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#87780 - 12/08/02 05:45 PM What graphic card to buy?  
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Blitz_25th Offline
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What graphic card to buy?

I know that these questions are very common here but I’m asking it as well. Right now I’m using GF2 Ultra on P4 2Ghz but since the card is still DX7 only and all new games that will come out in future will need DX8 to fully utilize its potential I’m going to get me a new card. As I did waste already lots of money due to the Christmas season coming in I can only spare so much money right now. I did some checking and it appears that for my budget I got following cards to chose from in my PC store:
-GF3 64MB
-Radeon 8500LE 128MB
-Radeon 9000Pro 128MB

I know non of the cards above is considered high-end card, heck 2 of them are pretty old design but I’m not willing to spend more money right now since I’m planning to do a major upgrade in the late winter.
Since I’m primarily in to flight simulation I do want the card to have a nice AA looking (something that all GF I owned failed to do. Is that same for GF3?) even if the FPS are little slower than that of the other 2 although I now that non of the cards above can hold with my ol’ V5 in that department. The card need to have stabile drivers as well that they work good with my sim’s (JF15,JF18,F4,F2.5,MSFS2002,GR…).

So any of you having a good suggestion on which of these cards should I get.

P.s.
Does the Radeon 9000 apply AA in the games that use 16bit colors or does it have the same problem with it as the 9700 which can only do this in 32bit right now?


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#87781 - 12/08/02 06:06 PM Re: What graphic card to buy?  

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I am using a G force 3 ti 200 /128.

I am getting pretty good results.

But....I am planning to same up some bucks.

In Feb 2003 the new nvidia card comes out.

It will probably work in you computer.

#87782 - 12/08/02 06:11 PM Re: What graphic card to buy?  
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Quote:
Originally posted by Blitz_25th:
but since the card is still DX7 only and all new games that will come out in future will need DX8 to fully utilize its potential I’m going to get me a new card.


I don't believe this is true. You can use DX8 just fine with that card. Have you tried installing DX8a on your system?

Sierra

#87783 - 12/08/02 06:36 PM Re: What graphic card to buy?  
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I just had a very bad experience with a Radeon 9000 Pro - it had all sorts of problems with games - even it the game would run, I'd have to play with task switching just to try to get the game to display.

I put my GF3Ti200 back in, and will replace that with a GF4Ti4200/128.

Pete

[This message has been edited by Pygmy - SimHQ (edited 12-08-2002).]

#87784 - 12/08/02 07:17 PM Re: What graphic card to buy?  
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I might have phrase it the wrong way. True is that any card that has the latest drivers that are based on DX8 (latest official) can run any game more or less succesfully. What I meant that the GF2 (and GF4MX that are essentially still based on GF2) line of cards is not capable to use new features that were presented with the DX8… you know the pixel and vertex shader stuff and similar so this must be handled by CPU thus decreasing the performance and the effect is also not as good as if the card does it internally so while they do have the drivers that are compatible with DX8 they do nut utilize the full support for it thus the CPU is used to handle the shader stuff among other things.


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#87785 - 12/08/02 11:44 PM Re: What graphic card to buy?  
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I have an 8500LE 64mb, and have no problem. I think the problem with the 9700 is with the drivers, but theres new ones out to fix it. I use 3rd party Omega drivers, which are tweaked to be faster, and have less bugs.

I think that the 9000Pro is just a faster version of the 8500, so it would probably be a better choice. The GF3Ti200 is fast, but now that the GF4's are out, I'd look for a deal on a Ti500, or maybe even a GF4 Ti4200.

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#87786 - 12/09/02 12:58 AM Re: What graphic card to buy?  
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Gyre Offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by jackkelso:
I am using a G force 3 ti 200 /128.

I am getting pretty good results.

But....I am planning to same up some bucks.

In Feb 2003 the new nvidia card comes out.

It will probably work in you computer.


Ditto, except I've got a 9700 pro. Wait for the GeforceFX.

Gyre

#87787 - 12/09/02 04:15 AM Re: What graphic card to buy?  

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Just so you know, the 9000 Pro performs worse than the 8500. Don't ask why.

The 9500 Pro OTOH beats the GF4 Ti4200 and also the Ti4600 in most things. And it's cheaper.

Unless you want to wait for the NV30, which will further drive down the prices, you should get the 9500 Pro.

#87788 - 12/10/02 05:42 AM Re: What graphic card to buy?  

**DONOTDELETE**
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Blitz, you can get a GF4 4200 128mb card for the same price or less than the three you mentioned and it will run everything you need fine. I currently have the 4200 64mb card and its very fast and looks great. I would go for the 128mb version though for higher resolutions, but you can get a GF4 card for around $150.

#87789 - 12/14/02 01:41 AM Re: What graphic card to buy?  

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I have a Pentium 4 1.80ghz
512mb of ram, gf4 Ti4200 64mb..
do you think this setup will be good enough for FB?

#87790 - 12/17/02 06:29 PM Re: What graphic card to buy?  

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Here's the 9700 Pro at 16x12x32 4xAA & 16xAF flying the talon at Mach 1+ for ten minutes. Dropped the cockpit and took the shot. It has no problems feeding the FS2k2 Textures.


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