Looking for a video card
 

I currently have a Geforce2 mx/mx 400 AGP 4x 64mb, running on an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ with windows XP. Yes your probably thinking buy a whole new pc!! but I can't $$$ is a problem so I just want to get a new video card to keep me happy for a couple more years atleast. I'm looking for a 256mb video card that is compatible with doom 3. I don't have much to spend but some extra features such is video in and or out would be nive also s video in and cable in, but I don't need these I just wouoldn't mind them.

What's your price range? That's about the only thing that matters.

-Lasereth

If money is a problem, then you're probably NOT going to be able to afford a good 256 mb
graphics card, but either way, go for an ATi card, just check their website, or NewEgg for
prices.

Money's not a big problem I have about $200CDN to spend I was just saying that because I didn't want people suggesting $500-$600 cards.

With a Athlon 1700+ I'll say get something like a cheapy 9600xt or something. Any more and you're outdoing your cpu too much,

For $200 CDN I'd get one of the following (make sure to pay a lot of attention to the specific model numbers):

NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 XT
ATI Radeon 9600 XT
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro

The ATI Radeon X700 is the best choice above the aforementioned but it's not out in AGP format yet. If you wanted to wait, this would be the best choice. If you didn't want to wait, the cards listed above will do ya good for $200 CDN. I'll say that for a few dollars more you can get into some really powerful videocards. $230 CDN will break open a barrier that yields a huge performance gain with the Radeon 9800 Pro or the lesser Radeon 9700 Pro. Both of these cards can be bought for under $230 CDN and will be GREAT cards for their pricerange.

Like I said before, if ya wanna stay at $200 CDN, the cards I mentioned above are your best bet.

PS: You wanted a 256 MB videocard but I didn't list any. This is because the onboard memory on a videocard means precisely dick. :)

-Lasereth

Did you happen to look behind the couch? =P

Really, I honestly did not know that. Even if you have 512mb of ram installed? or do you need more like a gig or so?

The RAM on your videocard is not used for other processes. In other words, having more RAM on your videocard won't make your PC faster, it'll just increase performance in some situations on some games if you have the right videocard with the right configuration.

To simplify things, videocard memory is a terrible way to test the performance of the videocard. Other factors determine performance: pipelines, memory and clock speed, etc. A 64 MB GeForce 4 TI4200 will outperform a 256 MB GeForce FX 5200 any day of the week, sometimes even being 3 times as powerful as the FX 5200. Like I said before, the onboard RAM on a videocard means nothing.

What DOES matter concerning RAM is how much your PC has. I suggest 512 MB of RAM or more for a gaming PC.

-Lasereth