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  • Budget graphics

    This is mostly for orientation...probably I won't have money for this for some time, but it's good to know for what, and what amount of money to save if I want to swap my ancient G400 SH 16mb at some point...

    So, first some basic system specs (this probably won't change for a long time, so it's reasonable not to consider "too fast" cards...)
    Athlon XP 1700+
    256mb of ram, at some point probably 768 or eventually 512
    all on ASRock K7S8X (SiS 746FX, single channel only - although I was considering changing it for some Nforce2, it's unlikelly)

    monitor: Eizo F520 (17', 1280x1024@85Hz desktop usage)

    Systems:
    Windows 2003, perhaps XP, and for sure Ubuntu.


    Story: I was considering Radeon 9600 (or one of its flawors, Pro or 9550) for a long time, however lack of proper Linux support and time/new propositions on the market brought interest in GeForce 6200. I know it will have good Linux support and it's a little more future-proof and probably faster, but...no reviews about it. None :/ At least about the AGP version. Especially the one with 128mb 64bit memory - the version which is very competitively priced, but I've found only one review of it. Which claimed btw that it performs surprisingly good for a graphics card with 64bit memory bus, and for the price is highly recommended...but that's only one review. Do any of you know any better?

    And one more thing - I've made the mistake of choosing Matrox , so now I have hard time using setup with lack of image quality. Weak card will show on Eizo... How is Nvidia in this regard with 6200? How is Leadtek? I think it's the best from my choices...Galaxy is totally unknown to me, Gainward uses something similar to IDE tape to connect analogue output to board (!!!), but...there's also reasonably looking Gigabytem even higher clocked out of the box. Is Leadtek best from the two for 1280x1024@85Hz at Eizo? If I won't see a difference with G400 during normal use (I won't look for them specifically), that's good enough...

    edit: turns out Gigabyte is also passive...
    Last edited by Nowhere; 25 August 2005, 15:21.

  • #2
    Unless you plan to game, G400 is fine.

    Otherwise look here.

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    • #3
      Yeah, I thought it would be nice to play HL2 or Doom3 or something...sometimes.

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      • #4
        Otherwise, you might want to wait for 7600 to come out, then the 6600/6600GT/6800 will drop to 125 € range. Used R9800 Pro is a good choice now, but it lacks 3.0 shaders and Linux drivers.

        Ati Linux support is worse than Matrox, for instance someone with 9600 Pro can't play ET, while I get similar FPS to Windows with Parhelia.

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        • #5
          Well...my budget is rather something like 50€...so even 6200 128mb 64bit AGP is a bit out of range right now, but the rpice should fall after all...

          The only problem is that I have only one review of this card at hand :/ Only one opinion that finally some recent card with 64bit memory bus is a good deal is not enough enough for me...The sites you linked to review only models with 128bit bus or with PCIe & Turbocache...

          Oh well, probably this 6200 is the best deal anyway if I want Linux support...


          And I'll repeast question: what about image quality of recent Nvidias? Especially 6200. Especially from Leadtek or Gigabyte.

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          • #6
            Supposedly NVDA tightened QA across board makers, Leadtek is good, BFG is also popular in USA, Asus, Gainward also come to mind. The XFX = PC Chips although I haven't seen any complaints, Club3D and Inno - also haven't read much complaints.

            Otherwise the 64-bit 6200 will be 4200/4400/5600/8500/GF3/Parhelia class performer with DX9. BF2 supposedly taxes 9800 Pro and people are upgrading to 6800's because of it. It will be improvement over G400 but you'll be on the virge of falling out of loop soon. I'd pick 6200 only if I needed basic monitor driver for Longhorn now.
            Last edited by UtwigMU; 26 August 2005, 07:18.

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