NVidia card purchase

[Tom Konczal]

I intend to purchase a new dell computer with a Pantium 4 1.8 Ghz processor. Is a 32 mb DDR Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS 4X AGP Graphics card good enough or should I spend the extra $230 for the 64 mb DDR Nvidia GeForce3 4X AGP card?? Combat Mission is the simulation I play the most on the computer.

Thanks

Tom Konczal :confused:

[Compassion]

Geforce 3 is way overkill for CM. WIth the way that they are cutting prices on the Geforece 2 PRO 64 meg cards, I'd get one of those... in fact, I did a couple weeks ago.

[Freak]

I am with Compassion on this. The Geforce 3 is a bit overkill for CM when looking at the price. The 32mb Geforce 2 is about the ideal card for CM. The Geforce 3 should come down in price at about the same time of CM2BB release, so it might be a good idea to wait it out a little bit.

[dima]

I have ThunderBird 1.33 and GeForce 2 GTS

My brother has Celeron 500 and Voodoo 3. To tell you honestly, I don't see much difference. Draw your own conclusions

P.S Actually I prefer playing on his PC because of all the problems with nVidia and CM

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: dima ]

[Chupacabra]

One thing to possibly bear in mind is that, AFAIK, the manufacturing process for Geforce 3s is quite a bit more expensive than that of previous nVidia chipsets. So while you'll certainly see a price drop in the future, I doubt it will be as drastic as the price drop for older GeForce cards has been. If you can get a good deal on a GF3 now, I'd personally just go for it. But it's your dime, afterall

[Compassion]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chupacabra:

[One thing to possibly bear in mind is that, AFAIK, the manufacturing process for Geforce 3s is quite a bit more expensive than that of previous nVidia chipsets. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, it is and it isn't if I recall what they are doing correctly. From what I remember reading, they are using a .13 micron process for the Geforece 3 chipset. An expensive and twitchy fab process to put in place. Once in place and ramped, thnough, yield goes through the roof and parts are cheaper to fabricate by unit than older ones... So prices will indeed crash one day, but with the performance lead they ahve with it (and the demand they are servicing), there's no reason to expect Nvidia to cut prices any time soon.

I still say that the Geforce 2 PRO with 64megs of DDR is a steal since the agressive price cuts last month (picked a leadtek up off u-bid for $109 and have seen them as cheap as $140 retail). It's fast enough to satisfy most gamers.

I'm playing Max Payne at 1024x768 with all options all the way up on an 850 and it's like glass... Played it on a buddy's 850 with a 32 meg gts @ 800x600 and it stutters... and CM? Imaginethe high points of the Carenten operation with movies that have no problems playing.

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: Compassion ]

[Sitzkrieg]

Another thing to remember is that a Geforce3 requires at least version 10.x Nvidia drivers that do not currently work very well with CM, in particular, on FSAA. So you would be spending extra money for something you won't use until Nvidia fixes their drivers.

I would go with a Geforce2, either GTS or Ultra with 64MB if possible. The prices are falling for these cards and there is not that much of a performance difference to justify the price of a Geforce3.

You'll be very satisfied. I know I am.

[Sitzkrieg]

Another thing to consider, depending on how computer savy you are, is to buy the cheapest card you can get from Dell, then buy a card online from a discount house. Dell charges ridiculously extra for their cards and memory. For example, $130 for an extra 128MB of PC133 SDRAM when you can get the same stuff online for like $30. Try Pricewatch.com. They have links to all kinds of discount sites with 64MB Geforce2 cards for $150 to $200 :eek:

Hope this helps.

Edited for screwed up URL link.

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: sitzkrieg ]

[Tontoman]

If you can find one for cheap you could even get a Voodoo5 and wait for the GF3 to get cheaper (if you really want one in the end).

The company has gone bust now (so it should be really cheap, make sure you can find drivers) but it's FSAA is the best. Too slow for FPS games (using AA) but for something like CM the 4X FSAA is amazing.

I couldn't play CM with out FSAA ... well I could but I'd hate it.

T.

[Sgt CDAT]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by sitzkrieg:

Another thing to remember is that a Geforce3 requires at least version 10.x Nvidia drivers that do not currently work very well with CM, in particular, on FSAA. So you would be spending extra money for something you won't use until Nvidia fixes their drivers.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Looks like the fix is on its way. The 14.40 bata drivers has fixed the FSAA problem for me. I would look at it this way if you can buy the GeForce 3 and it wont hurt your pocketbook to much get the Geforce 3 and you wont need to worry about a new card any time soon.