a geforce FX5200 or a Mentor 128MB GeForce4 MX440

[sps]

thats a good price for a 9600 non pro, but i am a little put off by amp_man's post. then again i could just get it directly from komplett.co.uk rather than through pricewatch.
what does 64 bit agp mean? or are they just two things im confuzing for 1...

[qrazi]

i just used www.pricewatch.co.uk because it is the only site i know from the top of my head to be UK based. use it to get a indication of the prices around.
i've placed that link after looking speciffically for a normal radeon 9600 not to Pro, not the SE.

i must admit i didnt look that long at the offered cards, just that there was no pro or se in the description.
im not to sure about the first offering, but the second seems to be regular radeon 9600.... e-mail the vendor to be sure.

a 9600 is faster then a 9200, and it is fully directx 9 compliant, while the 9200 is still base don the r200 (radeon 8500) core... and therefore only directx9 compatible...

[sps]

the thing is, my system spec is pretty grim (850MHz Duron,128mbRAM,32mb TNT2 M64 @ 160MHz with hrdware T+L emulated) and if my h T+L emulater really does work(my friend is lending me NOLF 2 to test it) id rather get more RAM to play the games i want to but cant for lack of T+l + RAM.
                                 those games are vietcong, unreal 2,splinter cell, + call of duty. and maybe hl2. if i get a new card instead, the only game that i want to play is soilder of fortune 2.

of course, if any of those games (bar SOF 2) dont work, you know which card ill be getting.

[qrazi]

well, that hardware emulator (i take it you use 3danalyser) doesnt work alway in my experience. it may help in some games, but in others it will have no effect. at least, that is what it does for me.

with the system you have, you might consider a bit of a larger upgrade. you will have to save a bit more money, but it is really worth it. none of the games you mentioned run to well with either a memory upgrade or a videocard upgrade, altough only a new videocard would probably help the most of those two options.

[ArchAngelCD]

sps,
Stay away from any of the Radeon SE cards because they are poor performers just like the nVidia MX cards are very poor.

IMO, the Radeon cards are better than the nVidia cards right now. Since price is a consideration the 9200 128 Mb card is a good choice but the 9600 cards are much better. If you are against buying a ATI card and really want to get a GeForce card, get a GeForce4 TI card. They are still faster than the FX line.

Vietcong requires 256Mb RAM and a video card with at least 32 Mb but they recommend 64Mb video RAM. IMO your CPU and RAM will prevent you from playing the newer games more than your video card. You can get a 1.4 GHz Duron for $36 USD, a 1.6 GHz Duron for $42 USD or a 1.3 GHz Athlon (not AthlonXP) for $41 USD and another 128Mb stick of RAM for $26 USD.

-edit
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