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iplaygames2
Master of The Realms
Joined: 06 Sep 2001
Posts: 745
Location: Chicago, IL, USA |
Greetings all~
Was just browsing the net for the cheapest possible upgrade for my PC, to see if I could handle the hit of a new Vid Card to push the nice water effects of MW.
My understanding is that the minimum card one would need is a Geforce3 Ti. Now, I've discovered 2 versions. The Ti 200 and the Ti 500. My assumption would be that the 500 would be better...but I'm looking to the experts in the forum for explanations...also, these cards both weigh in around $300! Am I looking in the wrong places, or are they still that high?? I thought since the Geforce 4 is selling now, those prices would go down.. If they are that high, I'll make do with my Geforce2!!
So, can anyone offer me a site to check for low priced cards? Are those cards sufficient for the MW effect? Are those prices about the going rate?
Thanks for any info fellas (and ladies!  ) !
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Tue Apr 23, 2002 1:41 am |
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Prem0
Guest
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I have the PNY GF3 ti500, it is a great card and will run anything out there. I dont know where U have been searching for your products but I would recommend www.newegg.com. I build Highend systems for the people who can afford me in this town and have used newegg for about 50+ jobs, U cant go wrong there.. |
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Tue Apr 23, 2002 2:45 am |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
The card to buy is a GeForce4 Ti-4200 when it´s available. Should cost 200$ or less, because it´s positioned against the ATI Radeon 8500LE, and is faster than a GeForce3 Ti-500. A GeForce3 card is only an option if it´s a lot cheaper than 200$.
All GeForce3 Ti, GeForce4 Ti and Radeon 8500 cards should be fast enough to handle the water f/x.
A test: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1608 |
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Tue Apr 23, 2002 3:37 am |
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iplaygames2
Master of The Realms
Joined: 06 Sep 2001
Posts: 745
Location: Chicago, IL, USA |
Well, after searching both sites (many thanks, guys..) the cheapest GF3 500 I could find was 218 bucks...that's still a bit out of my range. I was hoping for 150-$200. Is the GF4 4200 cheaper than the 3?? I can't imagine that it would be.
Looks like I'll be waiting for a while to upgrade..
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(hell, everyone else is a member of something..)
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Tue Apr 23, 2002 1:50 pm |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
quote:
Originally posted by iplaygames2
Well, after searching both sites (many thanks, guys..) the cheapest GF3 500 I could find was 218 bucks...that's still a bit out of my range. I was hoping for 150-$200. Is the GF4 4200 cheaper than the 3?? I can't imagine that it would be.
Looks like I'll be waiting for a while to upgrade..
This is explained in the Anandtech article. ATI put enough pressure on NVidia to force them to make a DX8 card for less than 200$. Prices will go down fast when the Ti-4200 is available.
GeForce4 Ti (DX8) replaces GeForce 3(DX8), GeForce4 MX (DX7)replaces GeForce2 MX & Ti (DX7). |
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Tue Apr 23, 2002 3:44 pm |
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iplaygames2
Master of The Realms
Joined: 06 Sep 2001
Posts: 745
Location: Chicago, IL, USA |
wow..thanks for the info guys...there may be hope yet..
I want to get a card that will be able to push games for another 18 - 24 months ...this upgrading crap is for the birds! I just got this rig a year ago, and money's tight when you're in school.. but I'm willing to do without food/shelter for a good looking MW game..
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Tue Apr 23, 2002 4:07 pm |
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Azkiel
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 14 Apr 2002
Posts: 42
Location: Montreal |
I'm also waiting for the GeForce ti-4200 to upgrade, right now I have
a GeForce2 MX (400 I think).
I was not planning to upgrade in the near future, but those damn water
effects in Morrowind!!! |
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Tue Apr 23, 2002 4:16 pm |
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Llama
High Emperor
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 509
Location: Earth |
If it's not too late...
Right now the best card for your money is the Radeon 8500LE. It's ~$199 (you can find it cheaper). The cool thing about the Radeon cards is they are the only card on the market that fully supports DX 8.1 which means their performance in MW may be a little bit better than that of a GeForce4 Ti4200 (the 4400 and 4600 are just simply too powerful to be put in 2nd place).
The Ti4200 is going to replace the GeForce3 Ti500, as that card will probably be pulled from the market since the 4200 is cheaper and much more powerful.
If you're looking to upgrade just because of Morrowind, then I'd go for a Radeon 8500LE... Make sure it has "Made by ATI" stamped on the box though, do not buy a 3rd party version, as their memory have slower clock speeds. WIth the 8500LE you'll have full DX 8.1 support (extra T&L technology), and you'll be able to run the game with only a very slight performance hit using Anisotropic Filtering at 16X (highest setting), which makes objects that are close to you appear crystal clear. The GeForce4 cards also have Anisotropic Filtering, but the performance hit on those cards is nearly unplayable at 8X (their highest setting).
As everyone has said, the visuals are incredible on this game, so you'll want to be able to use as many visual options you can until the performance plunges. With a Radeon, I think you'd get more visual quality due to their chip technology. |
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Tue Apr 23, 2002 5:03 pm |
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Guest
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ATI antriscopic filtering isn't as pretty (items in the perephrey don't get filtered) - the NVIDIA filtering is slower but of a higher quality. I'm not some NVIDIA nut but - it must have been off of tweak3d.net - some hardware zine compared the two. |
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Mon Apr 29, 2002 1:54 am |
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Guest
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if you dont want to spend anything much. geforce 3 ti200's drop as low as 100. That price region includes models from reputable people like Hercules. Its also a highly overclockable board.
But if you have the cash go with one of those nice gf4 or radeons.
The most dramatic graphic improvements will be from using a direct x 8 card. The gf4 is primarly blindinly fast - Morrowind will not look terribly different on it vs a lesser gf3 or such. |
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Mon Apr 29, 2002 2:01 am |
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iplaygames2
Master of The Realms
Joined: 06 Sep 2001
Posts: 745
Location: Chicago, IL, USA |
Right...
But the GEforce 4200 will be somewhere between $150 and 200...
That's the one I'm waiting on...a bit more horsepower than the GF3 ti 200, and not too much more $$$..
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Mon Apr 29, 2002 2:05 am |
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Llama
High Emperor
Joined: 11 Oct 2001
Posts: 509
Location: Earth |
quote:
ATI antriscopic filtering isn't as pretty (items in the perephrey don't get filtered) - the NVIDIA filtering is slower but of a higher quality.
That's horribly inaccurate. There is absolutely no difference between the visual effects of ATi or nVidia anisotropic filtering. The only difference is the ATi chipsets have ~7%-10% performance hit and the nVidia cards have anywhere from 30% up to some reports of a 65% performance hit. |
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Mon Apr 29, 2002 3:15 am |
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Guest888
Guest
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I don't know about ATI cards, since I have never owned one. I'm an NVidia guy all the way. And I have not noticed anything even remotely approaching a 30 - 65% performance hit for anisotropic filtering. I am playing Dungeon Siege right now with level 8 anis filtering and I notice perhaps a 2 FPS drop from turning it on, if that. Then again, perhaps on another application, like Morrowind, I would notice it. Anis filtering isn't one that needs to be turned on, anyhow. Using anis over trilinear is only noticeable in scenes where the landscape and objects in the world extend from immediately in front of you projecting back deep into the background. (Like in Morrowind-- with the view distance set out a ways.) Even so, Trilinear filtering is nearly as good and won't provide as much of a hit. What really makes a diff to image quality is antialiasing. If you've got the horses, even 2x AA makes a huge difference. Gone are the "jaggies" that mar the images, so that everything looks, well, more real. I am hoping that Morrowind runs ok with Quincunx AA-- Dungeon Siege contains a bug right now for some Nvidia cards that won't show the video display at all if Quincunx AA is on-- a bug they have yet to fix. It won't do 2x AA either. It will do 4x AA, but that tends to slow things down too much for an action game. At least on my modest 1.5 gig processor. |
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Mon Apr 29, 2002 3:49 am |
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Snoekie
Baron of the Court
Joined: 09 Jul 2001
Posts: 335
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
If only the Geforce 4200 would be for sale right now....but since it isn't, and I want the pretty water, I'm gonna get a Geforce 3 Ti 200 instead.
It's the cheapest card that gives me what I want at a reasonable price/performace ratio.
It will fit nicely into my mediocre 1.2 MHz Athlon system.
Above reccomended specs machine plus above reccomende vidcard=good overall performance in morrowind.
Not maxed out but still very pretty and enjoyable I hope |
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Mon Apr 29, 2002 10:11 am |
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