Videocard help

[ranchhand]

I'm not very knowledgeable about Vcards that will play my son's games, and I got to replace my current one. My power supply (400W) suddenly shorted out, and I think it damaged my Gainward GF2 MX/400, 64 sdram, TV out.

It plays 2D, but when I try to loadup 3D games such as Mech Warrior Vengence and Black Knight it freezes the screen at the desktop with verticle lines. The same with all my sons 3D games, new and old.
Okay, I've done it all, including remounting the card, reformating XP with NTFS and reinstalling XP Pro, new drivers, everything. I think the 3D engine was damaged somehow.

So my question: I am looking at the GAinward Card expert, MX420 Geforce4 Power Pack Pro, with 64 DRAM. It's at Newegg for around $70, if I remember right. Okey, since it's GeForce4, that's better than my old GeForce2, right? Not right? and DDRAM is faster than SDRAM, right? So will this card render 3D games same or better than my old one? Will it still have the great overclock and tweak program that came with my old one so I can boost the clockspeed Card RAM? Does it sound like a good buy for a lower-end card to you?
Thanks - I was pretty happy with the old card, but I just haven't followed the gamers card technology too closely.
My unit:
400 W PS
Soyo Dragon K7 mainboard, 266 FSBus
AMD 1.3 TBird
512 DDRAM

[Hrdkrnate]

In that price range I would get either a radeon 8500 or radeon 9000. The GF4 MX cards are barely better than gf2's.

[Jizzy]

With that price range, I would get a Geforce 3. http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/ProdVIDEOCARD-ABIT.hmx?UID=&CID=&updepts=VID&DNAME=%3Cb%3EVideo+Cards%3C%2Fb%3E&back=ProdVIDEOCARD-ABIT.hmx? has an Abit GF3 Ti200 for $102. The GF3 is way better than either the GF2 MX and GF4 MX. The GF4 MX is barely better, the only difference is basically the faster DDR memory. The GF3 is basically a slower version of the GF4 Ti series.

[ranchhand]

What about these ATI oem cards that Newegg advertises as using the ATI engines?

[ImaginAsian]

hi ranch

i concur with the two opinions here. The G4 MX was a decent option at one time but it can't compare to a G3 or Radeon Series.

As for your question regarding OEM ATI cards, OEM cards by ATI are generally less powerful then the RETAIL versions. They are underclocked in both core/memory speeds. Depending on your use, they are still a good bargain.

I would looke into the Radeon 9xxx series or the 8500, which are very excellent options. The G3 Ti 3's are nice also. Stay away from the MX IMO. If you can afford it and want to stay with Nvidia, the Ti 4200 are great buys at around $135-150

How much are you willing to spend?

And yes, DDR memory is generally faster than SDR if used right. For example, 64-bit DDR isn't faster then 128-bit SDR but you won't have to worry about that anymore as all modern cards you 128-bit paths to DDR and some even going to 256-bit.

hope that helps!

[Pigflipper]

The GF4 MX series is just a repackaged GF2 gts/pro (not a true Pro, those were RARE). I agree with JizJizJiz and that you should get a GF3 ti200 or so. They are great cards and will still play all current and near future games, though if you have the money I would suggest going with an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro or if you are scared away from the R300 chipset due to some of the problems, the GF4 ti series is getting to be fairly cheap. If you get a GF4 ti series I would suggest the ti4400 because its just a down clocked ti4600 (top end model)

[ranchhand]

Thanks to all, I appreciate your imput. Guess I will tend toward the ATI Radeon you all favor. Thanx again!!
Bob

[ranchhand]

Well, one last question. Newegg has the Radeon 8500 LE, 64MEG DDR for $84. However they stress that there is "no DVI to VGA adapter" with this card.
What does that mean?? Will it work on my system (specs above this thread).

My son wants to play new 3D rendered games (Mech Warrior4, Half Life, etc.) as well as his older 2D favorites such as Mech Warrior2, Mercenaries, Ghost Bear, Diablo, Thief, etc.). Think this card will handle it?

I'm quite disappointed in the Gainward 400MX; I have had hair tearing problems installing the drivers and getting them to work. I can see now that they put a series of patches on the drivers to get them to work with WIN2000 and XP. Well, I have spent hours trying to get that card to play 3D games. The tech dept. at Krex Computers couldn't get it to work either (krex.com) where I bought it, so I guess the balls in my court now.

Thanks again for being patient with me.

[Alakazam]

An adapter such as that is used to connect the DVI output of a video card to a standard CRT. Sometimes Peeps will go that route to be able to use a dual monitor setup. The card comes with a standard D-Sub output also and will more than likely have the cable required for hookup to a standard monitor.

A couple of reviews for you to browse over:

http://www.hardwareextreme.com/reviews/videocards/ati_radeon8500le/
http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/video/ati/rad8500/rad8500.html

[ranchhand]

Thanks for the reply... so am I correct in thinking that this card will not support LCD flatpanel monitors? Or will it only support CRT monitors? Or is there a workaround? Or am I entirely wrong?

[AmStoned]

ranch, the Radeon 8500 LE newegg does support LCD monitors since it has both a DVI and VGA port. The "no DVI to VGA port adaptor" only means you can't hook up two monitors w/ VGA connection simultaneously if you don't have the adaptor, which converts the DVI to VGA. But you can still connect two monitors, one w/ DVI connection and one w/ VGA connection.

[ranchhand]

Okey, thanks guys. That cleared it up. We handle a lot of 18 and 20" NC flatpanels at work, and as soon and the prices reach modern civilization I'm gonna' get me one. They are incredible. Well, except for th 42" and 50" plasma screens we send out to jobsites. We fired up a game on a 50" Pioneer plasma screen at work when it was slow with the side mount speakers on it (we had to test the thing anyway before it went out-that was our excuse) running at 1280x1024, and , oh my oh my!
Then we just HAD to see what The Matrix on DVD looked like.
Think I'm spoiled.

So anyway, to get to the bottom line, do you guys think that card will run the games I mentioned okay?