Deciding On Which Videocard To Get™

[Toolbox]

Just in case none of you know, I am not very good when it comes to chosing something for my computer. I have over 10,000 posts at another BBS due to the number of questions I ask before doing or purchasing anything. I still haven't learned and I need the help.

Today, I have a videocard question. I am basing this on how my games will look when I decide to play them. There are only two games in question here... Porsche Unleashed and Tiger Woods 2000.

I used to play them on my old machine:

Intel Pentium III 700 @ 933 MHz
Abit BE6-II
Apacer 256 MB SDRAM PC133
Asus GeForce2 GTS 32 MB
SBLive Value
SCSI Hard Drives
ViewSonic 21" Monitor
Windows 98

Game play was really nice when I first got it but after a while, things seemed as if it could be better. I used to play them on 1152 X 864 X 16-Bit Color with a little bit of the eye candy on.

The new card is so that I can play it at 1280 X 1024 X 32-Bit Color and all the eye candy on.

Here are also the new specs on my new computer which isn't finished yet.

AMD Thunderbird 1.33 or 1.43 GHz
Abit KT7A - NONRAID
KingMax TinyBGA 768 MB SDRAM PC150
GeForce3 or whatever you recommend
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
SCSI Hard Drives For OS
IBM 60GXP's for DATA
ViewSonic 21" Monitor
Windows 2000

Will this even look good on Windows 2000... I couldn't play this game on 2000 before, I would get a lack of memory error.

I don't plan on overclocking this processor so much, that's why I am now trying to get the fastest stock speed chip I can. I've learned to love the quietness of it all. I will eventually get a good cooler though, one that doesn't need a Delta to cool efficiently.

So... what card should I get? I have never seen a GF3 in action and I don't know how well that does up against a GeForce2 Ultra. I saw this graph and look at the numbers... the GF2 Ultra does and has a higher speed in the GPU frequency and is capable of more Texels/Second:

http://guru3d.com/review/elsa/gladiac920/index9.shtml

I haven't looked into the GF2 Ultra's yet but if you all decide to tell me to get a GF3, the only ones I can get my hands on are these:

Asus AGP-V8200 Deluxe
Elsa Gladiac 920-64 TV
Inno3D GeForce3
Hercules Prophet3

All of which have 64MB. I don't even know if there's a GeForce3 with just 32MB onboard.

Remember though, I am just interested in gameplay and none of the TV features. If I can, I'd like to get the simplest card out there to relieve myself from all the trouble that may cause. The reason I put the Deluxe version of the card up there is because that's the only one available.

I'm still looking for other manufacturers that I can buy from but the list is what I can get now.

Thanks for all the help people and I hope you can tell me which will best suit my needs.

Cheers,

Toolbox™

 

[Neo]

Let me do a little more research on this, I can say from experience that you will like the slsa. Just because they are what i normally purchase..I did however pick up the leadtek gf2 pro.
I am not as impressed with it. The HSF burned out within the first month. I replaced it with a blue orb. I has been running pretty good, but if i had to do over again i'd have picked up the Elsa.

 

[Toolbox]

Thanks Neo... I'm still reading up on all the other cards.

This is the first time I post a technical question... I hope it goes well.

 

[Huge]

ATI's new Radeon card is scheduled to debut soon; you can read some previews here, here, and here.

nVidia hasn't (at least as of now) steered me wrong, but it's nice to have competition.

 

[Neo]

Neo's Recomendation is...
Asus is a little faster, Not by much but faster.
If you are looking to over clock elsa is the way to go. Much easier.
Elsa is more expensive than the asus.
Elsa doesnt come with the extras.
Another one i wasnt sure about is the Hercules. It actually had better marks than the asus or the elsa. I have never owned one but the marks and the price are right.
The setups i compared and researched were all based on the athlon CPU.

So my order of choice would be
1: Hercules
2: Asus
3: Elsa

Although the new radeon 8500 is coming out, it has features that are locked or still cannot be used because there are no games to take advantage of them.

 

[fury]

the Elsa Gladiac will probably be the best choice. The cards are made by Visiontek who have a reputation for high quality stuff, and the memory used is rated high enough to be rock solid at stock speed (230mhz)

 

[brainsoft]

Make sure you ponder very hard about the ATi. I would give them a serious thought, that card looks powerful. IMH you'll get a higher quality image with the ATi, though the GF3 will surely do it faster, and prolly at higher res. For me, I'd rather have an amazing looking game at 35fps (my V5 5500) then a fairly good looking game at 70 or 100fps. That's just me though, I KNOW many would rather have a game at 120fps.

Anyways, don't ignore the ATI just becaue they've not done it 100% right yet. Hopefully their driver support will be better than with old cards.

Does Matrox have a new card coming soon? G500 maybe? I've not heard.

 

[Toolbox]

Thanks for the tips... I'm acutally going to end up with the Hercules Prophet III. I e-mailed the Chief Editor of Guru3D and he says that his personal favorite card was that...

Cheers all.