I know s*** about graphic cards

[nocturnal]

I need help with buying a new graphics card. I'm confused becuase I've seen 256mb cards cheaper than 128mb cards, is there a signifcant difference? Like for examble the Stealth ATI Radeon 9200 AGP 256mb card is 99.99 and Stealth ATI Radeon 9600 SE AGP 128 is 89.99. Okay it's not more expensive buy why such a small price difference? I'm wanting to play games like Call of Duty or Halo, but short on money. I have 1.6ghz and 628mb (or so) ram. Could someone help me choose a graphics card for the cheapest price but still play Halo above 50fps.

[stefanhendriks]

Okay, to keep it simple, a Radeon xxxx card, where xxxx is a number and the higher the number the better the card. So, a 9600 is better then a 9200. Then for memory, the more, the better. 256 is good!

A SE version (Second Edition) is also most of the time better then a 'normal' version. If you want a monster, buy an ATI RADEON 9800 XT. If you are short on cash, i think the 9600 is pretty good too.

I own a Geforce 5200 FX, its in my laptop and i cannot change it as you can (its integrated on my mobo or something), as far as i know the radeon 9600 equals a Gefore 5700 FX (right guys?).

ATI is better then Nvidia, this because Nvidia performs bad with Anti-Aliasing (smoother edges, etc) and all the extra's turned on, while ATI Radeon cards perform quite well.

[Zacker]

You cant always stick the rule about that higher numbers are faster. The Radeon 9000 and 9100 are slower than the 8500. The 9600 is also slower than the 9500.

256 Mb of ram wont really make a diffence compared to 128 Mb, today its 1-2%, in newer games it is probably going to be 2-5%. Since the pricedifference almost equals 0, I recommend buying the 256 Mb version.

A SE(can also mean Special Edition) version is often a worst version you can get of a GFX card. Same with extensions such as TNT2 M64, its just as slow as a TNT1 because of only 64 bit wide bus while TNT 1 had 128 bit.

To check if the SE/MX/M64/whatever is slower you can check the frenquency of the core and memory, it usually shows it. You may not compare it with the frenquency of other cards though.

Radeon 9600 are a bit faster than Geforce 5600, I am not sure if its as fast as 5700 though. If you buy a 9600, be sure to get the XT version.

I recommend getting either a 9600XT or a 5700. If you want to go a bit higher 5900XT is a nice card. Sad that Nvidia is phasing out the 5900XT because its harming the sale of the 5700.

[stefanhendriks]

lol, as you can see i am not that wise on the gfx cards either. Anyway, the idea was that the higher the 'number' the 'better'. Ie, like a cpu (Athlon 2000 is better then an Athlon 1000, just an example though).

Is the SE 'being slower' also for the newer cards? I don't think TNT cards are being sold now

[Zacker]

The problem is that SE especially mean "being slower" on newer cards. The GFX companies try to fool us all the time.

With the very new cards "pro" can even mean the slow version. For the x800 its like that, if you want the good model then go for "Xt platinium" or something like that.
Check the last sections of the first page: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040504/

[nocturnal]

Tnx you guys helped lots, gonna go to Fry's now.

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

nvidia gforce fx 5950 ti hl2 ready

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

I'm disappointed. I have a GeForce4 MX integrated on the motherboard (actually when I bought this motherboard it was because of that GFX chip) and I find it works like shit!

Seriously if I look at some Farbrausch demos I find they perform BETTER on the ages old GeForce2 on my other puter !

I really don't know what chip to trust these days

[SoUlFaThEr]

i have a geforce4 ti4200...so i wont be able to play HL2

[-=RAV=-AdrianShephard]

Originally Posted by Pierre-Marie Baty

I'm disappointed. I have a GeForce4 MX integrated on the motherboard (actually when I bought this motherboard it was because of that GFX chip) and I find it works like shit!

Seriously if I look at some Farbrausch demos I find they perform BETTER on the ages old GeForce2 on my other puter !

I really don't know what chip to trust these days

my grfx card history--
gforce 2 32 meg mx
radion 9000 pro 64 meg
nvidia 5950 256 meg