Seeking advise on buying a graphics card

[Guest]

Here's my situation:

I'm mostly a 2D/video guy, but also use 3DStudio Max. I'm currently using a 3dlabs Oxygen VX1, but the time has come for an upgrade. I need a card that gives impeccable 2D performance, coupled with speedy OpenGL and that I can play a couple of games with (UT, that kinda stuff)without crashing my system (like my vx1 does). It'll be used on a W2K system, 850 athlon, 256 mb ram, kt7 motherboard. I have a moderate budget, a Geforce 3 is beyond my scope. Any suggestions?

 

[rcf84]

Well try the Diamond Fire GL 2. its good cards and beats up any Nvidia card. Its powered by an IBM chip :*)

My p3 broke :*( Well Tualatin is coming :*)

 

[Guest]

I think right now the ATI Radeon 32 DDR is the best performing card for the price however ATI is having problems with their WIN 2K drivers. Best go with an Nvidia GForce 2 GTS. Matrox has better 2D but it's 3D can't compare to Nvidia's 3D performance, plus the prices of the GTS (not the MX) are becoming quite reasonable with the the release of the GeForce 3 and the price war that is starting with ATI's 32 meg versions Radeon. Any reputable company should do, ASUS, ElSA, Creative etc..
Just my take on the situation

 

[noko]

Radeon W2k drivers are very stable, perform well in OpenGL for 3d. Now Direct3d drivers is a mixed bag. Directs 7 stuff seems to run about 70% as fast with the same card compared to Win9x drivers. Now if 3dMark2001 reflects directx 8 then the the Radeon W2k drivers performs better than the Win9x drivers and better than the GeForce 2's. Radeon 2d is for the most part excellent on the Radeon at all resolutions. As complexity goes up in games or graphical programs the Radeon shines better and better due to a fully functional hyperZ.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by noko on 03/15/01 05:19 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[HolyGrenade]

Try the GeForce2 Pro

<i><b><font color=red>"2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2"</font color=red></b></i>

 

[Guest]

oh if it is power that you want.....the Diamond Fire GL3 with 128megs of DDR....smoking card just can't justify shelling out the two grand it costs

<b><font color=blue>If you can't dazzle em' with brilliance, then baffle em' with BS!</font color=blue></b>