Upgrade question.

[Alec]

I recently bought Myth III and R. to Castle Wolfenstein, which I found unplayable on my system. I decided to finally upgrade my gfx card. It´s a shame about Matrox lack of 3D investment, cause they´ll keep losing customers. Oh well.

I´ll buy a new card this week ahead. I´ll ugrade my whole system in a few months time also to exploit the capabilities of my next card. The best performance/price ratio I find is the Geforce 2 MX400 64Mb card. I can get it for about 17.000$00, which is about 78 dollars, directly converting. A friend of mine put one in a 350Mhz system and it did wonders for gaming (he now has a 1.8Ghz P4). He had a 32Mb G400.

I run my desktop and games at 1024@768 max., so I won´t notice the drop in 2D quality...much. What do you think about this? Is this the best card for general use/light design/gaming I can buy on a low budget?

[CHHAS]

I think the time of the GF2MX is well past as well, you should look for a GF2Pro/Ti or maybe even a GF3 Ti if you want nVidia, or a Radeon 7500 or 8500 if ATI is more to your liking.

[Alec]

Yes, I´ve been thinking about it too... but I don´t want to spend much money and my gaming will be 1024x768 tops...

[Indiana]

Be sure to doublecheck the used memory, though. It should be 128Bit SDR, maybe even 64Bit DDR, but if you get a 64Bit SDR one, I'd say it's not quite cheap anymore....

[Alec]

It´s the 64-bit DDR. It´s just to make games playable until I buy a new system, which again should give a new boost to the gfx card...


...but I´ll return to Matrox as soon as they release their gaming card (I hope), word of Alec.

[Tempest]

I also think that a Geforce2/Ti might not be a bad choice. For example, the Gainward Geforce2/Ti 500:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/gaingf2ti/index.html

http://www.gainward.com/us/products/CARDEXpert%20Geforce2%20Ti500xp.htm

[g_goncalo]

NOT GF2 MX

Ola Alec. Hi to all. I have a G400 vannila 32Mb dual. A few week's ago, i've tried a Hercules Geforce2 MX. I've notice that the image was much more bluried and the color's where different than Matrox. I don't see why you whant to change to another card that matrox with your system. Well the Gfarse is faster but the quality of the image is very very low. Try ti check ATi radeon 7200 or 7500.
anything else...

[Tempest]

I think they are getting over it. LeadTek has been noted for much image improvement, and when you read the review I posted earlier:

2D quality is excellent, at least in 1600x1200 at 85 Hz. However, my estimate is subjective and depends on a certain card and on whether a monitor and a card get on. Noteworthy is the fact that to estimate 2D graphics you should have a high-quality monitor, and if the latter has BNC connectors you should use them.

And this was on two 21" ViewSonic monitors, so I think that they would have noticed if the picture quality had been completely intolerable.

[Alec]

I´ll try the MX400 64Mb and see. If I don´t like the quality (lack there of) I´ll try a Radeon. I think the Geforce revs up lower-end systems better than Radeons, apart from its lower price, that´s why I´m choosing a Gefart.

[Randy Simons]

must... resist... but.. cannot! aarg!

I advise you to buy a card with more than 64Mb of RAM...

[Alec]

MORE than 64Mb of RAM? Why?

[Randy Simons]

I don't think they even make 64Mb cards anymore since the G200 These days games require at least 256Mb, so get yourself a card with 512Mb memory.

(hint: divide those numbers by 8. Got it? You might want to update your sig as well then )

More on-topic: a have a neighbour who has a Radeon card. I don't know if he keeps his drivers always up-to-date, be he has video-related crashes on his w2k every now and then (even while changing desktop resolution..)
But then again, it seemd those newest NVidiaars drivers aren't all too perfect as well.

Why not get yourself a G400 DH with 32MB (256Mb ) until things have matured at ATi?

[Alec]

It´s that I want to play Myth III and Return to Castle Wolfenstein NOW! The G400 doesn´t cut it anymore. I would need a very fast system so that I could play those games on a G400...

[Kruzin]

"Intel Atlanta 440LX@72Mhz"

No...you would just need a real motherboard that could run at a decent FSB

[Alec]

Very funny...

I know my WHOLE system is outdated. But, as I said, I want to be able to play 2 games on which I spent some money. As I still don´t have the money to buy the computer I want, a powerful card will allow me to play them in the meanwhile.

THEN I will have a real motherboard.