XFX Geforce Fx5200 or not??

[sturlez2k]

hi, i currently have a Geforce 440MX 64mb and i want to upgrade to a newer graphics card at a affordable price. ive recently been window shopping and found a XFX Geforce Fx5200 AGP8x 256MB DDR DVI TV at a gud price, well within my range.

would i benefit alot when playing games such as doom3 and hl2 with the Geforce Fx5200 compared to the card i have now. also could anybody recommend me some other decent graphic.


thanks for your help

:)

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Not really, the FX5200, while it is better than the Gf4 MX4xx series is a relatively low end solution, particulalry for upcoming titles. While it will run games such as HL2, so will the MX440, and not a great deal slower either i would imagine.

What price raneg are you looking at, for decent gaming cards your going to be paying well over £100 no matter how hard you look. Probably the best "price to performance" card out there at present is the 128mb Radeon 9800 Pro which is priced at around £150 and will be able to run future titles such as the likes of Doom III and HL2 at decent frame rates and detail levels, and older titles at maximum detail levels.

As it is though, the FX5200 is not significantly faster than the MX440 (particularly in newer titles) to warrant the outlay of cash.

--jakk:t

[porsch1909]

with that card you can get pretty fast gaming with AA and AF turned, the downfall of that is that the game looks ****.


"If something looks too good to be true....it usually is"

[chriswhitelaw]

as I was told here 256mb is way overkill and the 5200 is **** for gaming.

[stalkersoftware]

I have to agree with Bigjakkstaffa. ATI 9800 pro would give you an excellent gaming experience. Can play DoomIII, HL2. it would
take anything you throw at it.

If you are particular about XFX Geforce Fx5200, why go with the 256mb version? 128mb is as good as the 256mb. You would no improvement with the 256mb. Trust me when I say that this card is no good for gaming. Not to mention most of the cards have a crippled 64bit mem. You wont be playing doom3 or HL2 with this card. Hay but you can play DoomII with this card.
:p
:t

[sturlez2k]

thanks for the replys guys. ive only really gone for the nvida graphics cards over the years because i find them trustworthy and perform well. ive heard mixed views about the ati cards. i.e. some cards dont have the correct drivers with them in the package. i dont know weather this is true or not.

my graphics card at the mo has served me well over the years and i feel its time to upgrade. i just dont know weather to go for a nvida or a ati. looking at some price ranges ive noticed that ati are more expensive than nvida cards. but does that mean they are a better quality card?

[fishybawb]

Originally posted by sturlez2k
i.e. some cards dont have the correct drivers with them in the package. i dont know weather this is true or not.

It doesn't really matter whether it's true or not - it's best to download the latest drivers off ATI's website anyway.

I'd go for nVidia for low end (Ti 4200 or FX 5200), ATI for mid-range (9800Pro) and nVidia for the new generation of cards (6800 GT). So it really depends on how much you're willing to spend. The others are right, the 9800 Pro looks like your best bet - it offers a great price/performance ratio, and is better than the nVidia cards in the same sort of price range :t

[sturlez2k]

ive recently seen this card

Sapphire Radeon 9550 256MB DDR AGP8x

would anybody be able 2 give me a verdict on this card? is it as good as the 9800

[Bigjakkstaffa]

It's not a bad card card, but its not a 9800 by any stretch. If you want to be playing games such as HL2 and Doom III at decent detail levels and decent frame rates then the 9800 Pro is the minimum of where want to be really.

--Jakk:t

[stalkersoftware]

Dont be impressed with the amount of ram. 256mb wont serve the Radeon 9550 any good. Performamce would be the same between the Radeon 9550 128 mb and 256mb versions.
Look for the 9800pro 128mb.

[JediOfDarkness]

Yup, like they've said, the R9800 Pro is your best bet for a good gaming system. The lowest you should consider would be a R9600 Pro/XT or GeForce 5700, as they fair well in older games and will be able to play the newer games on lower to medium detail levels with fair framerates. The hype about getting the best video card and CPU for Doom 3 is all rubbish, as benchmarks have proven that even the lower end cards like the R9200 and GeForce 5200 can play Doom 3, just at lowest quality settings. So don't blow your pay check just for Doom 3, though getting a better graphics card will make the gaming experience much funner for any game that you play.

And yes, for the most part you will not notice any difference in framerates between 128mb vram and 256mb vram.

[bob05]

Here's a very good card for $119: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-131-249&depa=1

PowerColor 9800SE's have some of the best chances of flashing into a 9800 Pro.

This is probably one of the better cards that you can get for about $85: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-135-140&depa=1

[JediOfDarkness]

The R9800SE is a fair card. It preforms slighty better than a R9600XT at times, but it can also preform much worse in some situations. It is a fair card to look at however.

As for the GeForce 5700LE, I haven't been able to find any camparison benchmarks for it, but I know the core speed is half the speed of the GeForce 5700, so I don't how how large of an impact that would really make.

I would stick with the Ti4200 or R9600 Pro for the lowest end, but I would highly recommend going with the R9800 Pro, you won't be disapointed.

[porsch1909]

R9600 isn't exactly a low end card!

[JediOfDarkness]

No, the R9600 isn't a bad card at all, though it is now considered the lowest end gaming card, as any card lower will not run any newer games on medium-high detail levels.

[porsch1909]

its not low end if you look at every graphics card though....i understand what you mean though by it being a lowend gaming card.

[JediOfDarkness]

Yep, it's not at all a bad card. It makes a much better budget card then the GeForce 5200 or Radeon 9200, that's for sure. And with a R9600 Pro or XT I'm sure you would be able to run at medium detail levels on Doom 3. Oh, and I just heard that you WILL have to have a 512mb graphics card to play Doom 3 on the highest detail levels!! And also you'll have to have at least 1gb of RAM to run on highest settings, but most every gaming system already has that.

[porsch1909]

Originally posted by JediOfDarkness
Oh, and I just heard that you WILL have to have a 512mb graphics card to play Doom 3

do they exist??? or is it a typo or sarcasm.


i better upgrade my RAM then lol i only got 512 MB. i cant wait till it comes out the graphics look SUPERB.

[porsch1909]

i cant wait till doom 3 comes out that is.

[JediOfDarkness]

Nope, not a typo, and there are 512mb graphics cards, but they are made for design and not gaming, plus they cost a pretty penny, like $800. But nVidia and ATI both have anounced 512mb graphics cards to be out sometime in the near future.

You can read the info that I got here:
http://www.webdog.org/plans/313/.

From what it says, you will be able to play Doom 3 on highest details on a 256mb card if you have a high end system, but that it will run very choppy as the textures will be around 500mb. It says that not until 512mb cards come onto the market will it truly be playable at maxed settings. Heh, maybe GeForce SLi will hit the markets first :D

[stalkersoftware]

SLI is a long way away. It will take another 10-12 months.
Best stay away from DOOMIII and get Half life 2.
:p

[JediOfDarkness]

lol, and you honestly don't think HL2 won't have even more sophisticated graphics? On highest texture levels HL2 will probably be right around the 500mb mark too. But as Robert said in his .plan, high end gaming systems will still be able to run the highest textures on a 256mb card, just at lower framerates.

[sturlez2k]

ive heard that the

Sapphire Radeon 9600 APG x8 128MB DDR DVI-I TV-Out

is good value for money. any1 know wats it performance is like and stability?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

If your gonna get a 9600, go for the 9600XT, the regular 9600 isnt that fast at all, particulalry for future gaming.

I still say an R9800 Pro would be your best bet though.

As for HL2 and older cards, if anything it will probably be easier going on older cards than Doom III simply because of the massive scalability of the source engine

--Jakk:t

[JediOfDarkness]

Yeah, I would agree with Jakk on that HL2 will probably run a little easier on the older cards. But that doesn't mean high graphics levels on a R9600/G5600. But a Radeon 9800 Pro is honestly your best graphics solution. If you get a Radeon 9600 Pro/XT, you're just gonna be asking yourself later on, "Why, oh why, did I not just dish out the extra cash to get the 9800 Pro?!" Another option, though, is to go with a Radeon 9700 Pro, as they get amazingly good benchmarks compared to the older Radeon cards. They keep on par with the 9800's for the most part, and in a few benchmarks I've come accross they've actually beaten the 9800's (not the XT).

[chriswhitelaw]

Originally posted by JediOfDarkness
Yeah, I would agree with Jakk on that HL2 will probably run a little easier on the older cards. But that doesn't mean high graphics levels on a R9600/G5600. But a Radeon 9800 Pro is honestly your best graphics solution. If you get a Radeon 9600 Pro/XT, you're just gonna be asking yourself later on, "Why, oh why, did I not just dish out the extra cash to get the 9800 Pro?!" Another option, though, is to go with a Radeon 9700 Pro, as they get amazingly good benchmarks compared to the older Radeon cards. They keep on par with the 9800's for the most part, and in a few benchmarks I've come accross they've actually beaten the 9800's (not the XT).

Actually the 9600XT and above is recommended to run HL2
I run Painkiller now on this card maxed out and it's great better then the TI4600 I had.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

While the 9700Pro is pretty comparable to the 9800, the 9800 has a number of chipset enhancments pertaining to shader/shadow operations which will prove handy in Doom III in particular.

Similarly, finding a new 9700 Pro is a pretty tall order nowadays.

Funny you should mention the FX5600 Jedi, ive heard some "off the record" figures for HL2 performance in the DX9 path, in particular the fact that the FX5600 can only muster around 10-15FPS

--Jakk:t

[JediOfDarkness]

Originally posted by chriswhitelaw
Actually the 9600XT and above is recommended to run HL2

Yes, but what that means is you can play HL2 with it, but on low graphics. Which would be fine, and if that's OK by you, go right ahead and save the money. I personaly, wouldn't upgrade from a low end card to another low end card, it just doesn't make since to me. If you're going to upgrade, upgrade.

And don't get me wrong, as others have said something about this, the R9600 IS the low end card now, just like the R9200 and G5200 were when the R9800's were the graphics kings. That does not mean that the R9600 Pro/XT is a bad card by any means, just that it is now considered the lowest end graphics card you would want in a gaming system.

[sturlez2k]

ive jst been reading reviews on the

Sapphire Radeon 9800SE 128MB DDR AGP8x

and that seems to be at a resonable price, any1 know how hl2 will run on this card? and the reliabilty of it?

[JediOfDarkness]

You really want to stay away from all "SE" cards, as they normaly have lower grade memory and lower clock speeds than their non-SE brothers. And no one can be completely sure as to how ANY card will run HL2, but for the most part, anything faster than a R9600Pro should run HL2 just fine. Stick with either a R9600 Pro/XT or R9800 Pro, as they are your best bests besides going to the next generation cards.

[sturlez2k]

ive thought about getting the R9600XT but should i get the 128mb or 256mb? there is a small price difference. would the 128 run a lower noticeable fps than the 256 in games such as doom and hl2.

[JediOfDarkness]

For Doom 3 and HL2, yes and no. The textures in HL2 and Doom 3 on the higher resolution levels will require more vram (256mb-512mb), but this is not essential, for two reasons. One is that your system may not be able to play HL2 and Doom 3 on these highest resolutions in the first place, and two your computer will use your system RAM if you run out of vram, though it will slow down a little while loading the textures if it does this, resulting in a temporarly low framerate. So I would go with the 128mb version, as your not going to get any higher framerates except for in the short ammounts of time that the textures are being loaded.

[sturlez2k]

so if i get the 128mb version how long will it need 2 be before i update my graphics card and a 128mb will be a low end card wont be any gud to run the latest games? i want to get a graphics card that will last me a fair bit of time.

[JediOfDarkness]

Well, if you want a card that's not going to become out of date after a few months, get in line cause we're all wanting that. Though with a Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb/256mb you'll have a good graphics card for quite a while, as there's no game that can slow it down. Now of course you won't be able to play Doom 3 or HL2 on 1600x1200, but you don't need too. You'll get awesome detail in 1024x768 with detail levels set on high. As for if you should get a 256mb version over the 128mb, that's your choice. If you have the money to get the 256mb version, then go right ahead, as it will help a little in Doom 3 and HL2. But like I said, the game will use your system memory if the graphics card runs out, so it's not that big of a deal.

[sturlez2k]

ive recently purchased my new graphics card after alot of thinking and help went into it. i was gona get the Radeon 9600 but i thought for a few extra bucks i cant go wrong and il get the radeon 9800 pro 128mb and i have 2 say it is great. it runs like a dream. shud run well on hl2 when it comes out, (i mean if it comes out :) )

thanks guys for helpin me out.


:t