need advise

[Spazzy]

Want to upgrade my video card, but dont know what to get. only wanna spend $75 bucks. I want good fast graphics for UT and Quake III and Mech 3 games. Currently have Diamond Stealth III s540 Extreme 32 meg AGP but its becoming antique. ATI? nVidia gForce? which is better for $75.00. want 64 meg or better. Bios will support up to 4x.
Please help, have the cash but dont know what to get. thanks

[NDD]

According to Pricewatch (www.Pricewatch.com) :

Original GeForce3 for $79 / GeForce3 Ti200 for $82
Radeon 8500LE for $70

I'd take the GF3.

[Spazzy]

thank you. I have another question. What exactly does TV out do on a vid card, enable you to use ur computer as a TV hooked up to cable? I have cable internet. Does it pull the same channels as a regular TV hooked up to cable ? thanks

[BipolarBill]

No. Tou need a TV card for that - with it's own tuner.

TV out is for feeding you PC video to a TV.

[Beeblequix]

I've had several Geforce flavored cards with TV out. It was always for naught. I think I tried using a 20" tv to fly Crimson Skies, but it was never any better because of the lower image quality. Another time I had fun with the 36" TV & Serious Sam, but the trouble wasn't worth it.

If you're into a little amateaur video capturing, you could opt for a card with VIVO, or video in video out. This allows you to import a signal from your vcr and capture it using capturing software. I've tinkered around with this off and on. It would be much easier to get a DVD and just rip it to an MPEG4 or DIVX file than to try capturing a video stream. But then home movies aren't usually recorded directly to DVD, so the home movies to VCD market can utilize this feature.

With VIVO you can also just import the tv signal via a VCR or TV with a video out jack. This is sorta like the tv tuner cards, but without the built in tuner. I've watched tv from my comp before this way, but was really more of a novelty. I'd much rather lay on my couch in the front room than sit in my chair.

If you have no plans of doing any importing/exporting, I'd just opt for a Pure card, with only an SVGA out.

Also, have you thought about using dual monitors? I personally love them and recommend video cards which have twinview(nvidia), hydravision(ATI), or native Matrox cards which give you tons more space on your virtual desktop.

ß

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Any of ND's suggestions are good for the money and will do the trick for your needs

:)

--Jakk:t