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Need some advice on video cards

P

Phosphers

n00b
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Messages
53
So my old video card has finaly pissed me off enough that I want to replace it. For the record it doesn't recover from STR or a cold boot and I get garbage on the screen. The fan seems to be running fine on the cold boot but it still has problems.
Anyways, I'm looked for a lower to midrange card, the cheaper the better. I'd prefer something with a hefty hitsink and a variable speed fan for the silence and extra cooling when gaming.
I really only play ET anymore, besides which I don't have enough CPU/ram/etc for things like HL2 (it's a 1.2g athlon with pc133). VIVO would be nice but isn't necessary, and I need dual heads.
My research seems to suggest the ati 9550 as a good fit... but which brand?
Suggestions would be most appreciated.
 
Dunno, if all I played was ET on an older system like that, then I would just pick up a used GF4 Ti4xxx card.
 
You might consider this 9550 or this this 9600. The 9600 is actually a little cheaper and has a rather large passive heatsink which doesn't seem to be giving anyone any trouble. Personally I'd plunk down the extra $25 and get 9600 Pro so I could turn on FSAA. Even with a slow CPU it's nice to crank up the resolution and make everything pretty. BTW, Sapphire's a good brand for ATI cards and a fair amount cheaper than ATI.
 
I agree with duster on the Ti4***. If you can find a Ti4400 (good luck) get it.Chances are, the 4200 is all you will find, an excellent card for older games and cheap. Make sure you can run 8x agp or you have to go with the 4x on some models. I kept my 4200 oc'd from 2000(year) til the day Far Cry came out. Then I switched to the 6800.Far Cry was the first and only game to stress my 4200. Now thats bang for your buck!! :D
 
I suppose I should lay thing out so we're all clear here. I have a abit kt7a mobo, it only does agp 4x. Unfortunatly I don't really have a budget to work with :(.
I stole my brother's 5200 for a day. It imediatly caused driver hell and I could never get it working (using w2k). Still not sure what it's issue was.
As far as asus cards are concerned, the gf2 and the previous tnt2 are both asus. I *hate* the fans they used on the cards, I don't think the fan is the cause of the current issue but it's annoyed me for a long time. Other than that I've been happy with both cards.
To understand what the current issue is, look at my previous post http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=874193
Another thing that jus occured to me, is there a way for the ATI card't temp to show up in MBM? I know most cards have temp sensors now (not the 5200 I tried though).
Bleeeeh... I'm just waiting for these stupid IBM drives to botch up too.
 
If you're refering to the 5200 I used driver cleaner and still had problems. Really not sure what it's issue was.
I think I'll end up getting the 9600 pro, not sure where I'm going to get the money but it seems a decent card.
 
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