pouët.net

Thom: stop caring about "better" OpenGL support (and Nvidia's magic PS3.0 wildcard for that matter). Get yourself a good bang-per-buck videocard at the ATI corner :)

sprocket: it you're gonna get a cheap nvidia card, atleast make sure its ti and not mx.

i second that. the mx-series are utter crap. btw; i don't think you'll find many ti-series cards in the shops these days, they seem to mostly carry the fx-series..

Thank you so much to everyone who answered my stupid answer without flaming me. =)

..um... my stupid QUESTION! =D

Hehe, you probably think I'm trolling here, but I'll give it a go... What do you think I should buy:

Radeon 7000, Radeon 9200SE or GeForce4 MX440?

In that scenario, I would recommend a r9200se. It's a dx8.1 (ps1.3) class card, has no fan, should be more powerful than the other two... and it's really cheap. But then again, it's an already outdated model, caponised because of a poor 64bit interface and lack of memory.

GF4TI4600

Hehe, sprocket wants to se chipgoa!

;)

I vote for MOS 6561.

I have to switch between geffx 5900/6800 and r9800xt constantly for compatibility tests (not for demos though they are nv only:) ). somehow i like the 5900 most when doing anything besides d3d ps2 code. the 9800 is still the fastest one for d3d ps2 code, but it is kind of unstable with everything that uses gl (for example 3ds max) and performs badly with multiple monitors.

you want an intel extreme graphics ii adapter. it kicks butt.

i have to switch between ati 9600 pro, gffx 5200, geforce3ti500 for compatibility tests. the radeon is the board i prefer. I don't have any compatibility or whatever stability issues with it compared to nv cards under gl, despie the fact i use 3dsmax. you should go for some ati 9500 or up. The 9200 don't have any ps2 support, which makes them obsolete as soon as you buy them nowadays, and quite a number of demos won't launch there.

shiva: performs badly with multiple monitors?! why, I ought to slap you, sir!

Of all dualhead setups, the Nvidia flavor taunts me the most. Past and present, Geforce has been the biggest waah-waah-pooped-my-pants-no-dualhead-for-you problem for *years*.

Every time I have to handle a dualhead problem at work, it's a GF setup. Guess why we switched to Matrox and ATI for programmers?

Shifter wins, I should have an x800 this time next week. Now I can really impress the chicks!

Right now, the 9800Pro is the best bang per buck for DX9/PS2.0 cards. Hell, I got one for under $200 and it was really an XT underclocked to Pro speed! So I brought it back up to XT speed, damn, what a deal. :) If you're more on a budget, the 9600Pro will do you no wrong. As for nVidia, the Ti4200 was a terrific deal in its day (I had one), but the 6800 series doesn't seem worth it unless you're some kind of Doom 3 freak.

while still searching for a new gfx-card (research is good), i came across this test which compares the new geforce 6800 (non-ultra, non-gt. the plain/basic version) to the ati 9800 xt.

the test clearly shows that the most basic 6800 beats the top-of-the-line card of yesterday, and the cool thing is; norwegian stores have the card available now, at just 900,- NOK more than what the 9800 pro ships for.

this will give be great ps2.0-speeds, as well as good opengl/demoscene-compatibility (well, if nvidia haven't fucked up something in their drivers, that is :) so it's an option i'm seriously considering.

oh, and here is a test comparing the three different flavors of the 6800-series to the x800 xt pro.

the plain 6800 has no ati-counterpart (yet), the 6800 gt aims at the x800 pro (or the other way around :) and the 6800 ultra competes with the x800 xt.

as for value for money, the gt-card is a little cheaper than the x800 pro and offers about the same performance. it also has the same amount of pipelines and the memory clock is about the same as the 6800 ultra, so it's a serious contender for "good value for money", though it is still pricey at abouty $400.

i strongly recommend a radeon (best price/power-thing)

you forget that i'm not dead poor and living in a cardboard box somewhere. :) if continued demo compatibility (nv-specific stuff) with "older" demos only comes at a 900 NOK (~ $125) pricetag AND it gets me a top-of-the-line card..? hell - i'm forking it over, you bet.

the plan now, however, is to purchase some other computer components (a64 3200+, socket 754 motherboard, new memory) and maybe get the gfx-card in a couple of weeks, when more norwegian shops have them in stock and start competing on price.

Try to get a good motherboard... people often try to save some money and buy fast processors, great graphic cards and a poor noname mainboard.
Better a slower graphic card, then an incompatibe slow mainboard.

I just saw a X800XT-PE for about 468€ somewhere. Instead of getting a X800 Pro, I would rather get an XT-PE because it is about 40% faster, but far less than 40% more expensive than a X800 Pro, which means that you can wait longer for the next graphic card after this one so ultimately it is even cheaper. And the power consumption is not too high either.

IF you need such a fast card. I still recommend a Radeon 9800 pro.

SPROCKET : DO NOT buy a radeon 7000. It's the worst! Ati doesn't support it anymore, everytime you run something 3D your PC will freeze. Just search Google for "radeon 7000" and "hang". You'll be convinced. IMO ati drivers are crap. I think only the Nvidia driver programmers know what they're doing.

Once I have a driver issue with a big company I never buy from them again. Like I did with Creative. My Turtle Beach sound card is the best.

Ok, thanks :) A friend is talking about selling me a GeForce ti card, and after all the good advice, I will probably buy that one. :)

yemeth: i'm getting a good board, don't you worry. :)

calvin: i totally agree - the 7xxx/8xxx-series are utter crap.

sprocket: i have both a ti4200 (goood value for money) and a ti4600 and they are both very good (apart from the obvious lack of ps 2.0-support of course)