AU).

Have a look at www.cam1.com.au or www.ht.com.au

Ja,
Robbo