Posted: 2/22/2004 2:03:09 PM EDT
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Ive finally got around to buying a 3D accelerated video card and honestly im lost. The Kind im looking for is... 32MB OpenGL 1.4 compatible PCI or AGP. Im looking at getting good cheap ATI Radeon 7000 series. The questions im asking here are 1. if the card saysit supports, say DirectX7 then will it also support DirectX9? 2. If the card says it will support OpenGL then wil it also support OpenGL1.4? and/or OpenGL of all versions? 3. If for instance I need a 32MB video card for a game then will a 64MB card work as well? thanx for any help you can give me. 
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1) No. DX9 has more features than DX7. Games (like Raven Shield & Lock On Modern Air Combat) that require DX9 will be unstable on a DX7 card unless you figure out which graphics options use DX7 features and disable them 2) 1.4 is the current OpenGL rev, IIRC... 3) Yes, but don't waste your money on anything less than 128MB. Just like main RAM, MORE = BETTER. P.S. Avoid ATI. At least get a GeForce 4 MX, and make sure you have 128MB RAM... |
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Damn you are looking at the cheap ones, considering that you can get a 9200 Radeon for about $80 (I got my 9600 Radeon with 128Mb of RAM for a little over $100, and it included a coupon for Half Life II). As far as DirectX support, a new driver download should take care of that, although there might be some features in DirectX9 that are hardware implemented, in which case the card would likely just ignore those. Hopefully. Same goes with OGL. What do you want it for? If it is for new games, just go for a 9000-series or Nvidia 5000 series. For older games (Quake II and such), it shouldn't matter. |
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Quoted: What do you want it for? If it is for new games, just go for a 9000-series or Nvidia 5000 series. For older games (Quake II and such), it shouldn't matter. Ive been looking at Jedi Knight2 and its Jedi academy pack. Jedi2 reuires at least a 16MB and jedi academy requires at least a 32MB. I dont have a solid inflow of cash right now and even $100 would be pushing it a bit. |
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Quoted: It really depends on my budget. I dont know if i can afford a 128 MB card right now. One of the ones im looking at just simply says "Support 3D API:DirectX, OpenGL." without any numbers. this is where im the most comfused. Very simple: GeForce 3/Radeon 7000 = DirectX 7 (X-box) GeForce 4/Radeon 8000 = DirectX 8 GeForce FX/Radeon 9000 = DirectX 9 The minimum you should get is a GeForce 4 witn 128MB. price should be 50-60 bucks. GeForce FX 5600 with 128MB (what I have) = $80 or so... Anything before the GF4 is obselete for today's new games. |
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Quoted: Quoted: What do you want it for? If it is for new games, just go for a 9000-series or Nvidia 5000 series. For older games (Quake II and such), it shouldn't matter. Ive been looking at Jedi Knight2 and its Jedi academy pack. Jedi2 reuires at least a 16MB and jedi academy requires at least a 32MB. I dont have a solid inflow of cash right now and even $100 would be pushing it a bit. I also want the games to run well. They dont have to look like pure heaven they just need to run smoothly without any lagging or clipping and the graphics have to look believable. |
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Quoted: Quoted: It really depends on my budget. I dont know if i can afford a 128 MB card right now. One of the ones im looking at just simply says "Support 3D API:DirectX, OpenGL." without any numbers. this is where im the most comfused. Very simple: GeForce 3/Radeon 7000 = DirectX 7 (X-box) GeForce 4/Radeon 8000 = DirectX 8 GeForce FX/Radeon 9000 = DirectX 9 The minimum you should get is a GeForce 4 witn 128MB. price should be 50-60 bucks. GeForce FX 5600 with 128MB (what I have) = $80 or so... Anything before the GF4 is obselete for today's new games. thanx [:)] |
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Jedi Knight2 uses the QuakeIII engine. Depending on the computer you have, even a Geforce2 should be enough. I played Soldier of Fortune2 (same engine) with an 800MHz PIII and a GEF2 with 32Mb of RAM, running it at 800x600, medium quality textures and effects, with no performance complaints. But the above posts are right, you can get a GEF4 for about $60 (with about 64Mb of RAM). |
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With a budget under $100 you are pretty much limiting yourself to a DX 8 card. A. Don't listen to nvidiots who tell you ATI is crap. Their drivers are stable and the their top of the line cards out perform nvidia's. B. Don't worry about OpenGL compatibility if you are only concerned about games. Any card you get should work fine. C. As far as new cards go you are pretty much limited to either the ATI 9200 series or the NVIDIA 5200 series. The 9200 series is a remake of the old 8500 series and consequently only DX 8.1 compliant. The 5200 series is technically DX 9 compliant but doesn't have the horsepower to do much with it. D. Given the above options I would say your best option would be to pick up a used nvidia TI4200. It should outperform the 2 others. Here's an interesting chart from Tom's Hardware: [url]http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-16.html[/url] |
| Janus: I have a Ti4200/8x w128MB RAM on my computer right now as we speak. The vid card had $230 price tag on the box, but my children only paid $140 from a Fry's closeout. It totally rocks. The problem is that the GeForce Ti 4200/4400/4600 series is being phased out and I don't see anymore. |
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Quoted: Janus: I have a Ti4200/8x w128MB RAM on my computer right now as we speak. The vid card had $230 price tag on the box, but my children only paid $140 from a Fry's closeout. It totally rocks. The problem is that the GeForce Ti 4200/4400/4600 series is being phased out and I don't see anymore. Well new ones are going for ~$125 but a quick glance at ebay lists plenty that can be had for under $100. |
| I think ATI cards are superior to NVidia's. Even if performance was the same, the NVidia Raedons take up two slots and are very NOISY. Some games do have preferrences with video cards so you might want to check that out first if there is a particular game you are getting this for. |
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As of right now im not a happy camper. In my OpenGL research i found [url=http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/cgi_directory/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=User+Hardware,+Software,+|AMP|+Gaming+Help&number=1&DaysPrune=20&LastLogin=]THIS[/url] Just look at the first page! everyone is having problems with OpenGL in games. there are at least 3 topics about Jedi academy (one of the games i want to play) Now im wondering if i should even bother. I might spend $50-$60 on a Geforce4 128 with OpenGL1.4 (if i could ever find one that supports 1.4) and then it might not even work. Im more confused now than ever. |
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while nvidia is a very good company their cards are reported to have difficulties with some upcoming titles like half life 2. if you intend to play games with your computer you should regard your video card as the single most important component in your computer. i would strongly recommend saving up a little more if you have problems affording a $100-150 card. both nvidia and ati will have new cards in a month or two and prices on current models should drop. save up and wait for a ati 9600 pro or xt if you have to... the more memory on a card, the better but having more then 256 will not necessarily give you more performance then a 128 card. i depends upon how the game was written. you will be wasting your money on a 32 meg card though.... don't worry about OpenGL; it was important a couple years ago but virtually all games support directx so it is basically a non-issue today for gamers... (i'm a 115 dollar an hour computer/network technican and my company passes all the "gamers" to me...) |