Rob Murray Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 I'm expecting a nice little tax refund ( about $300.00 CDN ) & I want to invest it in a new graphics card. I want to stick with Nvidia as I've heard a lot of other cards ( ie. ATI ) won't do fog ( I do like to have my weather effects!!! ) What would be the best card card going for my buck ( the one that I'll get the most bang out of )? I'm asking here as if I go out and buy one I'll probably get a load of b.s. from a salesperson just trying to make a quick sale. My systems is a Dell Dimension 4500 series: 2.0 GHZ P4, WinXP ( & Service pack 1 ), Nvidia Geforce 4 MX420, Sound Blaster live! ( value ), 512 RAM. Thanks in advance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junk2drive Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 go to www.pcmech.com forums and read what pc geeks have to say. mainly which one to stay away from. plus places to mail order. www.newegg.com has a good reputation. i have used www.allstarshop.com with great service. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Unfortunately the two above mentioned online retailers will not ship to Canada. Otherwise I would heartily recommend Newegg. In your price range I would recommend either the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra or a GeForce FX 5900SE. Depending on where you buy them (and whatever sales tax you may need to pay), these should be about the best cards you can get for your refund. Generally a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 would be a good purchase too, but the advantage that the FX series has is DirectX 9 and OpenGL 1.4 compatibility. The eVGA brand probably has the best prices for a good quality videocard. Abit, Chaintech and ASUS are also good (though ASUS usually has a bit of a price premium). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hpt. Lisse Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 As always, good recomendations from the S man. Keep in mind, though, that stepping up to the FX5900 line (the SE is a slightly slower version of the 5900 non-Ultra) increases the memory bus width from 128 bit to 256, which is an important feature. I've had a eVGA 128MB FX5900 for a couple months now and love it - it's down to $190 US right now. Let us know what you get. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bergerbitz Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 Rob, Check out NCIX.com Lotsa good stuff there and they're based in Vancouver...if I recall correctly... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Murray Posted February 24, 2004 Author Share Posted February 24, 2004 Thanks for the advice. I just checked out Future Shop & found these 2 1) XFX Geforce FX 5600 256 MB DDR - 229.00 CDN 2) XFX Geforce FX 5200 128 MB DDR - 139.00 CDN I assume these are both Nvidia products. Any ideas? I'm thinking about going for number 2 because although I like gaming, money is an object. Like just about everyone else here, I'm on a pretty tight budget & don't want to go into a black hole of debt over a graphics card. :eek: Plus, Future Shop is very close by ( within walking distance, therefore I avoid S&H costs ). I'm going to check with Dell to make sure either of these is compatible with my rig ( see thread starter ). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 Rob, Avoid the 5200 series, the Ti4600 is a better card. Check this place out, it's got pick up in Halifax, I could pick it up and ship it to you. Handlings on me, shipping is on you. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Murray Posted February 24, 2004 Author Share Posted February 24, 2004 I couldn't find the Ti 4600 in the link. I appreciate the offer but I can't really afford to spend $250-300 on a card. I've got a 64 MB card right now & surely even the FX 5200 ( 128 MB ) would give me a decent improvement in performance. I've read the reviews ( they're mixed ) about the card. I also have Direct X 9.0b. I haven't made up my mind yet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hpt. Lisse Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 Rob, Read this recent comparison of video cards before you make your decision, then cost compare the ones you like. Tom's Hardware Vid Card roundup You may be surprised at some of the benchmarks, depending on what games you play... the older Ti4600 beats a FX5600 non-ultra in many situations. Having the extra RAM (256 instead of 128) doesn't make a difference in any current games I'm aware of (in fact, it slows down the card a hair, as the onboard memory controller has to deal with 2x128MB banks instead of one...) [ February 24, 2004, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: Hpt. Lisse ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 Rob, I was pointing out the FX5600XT for $150.00. This is a much better card than the 5200. KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Carr Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 Just saw this card at Newegg.com for $140.00: MSI nVIDIA GeForce4 TI4600-8X Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "G4Ti4600-TD8X" Good card! I am currently running two of the 4X AGP versions of this card. This ones 8X AGP... What are you looking to spend? [ February 24, 2004, 05:04 PM: Message edited by: Jack Carr ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Murray Posted February 25, 2004 Author Share Posted February 25, 2004 About $200 CDN max. P.S. I'm in Toronto. Does anyone know of a place where I can go check out cards ( other than Future Shop - been there, done that ). I've checked out the Best Buy Canada flyer from their website - couldn't find anything. Dell's webpage is no help either: I really don't want to phone them ( spend 20 minutes on hold just to get pestered into buying something that I don't need/want ). P.P.S. KC: Is this the one your talking about? A-FX60-X NVIDIA® GeForce™FX 5600 XT, 64/128/256MB DDR SDRAM [ February 24, 2004, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: Rob Murray ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krazy Canuck Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 Rob They have 3 under $200.00. I like the AOpen unit mainly because I'm using one of their Mobo's and having absolutely zero problems. Just let me know if I can be of help(e-mail me through this board). KC 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Murray Posted February 25, 2004 Author Share Posted February 25, 2004 Thanks, it'll probably be a little while before I get the new card anyway ( I have to wait for my refund ). For now, there's a section in the Properties tab of my Geforce 4 MX 420 under the Direct 3D settings marked Performance & compatibility options. In that section there are further tabs for Mipmap detail level & Maximum system memory for PCI mode textures. The Mipmap detail level is set at default " Best Image Quality " & the Maximum system memory for PCI modes texture tab is also set at default - 63 MB . What I'd like to know is would I gain a little boost in performance if I changed these settings & what should I change them to? Also, I've got the AA & anisotropic settings at default ( application controlled - isn't it fun when you don't really know what you're doing!!! )Should these be changed? I know it won't be much ( that's why I'm getting a new card ). See thread starter for my system details. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 You can adjust the 'PCI Texture Memory' to as high as possible (which will probably vary system to system), though it may make little, if any, difference. Mipmapping can be adjusted for performance or quality. Generally I suggest a 'quality' setting since any performance loss is probably worth it. Your Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering settings are both set to OFF for CM's purposes ('application controlled' - means off for CM). You can experiment with 'forcing' these features on, but they do affect performance quite a bit. Antialiasing may be limited to certain maximum resolutions (depending on the memory on the card, etc.). Anisotropic filtering may give you the best image quality for performance tradeoff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Kulin Posted March 2, 2004 Share Posted March 2, 2004 Rob. I'm in Pickering and there are a number of options for you. (also keep in mind that Best Buy/Future Shop are expensive but have liberal return policies). You could check out Compu-Smart as an alternative place to view cards (but at full retail prices) (there's one at Kennedy/401 and other locations as well) What I'd say your best bet would be is to go into a local PC store and pick up a copy of the free local computer mag that is usually found near the front door. These are crammed with ads from the small local stores and you can get quite the discount on the cards compared to places like Future Shop. Prices are still a bit higher than the mail order (but in my experience, S&H charges usually negate the advantage and then there is the hassle if you have to return a defective card plus the wait times). I'd also say to you to take the retail box version over OEM version (ask in advance) as you will get a better (manufacturer) warranty versus a 1 yr. retailer warranty. (plus I worry as to where these "OEM" versions come from and if the guy will be around in 6 months to honour the warranty) If you do go the Future Shop route, then they often have rebate offers on their XFX video cards so keep an eye on the flyers or their web-site. About a month ago for example they had the FX5200/256MB on for $210 with a $60 mail in rebate. Andrew 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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