Best 64 meg Video card out?

[NDD]

GF3 gonna be much cheaper ... VisionTek GeForce3 64 MB - 372$ ...

Best Regards ...

[fishpro619]

Any thoughts on this? Average price range?

[RobRich]

I assume you referencing consumer grade video solutions. If so:

The best available:
GeForce-3 64mb = $480-600

More cost effective:
ATI Radeon 64mb = $165-200
GeForce-2 Pro 64mb = $180-220

I would recommend taking a look at the latest reviews of the Radeon 64mb. This is a powerful chipset, especially for 32-bit high-resolution gaming.

Good Luck,
Robert Richmond

[Sly1]

I have a Radeon 64MD DDR VIVO, it will hands down give you the best looking screen. They optimize for 32 bit.

GE3 will surpass this in speed (for sure, GE2 also) but the $400 price is a joke and Ati will teach them about pricing. As for quality and price Radeon is a very good choice. You will have a new feeling system in extreme 3D. Speed Kills but beauty is a thing forever ( I like that) kinda sound like Andy Rooney...

[Kuasimodem]

I agree, the cheapest I could find the GF3 was $389 with free shipping.

Why not get the Radeon 64Mb DDR for half the price and better pic quality and DVD decoder?

[NDC]

Here's what I have....

http://www4.tomshardware.com/graphic/00q3/000816/

[RobRich]

Nice card NDC. The Suma SE is an excellent offering, especially in regards to design and implementation.

For myself, I will likely still be relying upon my GF-2 GTS for the next several weeks. I have recently modified the BIOS to a custom version of the latest Elsa Quaddro-II engineering release. I plan to eventually move the resistors to complete the Q2 hack on of these days.

As for the topic at hand, I would recommend the Radeon, atleast for the upcoming months. The image quality is superb, plus the performance is more than adaquate. The upside is that some of the latest cards with 5ns memory are overclocking upwards of 225/225(450) with just stock cooling.

Later,
Robert Richmond

[This message has been edited by RobRich (edited 04-29-2001).]

[Dputiger]

I've just purchased a GeForce2 Pro from MSI.

64 Meg of RAM, 400 Mhz memory clock, TV-out, and for only $180. Plus, she OC's to 440 Mhz quite nicely.

I can't say this is the best 64 meg cards, but its one of them, that's for sure.

[NDC]

Hey, Rob. I've been seeing a lot articles on customizing the BIOS for GTS cards to a Quaddro.... I've seen people where they would load the Quaddro BIOS and do some voltage tweaking on GTS cards to improve the output image quality. I heard that it improves image quality but the performance is not noticeable.... Any comments on that? Thanks.

[RobRich]

If succesfully implemented, the Q2 hack can produce serious performance increased for those interesting in professional 3D applications. Gaming performance changes very little, usually in the range of 5-10%. However, some games do offer much improved FSAA performance with the Q2 hack, sometimes upwards of a 20% gain. To change a GF to a Quadro actually does not require a BIOS change, but most usually go ahead with a flash of the latest cracked Elsa Quadro BIOS for optimum compatibility.

Other hacks are also possible, assuming you want to go hardcore. You can mod most GF boards to supply more voltage to the core GPU and memory, thus possibly increasing the maximum overclocking potential. Some people also bypass the final stage induction filtering series to improve monitor visuals at higher resolutions (1600x1200 and above). However, this process also invalidates the card's FCC certification, since the card can now produce possible spurious RF emmisions due to the lack of signal filtering.

Robert Richmond

[easyrider]

I have both 64 mg version of Hercules 3d prophet II GF2 gts ddr, and the ATI radeom 64 meg ddr.
I have to say the Ati does do wonders for a game in visual. Both card seem to ahve identical textureing, but the Ati by far has better lighting and colors.
Besides this, the Gf2 card has to much blur in it for my likeing, especially now that i have gotten used t the quality of this Ati card.
Here are a couple of pic I took, both 1024x768x32, all maxed out and high quality. http://members.home.net/stilton3/
As you will notice, the gf2 card has alot more blur on the floor, and on the right side of the boxes as well is blurred out more.
Both pics similar, but the Ati is just less blur and clearer. You be the judge.
Ati isn't as fast however, so if your an fps slave, then I would not go for the Ati card
As I experienced about anywhere from 10-20fps difference in the cards, Ati being slower of corse, but then again i'm not a slave to the fps god, so I could care less.
I always use the example of "I like to see what I am shooting, not have to move closer to see it becuase of the blur" http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif.
Hope this helps. both are nice cards, I just prefer to "see" the niceity's the game was meant for in the first place, i can play later, for now I wanna eww and aww at all the glories of colors and things.


[This message has been edited by easyrider (edited 05-01-2001).]