GeForce FX5200 vs. RADEON 9200 cards.

[Saturn82053890]

Hello,

I was in the same type of situation that you are in a few weeks ago. I did some research and someone correct me if im wrong , but the GeForce Ti based cards are really the best bang for your buck when it comes to great video cards for the BP6. I just bought a brand new retail BFG Nvidia 4200 Ti from www.compuplus.com for 59.00 less shipping. It has 128 MB Ram and TV/DVI Out. I recieved really good service and fast shipping from copmuplus too. Did I mention the card overclocks close to 4600 Ti speeds with stock cooling 100% rock solid? heheheh

Anyways one of the best reasons to go with the Nvidia cards is that there drivers fully support SMP , ATI Cards (Im actually a ATI Fan) will work on a SMP system but dont support it through drivers. In Quake III Arena with r_smp 0 I get about 65 FPS Timedemo , With r_smp 1 I get about 90 . ( 2X Celeron 466 @ 601 w/ 512 MB Ram)

Awesome card , Awesome Price , Awesome reseller. Do yourself a favor and get yourself one ASAP! Take Care

Zachary

[Wolfram]

Nice info, Zachary Indeed a good idea to get a Ti4200.

All three cards should be in the same ballpark. But with 5200 and 9200 cards you have to be sure they have 128bit memory interfaces. 64bit versions will be _much_ slower and not worth the money! Manufacturers and retailers do not always tell the truth about that... be sure, get them from a trustworthy shop where you can return the card if it should be a 64bit version.

If you get a Ti4200, it does _not_ matter if it has 64 or 128 MB memory. You can´t play at resolutions and anti-aliasing modes that would use more than 64MB with current games anyway... ie you can´t play UT2003 in 1280x960 with 4x FSAA on (not sure if that would even be enough to eat ut the 64MB with UT´s texture load). Anisotropic filtering has no effect on memory usage, btw.

[Wolfram]

One more thing, on the DX9 capabilities of the FX5200... while the FX5200 is the only card of these three that is DX9 capable, you won´t be able to use it. In demanding DX9 games like Halo the 5200 performs so slow that you will want to use pixel shader 1.1 or 1.4 paths instead of 2.0 / DX9 paths. Probably you won´t enjoy those games at all on a 5200. If you want to be able to play upcoming stuff like Half-Life2, get at least a Radeon 9600 XT or FX5900SE/XT. Which would not fit on a BP6, of course...

Bottomline: Stick to Zachary´s recommendation

[RRLedford]

Well having already placed a Geforce 5200 128MB card in my BP6, I would advise going up to the Geforce 5600 Ultra for ~$110 on Web.
Or if your budget can handle it - the Geforce 5700-Ultra.

The 5200 series is just too limited for serious video demands & you don't save enough money not to jump up to at least the 5600 level.

I'm not sure if all versions of the 5600 are BP6 compatible with the older spec AGP slot volatge however. Anyone know about voltage matching?

[headseed]

Not a thread crap, but anything higher than a geforce 2 is probably overkill for a bp6. I tried to play a little Day of Defeat on my dual 552 Geforce 3 ti200, and Even at 800x600x16bit it was all but unplayable. Granted I was on a server with 32 peeps, but I can't paly a first person shooter with framerates in the 30s, dropping to the teens whenever there is more than one person on my screen.

[Saturn82053890]

Hello,

Are you using the latest Forceware Drivers from Nvidia? Im running Windows 2000 Server and I can run newer games like Call Of Duty without a hitch in 1024X768 32bpp on my BP6. Its no Pentium 4 but its definatley playable. Try going to GooGle and looking for a program called Riva Tuner , it allows you to tweak various settings on your Nvidia board that the normal Control Panel app wont let you. Take Care.

Zachary

[headseed]

I found out that there is alot of settings for Day of Defeat to make it more playable on older hardware. You can go in terminal and disable rubble/schrapnal from grenades, weather effects, shells ejecting from weapon, etc. I haven't tried yet becasue I am happy playing on my 2.2gig athlon 1700/GF4ti4200 315/615!

Just to be slighltly on topic, I would look for a 9100 card if you can find one, its faster than the 9200. Don't know much about the FX cards.

My BP6 currently has a visiontek GF3 ti200, and has also run a PCI GF2 MX400 64MB. If I ever delegate it to server only duties I have a Matrox G100 4MB, anyone ever use one of these in a BP6? Anyone ever use one at all?

[Wolfram]

If I ever delegate it to server only duties I have a Matrox G100 4MB, anyone ever use one of these in a BP6? Anyone ever use one at all?

I´ve had a G100 8MB AGP. Picture quality was not on par with G200 or G400 cards. At 1024x768. Had also much trouble with video playback. If it´s just for monitoring a server, it would of couse be ok.

I´d recommed a G400, if you want good picture quality. They´ve become damn cheap on ebay, at least the single head versions.

[naro]

right now in Singapore, a Sapphire Radeon 9200SE 128mb costs only S$89 while an Albatron FX5200 128mb costs S$129.

so, better to get a Radeon 9200SE.

For infor, US$1.00 ~ S$1.70 @ http://www.exchangerate.com/