My dad wants a video card

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05-13-2003, 03:12 PM
Milo

My dad wants a video card

My dad wants a new video card for one of his computers. He's not much of a gamer (aside from tetris and pinball), however he saw me playing BF1942 and asked me if his computer could handle it. I said no, he would have to get a new video card to be able to even play at 800x600.

He is running on a PIII 800 with 448MB RAM. His current video card is a crappy TNT Vanta. (It suffices for Tetris and Pinball quite well. LOL.)

Anyhow, what is the highest end card he can buy without the CPU being the limited factor? Geforce 3 Ti200 perhaps?

Thanks,

Milo
05-13-2003, 03:17 PM
RavenLord

Redeon 8500 maybe?
Check what BF1942 needs I'm sure you will find a benchmark somwhere.
I think guru3d has one somewhere...
05-13-2003, 03:18 PM
Un4given

Even with a GF3 the CPU would be the limiting factor, but for cost and availability, a GF3 card would be a good choice.
05-13-2003, 04:38 PM
PointlesS

I would agree with a geforce 3 or a radeon 8500 type card...both should run bf1942 fine...
05-13-2003, 05:10 PM
GB_Cobber

Ive noticed the GF3's work a little better for slower machines than 8500's though image quality isnt as good. An MX440's would actually be the least CPU dependant and powerfull enough for 1024-32 but its only DX7 so its hard to recomend these days.

Unfortunatly on the 800Mhz P3 BF1942 wont be very playable with any more than 150-200% unit count in single player which makes it a bit boring IMO.

Unlike most games BF1942's main bottleneck(in single player) is its AI so the more you can squeeze out of that CPU the better.

I think i'd go for a GF3ti200
05-13-2003, 05:34 PM
crashed13

I play BF 1942 online quite well at my friends place. He has a P4 1.3Ghz Willamette(Equal to a P3 900Mhz I hear) and a 64mb GF2 Ti200.
05-13-2003, 10:35 PM
Belial

I would probably get a ti4200 or 8500 for that computer. I think I'd skip on a geo3...get a 128mb ram video card.

my 8500 works fine on my system...I'm sure a ti4200 would even be a little faster on it.

Get something 1/2 way decent though...when he gets rid of that computer put the crummy old video card back in and keep the new card. A ti4200 would be ideal...doesn't really matter if the cpu runs it a little slow as he's not really a gamer anyways and won't notice. You could put a 9800 pro/5900fx in and it's still going to run faster then what he has now...
05-13-2003, 10:50 PM
speedstream5621

Quote:

I would probably get a ti4200 or 8500 for that computer. I think I'd skip on a geo3...get a 128mb ram video card.

I agree. Later on it wouldn't be as obsolete.:) Both are overkill for what he needs, however.
05-13-2003, 11:06 PM
Ignitionator

Get him an ATI R9000 Pro 128MB. That's the best card I can think of for his computer.
05-13-2003, 11:16 PM
speedstream5621

Quote:

Get him an ATI R9000 Pro 128MB. That's the best card I can think of for his computer.

That's just a rebadged 8500 with one less pipeline or something. The 8500 outperforms it and is probably cheaper.:)
05-13-2003, 11:22 PM
Ignitionator

Quote:

Originally posted by speedstream5621

That's just a rebadged 8500 with one less pipeline or something. The 8500 outperforms it and is probably cheaper.:)

Yea but his CPU wont take adventage of the R8500 anyways...
05-13-2003, 11:25 PM
speedstream5621

Quote:

Yea but his CPU wont take adventage of the R8500 anyways...

True, but the 8500 will be cheaper, so why spend more on less?:confused:
05-13-2003, 11:52 PM
Ignitionator

Quote:

Originally posted by speedstream5621

True, but the 8500 will be cheaper, so why spend more on less?:confused:

Well I am not sure about the 128MB version...
05-14-2003, 09:26 AM
irwincur

Get a R8500 and you should be fine. Even the 64MB version would work great. I can easily play BF with my card. To save a bit more money, you may even want to consider a GF4MX440 or a R7500.
05-14-2003, 01:27 PM
Ignitionator

Quote:

Originally posted by irwincur
To save a bit more money, you may even want to consider a GF4MX440 or a R7500.

\

and run BF 1942 like s h i t ? :D :D
05-14-2003, 06:50 PM
Belial

Quote:

Originally posted by Ignitionator

Yea but his CPU wont take adventage of the R8500 anyways...

yes it will...he can run a ti4600 or 9700 pro even with that cpu.

Go to toms and check out the blowout 65 CPU review...they put the 9700 pro on a pentium 100 even.

The basic idea is that when you buy an upgrade of a rapidly becoming obsolete system that you DON"T get another rapidly approaching abosolecence part as the upgrade. Why would anyone buy a 64mb card at this stage of the game? Remember that he can pull that video card back out and reuse it in something else or sell it...

Actually his best bet is probably to get a directX 9 card like the 9500 pro/9600 pro or the 5600(improved flip chip one) or better fx cards...but forgoing that the ti4200 128mb or 8500 128mb are decent cards still with the ti4200 getting the nod(better drivers is the opinion and it's VERY POPULAR still for unloading it later on).