ok, i'm currently running an Nvidia 4200ti. it runs well but the frame rate drops off with a bunch of cars on screen, especially right at the green flag.

i've had NOTHING but troubles with ATI so i want to stick with NVidia. i also have a game that was designed to run ONLY on Nvida cards and i'd like to keep it available to play.

i do not have the new AGP slot on my motherboard.
i'm assuming with the new AGP slot now quite common that the prices of regular AGP cards are going to come down. am i right? i haven't been following the trends lately.

after laying that info out for you all, my question is this:

What Nvidia AGP card would you recomend in the $100-200 USD range?
if you have ebay links to good deals please post them up here too.

thank you,

speedfreak227

nVidia 6600GT. Its the best price vs performance card still. Dont go for a vanilla 6800 (which I did), as its barely a whisker above the 6600GT in terms of performance.

I presume you mean PCIx (PCI Express), by the phrase "new AGP slot". If your motherboard is as old as your GFX card, then its unlikely to be 8x AGP - and this will make a difference as this is the defacto standard for all recent AGP cards. You can, of course, run 8x cards in a 4x slot

yes, i did mean PCI express. sorry. it's been a while since i investigated this stuff. my motherboard is relatively new but don't think i have the box here with me anymore. is there a way to find out from windowsXP which motherboard i'm using?

speedfreak227

Edit: i found the motherboard box. it's an ASUS A8V Deluxe.
Socket 939 for AMD cpu
system bus 2000MT/s
dual-channel DDR400

the box stats say 8X AGP

speedfreak227

In that case it should be totally suitable for anything you throw at it

ok, now comes a more subjective part of the question..... what brand should i get?

i'm seeing:
ASUS (leaning towards them right now)
chaintech
eVGA
Gigabyte
Leadtek
MSI
PNY
XFX
Aopen
Bfg

and some others.

speedfreak227

wow, more questions:

what's the difference here?

http://www.b-com.ca/store/prod ... 75&cat=644&page=1

http://www.b-com.ca/store/prod ... 77&cat=644&page=1

http://www.b-com.ca/store/prod ... 61&cat=644&page=2

http://www.b-com.ca/store/prod ... 70&cat=644&page=2

speedfreak227

All the brands basically provide the same quality. Usually they're all based on the reference designs by Nvidia or ATI.

Just take care not to get a cheap card with reduced (much) memory speed or memory bus bandwitdth (128bit is minimum).


edit:
on Beyond3d.com you can look up the reference speeds by the video card manufaturers.

i would go for the same brand as your motherboard if its there.

Quote from speedfreak227 :

wow, more questions:

what's the difference here?

speedfreak227

Main difference between the ASUS boards there is the amount of memory. One has 256 MB, the other has 128MB. Since the 256 one is the cheapest of the four, go with that.

I could be wrong but don't the 256MB Ram cards have slower memory? I think that's why they're cheaper. I think 128MB is enough for the time being and the faster memory is of immediate benefit, also consider that LFS uses some small amount of texture memory like 30MB so your well and truly covered there. Also the doom3 engine is designed (or suited) to running the medium detail level on cards with 128MB of memory which is still very good quality so your still covered there even for something like Quake 4 which runs nicely on my card.

Anywho I got the Leadtek A6600GT recently and I'd recommend it, Leadtek seem to be one of the better manufacturers these days. The 6600GT was originally a PCI Express card, the AGP versions have a little bridge chip and I've read that it's important that this chip is a quality one and that the Leadteks do have a quality one. Personally I find it's worth spending just that little bit more for a reputable brand.

Edit: I also just noticed the 256MB Asus card isn't a GT, not sure exactly on the differences but the core probably runs at a slower speed and might not have as many pipeline enabled or something.

Oooohhhh, yes, you're right, tailing, it's not a GT. Stay far away from the vanilla 6600's and go for the ASUS 6600GT 128MB.

BTW, it is not always the case that cards with more RAM have slower memory clocks. One extreme example of this is the 7800GTX 512MB, which actually has faster core and memory clocks than the 256MB model.

thanx for all your help guys. hopefully i'll go pick it up tomorrow after i fail my final exam. (but pass on the curve!)

speedfreak227

get an XFX 6600GT... They make the best 6600GT..

Quote from Roadie :

get an XFX 6600GT... They make the best 6600GT..

ok um....... "they make the best" isn't the most convincing arguement.

is there something specific that makes there's the best?

speedfreak227