Page 1 of Graphics card advice needed

Newbie here, help needed! I bought new game which upon trying to run, says I need a graphics card which runs Hardware Transform and Lighting. I bought new PC from Mesh 5 months ago, but it must have old card in it.

Basically I would like some advice about what the best card to get it. By "best" i mean best value for money, it is just after Christmas and pennies are sparse! I have seen the 64MB PCI NVidia GeForce2 MX400 128-bit SDRAM for £34.99... is this good value? is there anything I should be looking out for, or be wary of?

Any help would be fantastic!

James

it is good value, but its not worth it now, i have the same card (albiet the agp version) and its ok, but i have a few new games that wont work and it is getting on a bit now, am upgrading soon to a new card, probably the ati 9600pro

GF2 MX400 is a very old card! It does not support hardware T&L. You need a full DX8 card to support it. MX means it`s a "cut down" card and doesn`t feature all the stuff a Ti card can do.

The cheapest you will be able to get is a GF4 Ti4200 for about £70. This has the features you are after, and is OK by todays standards. Or a Radeon 9200SE if you want a more up to date (DX9) card.

The 9600pro is by far the best combitination of power & budget. It`s about £100 and performance wise will outstrip the GF4 Ti4200 easily.

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Or a Radeon 9200SE if you want a more up to date (DX9) card.

Whoa there - the 9200SE is not a DX9 card, nor is it even remotely comparable to the Ti4200! You`re probably thinking of the 9800SE, which is a completely different card.

Anyway, if you can`t afford the 9600 Pro, you`re best off getting a decent DirectX 8 model, such as the aforementioned Geforce 4 Ti4200. Even the old Geforce 3 cards, which I expect you could pick up very cheaply second-hand, are equal to or better than some of the `budget` DirectX 9 models. (Geforce FX5200 anyone? :/ )

In my view, it would be a mistake to buy any of the following:

1) Any Geforce `MX` card.
2) Geforce FX5200.
3) Any Radeon card with a number lower than 9500 on it.
4) Anything other than a Geforce or Radeon card.

Mike

Am confused now. It says on the description on some of the cheaper cards like the MX440 that it supprts 2nd generation T+L... isn`t this what I am looking for? The support for the game says it supports the GeForce 2/3/4 series... will any card in this series not fit? I have a v limited budget and am not interested in the flashiest or best performing card, just one to get me going! (sorry if this is blasphemy to anyone!)

What is the Geforce 3 TI 500 64 MB like?

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What is the Geforce 3 TI 500 64 MB like?

It`s not bad - it`s definitely better than all GF2s, GF4 MXs, and the FX 5200. It`s not as fast as a GF4 Ti4200, though.

What`s the price? If it`s cheap enough, it`ll certainly tide you over for a while.

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Am confused now. It says on the description on some of the cheaper cards like the MX440 that it supprts 2nd generation T+L... isn`t this what I am looking for?

Yep, but you also need a card that`s fast enough to make your games enjoyable.

Just to get an idea, what is the game that you`re trying to play?

Mike

This item was edited on Monday, 29th December 2003, 16:42

£40... you think this would solve my problems?

Im using a GF3 Ti500 at the moment it`s an ok card bit dated now but im still playing all the latest games with it, downloaded DX9 from microsoft so i can play DX9 games although the card is only a DX8 so i don`t get some of the effects but at the end of the day games are only going to run well with a combination of a decent processor,ram and video card, think you could pick up a second hand GF3 for about £40-£50 pounds

It`s actually a game for my brother, Star Wars Galaxies, online multiplayer stuff (his ,ates have it and love it). the Ti500 seems to have had pretty good reviews, I know its a bit older than others but seems to be standing up well.