New video card - recommendations?

[Cypher]

I'm considering getting a new video card in the near future, and I want some recommendations from the rest of you -- I know you've all bought new cool stuff more recently than I have, and I know you're using it for the same purposes I will. :) Right now my main gaming computer is my laptop -- P4, GeForce4... great system, but the video card is a lower-end GeForce4. The new video card I ordered for the laptop just went out of stock until early Dec., so I'm thinking about upgrading the card in my DESKTOP system and using that for most of my gaming, at least for now. Maybe I'll upgrade the laptop video card later -- like after they release the new mobile GF4 TI card for laptops. I've been happy with the GeForce4 in my laptop, but I know it isn't the best example of what a top-of-the-line nVidia chip is really capable of. What are you guys running, what do you suggest, how much will it cost me? And please -- don't say "buy nVidia because I hate ATI." (or vice-versa). :) Thanks in advance for the suggestions.

[bighead]

i run ati 8500 128mb ddr and have know problems w/ it. now i think you can get them fairly cheap too..check out pricewatch to see

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

I run a GForce 4 4400 and have had only one problem with it. Grand Theft Auto 3...no walls and it's cloudy...heh

[LA_MERC_Onji]

Here you go tech :)

GTA3 Video issue (http://www.take2games.com/index.php?p=support&id=882&product=121,3,Grand%20Theft%20Auto%203,PC,Rockstar _Games,gta3&section=issues)

[LA_MERC_Captain_Obvious]

I have a gf3ti200. it's a gainward golden sample (they garuntee it to be a good overclocker) at stock speeds I play cs in 1024x768 and I have a constant 99 fps. you can get this same card for about $110 at newegg.com. I leave mine OCed to the same settings as a gf3ti500. but not sure if you would OC yours.

the gf4ti4400 is a great card, so is the ATI 9700 (the pro verion is just a little too expensive though)

how much are you looking to spend?
what are the specs of your computer? if you have a slow cpu and minimal ram, you won't notice much difference between a mid range and high end vid card.

[Cypher]

I'm used to running my games at 1600x1200 on my laptop, and I want to run it at the same res on my desktop. My desktop is a P4 1.8 GHz, 512 MB RAM, running Win2k Pro. Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

Onji, I already tried that...it didnt work. Will try it again though just for S&G's

[LA_MERC_Mercy]

well im geforce2 400mx roxors my box0rs...

[Cypher]

I think I'm leaning toward the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro... From the reviews and benchmarks and comparisons I've found, it consistently rocks the GeForce4 Ti 4600. I just wanna do some price checking and see if I can justify the price. Any thoughts?

[Timbo]

Hey LA_MERC_Redrum I have this ATI9700 crad. this crad kick butt. you can get 1 for 300.00. I'm playing doom 3 at 65 to 75 fps... I have play cs at 100.fps.. :blue:

[Cypher]

er... the plot thickens... looks like Dell just shipped me the ATI 9000 for my laptop, despite the personal phone call I just got saying the card was out of stock. I may still consider the 9700 Pro sometime down the road, when prices drop a bit. Thanks for all your comments, and I'll be back with more questions if anything goes wrong with shipment or the card itself. Thanks everybody!

[[lag]DikDstrdly]

I'd be very interested to hear some reports on that Mobility Radeon 9000 after you get it installed, as I am also considering upgrading the gf2go in my dell laptop.

[Cypher]

Just got the Mobility Radeon 9000 yesterday... installed it last night. It friggin ROCKS compared to the GeForce4 440 GO I had before. Both cards are 64 MB. Definitely go with the Radeon 9000 if your Dell can support it (depending on your motherboard and display, you may not be able to handle it... a lot of people are having problems upgrading because of the combination of components in their systems). Right after I booted up with the new card, I noticed that Windows looked a lot cleaner and sharper -- I didn't expect to see a difference there.

I went into the control panel and boosted all the settings to max (like anisotropic filtering, antialiasing, texture quality, lighting quality, etc., just to see how it would run). With max settings (and 1600x1200 res like always), cstrike players seemed a bit laggy -- but only the players; my movement and the rest of the map seemed fine -- maybe it was just a little bit of lag on the server at the time.

Next, Quake 3 Arena. Gorgeous. 1600x1200, max video settings. Q3A never looked this good with the GF4.

Then I tried UT 2003. This game was pretty hard on my GF4; I had to run it at 1024x768 with Normal video settings in order to play smoothly. But with the M9000: OH MY GOD. I was able to run UT at 1600x1200 instead of 1024x768 without any lag. I turned all the texture, lighting, physics, etc. quality levels up to High instead of Normal -- no problem. Still haven't tried the "Very High" settings in UT2003.

DikDstrdly, definitely try out the Radeon 9000 if your system will support it. It's only $130, it's pretty easy to put in, and it's a huge improvement over the GeForce4 GO-- it'll be even better compared to the GeForce2 GO (I had a GF2 in my I8100; the GF4 in my I8200 was a big improvement). The only problem is, Dell MIGHT have just run out of stock for now, but they're supposed to be getting more in early December. It's worth the wait, unless Dell starts carrying the new GeForce TI 4200 GO at a decent price by then.

[Cypher]

AND, if you buy the 9000 through Dell, it doesn't void your system warranty, even if you install it yourself! And the card itself has a 90 day warranty so you can return it if you don't like it or if your system doesn't support it. If you decide to do this, I'll let you know how to get to the instructions on Dell's site for changing the video card -- it's easy if you know exactly what parts you NEED to remove to get to it (just 2 parts really); it would probably be tricky without that.