What card should I buy?

**Atoghunter** · 03-07-2004, 07:51 PM

I've been invited to a LAN party and my current graphics card (geforce4 mx440se) wont run some of the games being played , such as battlefield 1942 or Americas Army. I guess that means its time to finally upgrade to a new card. I really want to avoid spending too much over $200, I'm mostly looking for a card that'll last me through high school (about a year and a half). I'll want to be able to play half life 2 when it comes out, I dont really care about getting settings anything above 1024x768. I dont want to have to overclock the card, or have to deal with bugs (I've had enough of those with my geforce4mx). So if you could recommend some cards and manufacturers which can meet these requirements I'd greatly appreciate it.

**bassman** · 03-07-2004, 07:55 PM

For about 200$ you just can't go wrong with a Radeon 9800 Pro

**Atoghunter** · 03-07-2004, 08:15 PM

Whats the difference between the 9700 Pro and the 9800 pro? I dont see a large difference in benchmark results, and theres a $20 price difference.

**bassman** · 03-07-2004, 08:23 PM

The 9800's VPU is different, newer, with some enhanced features: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...800pro-01.html. There are some areas where the 9800 beats the 9700, especially when it comes to AA and AF.

**Atoghunter** · 03-07-2004, 08:35 PM

will the radeon 9800 pro work work in an AGP4x slot? will it reduce my game performance by a full half?

**AdamST** · 03-07-2004, 08:52 PM

will the radeon 9800 pro work work in an AGP4x slot? will it reduce my game performance by a full half?

It will work fine. No its wont reduce your preformance a full half. Wont evne be noticable.

**Direct1** · 03-07-2004, 09:14 PM

This is the card you want...

SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -BULK = $210 USD shipped.

Don't be fooled by the cards that end with SE -- they're junk.

Good luck!

**iceblue** · 03-07-2004, 09:16 PM

Originally posted by Atoghunter
I've been invited to a LAN party and my current graphics card (geforce4 mx440se) wont run some of the games being played , such as battlefield 1942 or Americas Army. I guess that means its time to finally upgrade to a new card. I really want to avoid spending too much over $200, I'm mostly looking for a card that'll last me through high school (about a year and a half). I'll want to be able to play half life 2 when it comes out, I dont really care about getting settings anything above 1024x768. I dont want to have to overclock the card, or have to deal with bugs (I've had enough of those with my geforce4mx). So if you could recommend some cards and manufacturers which can meet these requirements I'd greatly appreciate it.

Uhh.. both of those games will run on any GeForce 4 MX. The lowest Nvidia card supported on BF1942 is the GeForce 256 and for America's Army the GeForce2 MX. If you're thinking about HL2, you should hold on to those dollars until the game is released. With that aside, some highly recommended cards at the 200 dollar price point are the 128MB 9800 Pro or 128MB GeForce FX 5900.

**Atoghunter** · 03-07-2004, 09:29 PM

My Geforce MX440se was made by eagle, and it has, like I mentioned, some bugs. When I play Americas army I'll get all these wierd lines, and its impossible to play. with battlefield, my framerate would not go above 3 fps. Eagle wont respond to any of my emails, and I've heard some rumors that the card isn't fully dx8.1 compatable.

**Yoshi** · 03-07-2004, 09:32 PM

What are ur specs, if you go 9800 Pro you might hit some bottle necks if the rest of your PC aint to up there

**Direct1** · 03-07-2004, 09:35 PM

What are the specs other the rest of your computer?

**Atoghunter** · 03-07-2004, 09:53 PM

well if theres a problem it might be the motherboard? its a soyo p4s dragon lite. I have 2x256mb ddr ram I'm running at 266mhz, one is made by kingston, one is made by corsair. I have a celeron 2.0ghz, which the fsb has been overclocked to 133mhz (for the ram), making the processor go at 2.66ghz. I'm using onboard sound, and the graphic card I mentioned. Everything is compatable, if theres any issue its going to be the graphics card, hence why I'm replacing it.

**bob05** · 03-07-2004, 11:31 PM

Originally posted by Atoghunter
My Geforce MX440se was made by eagle, and it has, like I mentioned, some bugs. When I play Americas army I'll get all these wierd lines, and its impossible to play. with battlefield, my framerate would not go above 3 fps. Eagle wont respond to any of my emails, and I've heard some rumors that the card isn't fully dx8.1 compatable.

What drivers do you have installed? I would roll back to something like Det. 40.72: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_40.72.html

**Atoghunter** · 03-07-2004, 11:49 PM

I'll test out that driver, thanks. Will I be able to run hl2 and all games out right now at 1024x768 with a radeon 9600pro/xt or some other card in a similar price range. I just say that because the 9800 pro seems like it'll cost about $220, which I'm not sure if I can justify spending. My computer is far from a performance system, and thus I'm not sure if I really have any need for a high end graphics card. such as the 9800 pro.

**Atoghunter** · 03-08-2004, 12:50 AM

that one says 9600 pro LV, or lite version. Hows that gonna compare with the standard pro version?

Thread: What card should I buy?

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Display

What card should I buy?

Re: What card should I buy?

Posting Permissions