What card to buy?

[AC103010]

I currently have a Geforce2 Integrated Card (OK, laugh if you must). Now I have a chance of buying the following:


128MB Radeon 9200 8X $57
128MB GeForce FX5200 X8 $67

And others at similar prices.

Any views on whether it's worth using a card at those prices and, if so, any ideas on performance, etc?

My processor is an Athlon 1800
256 Megs Ram


Any views/opinions would be welcomed


Allan

[MadMaster]

You will see an improvement with one of those cards. Games will certainly look better but don't expect any near jaw dropping. If jaw dropping graphics isn't worth that much to you than go for one of those cards.

I would suggest the FX5200 as it will be a little faster than the 9200.

[AC103010]

Thanks for that Paul.

From the source I can get a range of cards up to a 256MB Radeon 9800 XT for $414, but affordability is the name of the game here at the moment.

Also, because I've not been in the market for buying a video card before I don't know whether these are good prices or not. Maybe you have an opinion on this as well.


regards,


Allan

[faamecanic]

Newegg.com has ATI (and not the Sapphire brand) 9800Pro 256mb cards on sale this week for $269 with free shipping.... And I think they have the 128 mb version for like $18o (not sure on this one)

[zoynyne]

Both those cards are pretty low performers, they'd smoke what you're running now, but I'd try real hard to get something a notch up...

You'll get more than double the performance if you spend around $160 or so...

[AC103010]

Hey guys, thanks for the depressing answers - but I guess I asked the question and have to live with the answer.

When I bought my system, just after FS9 came out, I thought I had really something. Now, with the addons after addons, all to make the sim more realistic than "as real as it gets", I find that it's sinking into the sands slowly but surely.

I have 256 megs ram - wow. Yep, 256 megs. Not too long ago everyone would have been droolling over that. Now......... well, let's say no more.

Guess it's back to the drawing board.

Many thanks again.

Allan

[zoynyne]

For that rig, and on a tight budget I'd do this:

1. Videocard around the $150 range. Plenty of cards in that range that are WAY WAY better than what you're running OR the 5200 and 9200. I wouldn't buy one of those cards unless the price was under $50, and even then I'd be hesitant.

2. Additional stick of 256 meg RAM for around $40.

200 bucks could go fairly far on that system.

You wouldn't want to go higher on videocard on that system, waste of money unless you're after 1600 x 1200 resolution with a bunch of AA and AF applied.

You wouldn't want to go much higher on RAM either, unless you want to be able to run a bunch of stuff in the background on top of FS.

[AC103010]

That's practical advice and I'll have to consider it carefully.


Many thanks.


Regards,


Allan

[MadMaster]

Spend that $200, then save for your next computer. The upgrades will probably hold you over at least a year for your upgrade. My brother is still getting by really well with an XP-2400 TI-4600 (if you get the ram and a $150 graphics card your computer will compare to it).

So you should be set!

[TheFlightMan]

Careful, some versions of the Sapphire cards have a 128-bit memory interface instead of the usual 256-bit. This will be a bottleneck for a card like that, it will handicap it.

TheFlightMan