Any help on a new video card would be appreciated…
I’m looking for card in the around $200 canadian price range.
I was very interested in the ATI Radeon 7500 64mb DDR card for about 160. However, while talking to a very convincing salesman he almost got me to buy the ATI Radeon 8500LE 128mb card for $240. He was telling me how while the 7500 is nice, i’ll only have to upgrade to something with 128mb next year when games like Doom3 and Unreal2003 come out.
So is it worthwhile for me to shell out and get the 8500LE? or is there a better option out there?
oh ya, one last consideration is i need tv-out so i can watch DVDs on the TV…
From what I’ve read the 8500 is a very nice card, but I don’t know anyone who owns one so I couldn’t say for sure. Another option you might want to look into…I just saw a Gainward GeForce 3 TI200 w/ 128mb ddr for a little over 200 CAD…
If you plan on gaming, do not get the Radeon 7500. Doom3 and Unreal2003 will probably be nearly unplayable on it. I got mine a few months ago and its a transient card since my main one died and I don’t game anymore. On my Intel P4 2.0A with an Asus P4T533-C and 512MB PC800 RDRAM, my 3dmark2001 score was 4700 (wasn’t expecting much anyways).
One thing worth considering is that within a month the ATI Radeon 9700 should be hitting the shelves, which blows the GF4 away. So watch for price drops soon, and the GF4 TI4200 should probably be falling within your price range.
BTW you can get the Radeon 8500LE 128MB Retail Box for $200 or the Radeon 8500LE 128MB OEM for $170 at www.ncix.com (it’s a Canadian company – so cheap shipping and no customs). If you want the software to play DVDs and stuff, you’ll probably want the retail box.
Try for a GeForce Ti 4200. Mine was $180USD for a Chaintech. PC Gamer gave good reviews to the Gainward (is that the right name). KKBattousai has a good link.
Okay, after thought and of course realization that tuition paying time is coming soon. I’ve decided to go with the 8500LE card.
my latest concern is, buy now, or later? Should i bother holding off until the ATI Radeon 9700 hits the market and possibly drives prices down, or just go for it a buy now?
by the way, i just did the MadOnion 3dMarks2001SE test on my current setup, with a AMD1700XP, 448mb ram, and Rage Fury 32mb card, and got a 909. So its not even a question, i need a new video card!!
It basically boils down to whether the extra bucks you’re paying now are worth having it now.
Try looking at it like this:
The card costs, say $120 (it should drop to about this point after the 9700 comes out, but this is irrelevent for this exercise), but there are two and only two shipping options.
The two options are “next day” and “next month.” Next month shipping is free, while next day shipping costs $80.