DOOM III is coming, & I need a new video card
 

I need a new video card anyway. I currently have a Geforce 3 mx twinview, had it for awile, was browsing but not actively searching for new video card.
then i saw the doom III movie

Now i know i need a new video card!

my last few video cards have always been nvidia. my last ati card was such a hassle i stopped buying them.
i had planned on picking up a xtasy ti4600.
but the new ati 9700 is out and getting lots of raves
im torn

i currently run win xp on a athlon 1.2 ghz box with 768 mb of ram and abit kt7 mobo.
which card will give me
a) the less hassle to configure
b) the most bang for my buck
c) kickass graphics

Trigger, you seem very knowledgeable in this area, i await your response

those video's of doom 3 were run through ati cards. I remember reading somewhere, when they first showed them, that the nvidia cards out right now wouldn't be able to run doom 3 at that level of detail.

Doom ain't coming all that soon, it would be better to hold off until next year.

But stay away from ATI until they actually figure out how to write drivers.

this is why i have stayed away from for so long

yes doom is a long way off, but i do kinda of want a new video card.

Yah I think you should wait. I just bought a Ti 4200 128meg, I know it can't run Doom 3 like that, but it doesn't matter since i doubt my P3 550 can handle it to begin with hehe.

Wait.

My buddy was asking me the same thing the other day. He has a Kyro II based board and wanted to get a card now for Doom3.

I told him to do as I am, wait until closer to the release to decide ,as sure enough, Nvidia and ATI will probably have something new to coincide with the Doom 3 release.

I'm torn right now between getting it for the Xbox (5.1 sound would be awesome) or my PC whenever it comes out..

don't like playing fps on consoles ill be getting for the pc
even though 5.1 sound is awefully tempting :)

Every single review/bench says the drivers are perfect for the 9700. They just cant seem to shake their rep. Regardless, when the NV30 comes out youll almost certainly see a price drop on the 9700s. Thats most likely gonna be the most bang for your buck.

Cool, maybe they'll get around to fixing my 8500 eventually.

I'm not about to shed a tear about not shaking their rep, aren't they still the leading OEM supplier?

If you're buying a video card to play Doom III, then I would wait. If you bought something now there's a good chance in a year when Doom finally releases that you'll need to upgrade again.

Doom 3 won't be out until December 2003. If you end up with a 9700, it will probably cost you half as much then. Video cards come out new every 9 months or so. I got mine 3 years ago, and it's an antique, and I'm finally looking at replacing it. Since then, there have been a full four generations of cards. There will be 1-2 more before Doom 3 comes out.

Well... my current video card is the nVidia GeForce 4 ti 4400 from Gainward that I overclocked. I'm running a similar system to yours outside of the video card. My next card is the ATI 9700... they showed us the Doom 3 demo rendered in real-time on a prototype ATI 9700 and it looked sweet. Plus - it's kicking GeForce 4's ass in benchmarks. I don't think new Detonator drivers are going to cut it - nVidia might need to bust out with something new.

I'm kinda with the rest of the crew in that if Doom 3 is what you're getting the card for, then I'd wait... but I'm sure you're just ready for a new card anyway. Both the GeForce 4 and the ATI 9700 are good cards. I am going to go with the ATI next because their image quality surpasses nVidia and now their framerates do too. nVidia comes out with something new every 6 months and pushes the rest of the industry to do the same. You can wait, but yeah - the ATI is the most exciting card out right now. I'm sure when nVidia's NV30 comes out - blah blah blah.

John Carmack himself said that as long as you have a card made by 3d Labs, nVidia or ATI starting with this newest generation - you'll be able to take full advantage of all the effects the new Doom game will have to offer. If you want something right now, get the 9700. :)

Oh - you said bang for buck...

Lemme get back to you on that after work... I have another answer.

I'd say wait until Doom III comes out (if that's all you're really waiting for) and use the money you save on the video card for a new processor... just my suggestion, of course do what you want.

I do plan to upgrade my system after christmas another reason to get a new video card, don't want to put my crusty geforce3mx in my new shinny machine.

anyone have a 9700 now? how are the drivers? i was leaning this way but ati has put a serious bad taste in my mouth when they kicked my teeth in with their shady drivers.

That statement was true, and has been true for a long time. Which is why ATI still have this "good card, terrible driver" image lingering in everyone's mind. But I think the statement is no longer true following the recent driver release.

They did! With the latest driver release (Catalyst), ATI cards are finally able to live up to their full potential. I strongly encourage Aghama, as well as anyone who currently uses a Radeon card, to go and get this updated driver ASAP. You will notice dramatic improvement (well, maybe dramatic is a bit exaggerated, but it is definitely noticeable.) to your video card's performance. Just go the official site and look for the release under your PC's OS.

PAL

Stick with your GF3 for that moment, it should be solid till Doom 3 comes out. Of course if money is absolutely no object then splurge away :)

I think you'll be defintely wanting a new CPU by the time Doom 3 is out, so prob better to wait and upgrade all at once then.

I was wondering, that if a GF4 isn't going to run Doom 3 at full potential (I had assumed it would) then does anyone who bought it on release (presumeably at full price) feel a little ripped off about now?

Chris

He's not gonna want to stay with that MX card... it's probably choking on some stuff that's out now.

The 9700 is the way to go - soon... the rest of the computer world has to catch up to it... 8X AGP, Direct X 9, etc... Plus - the Pro version is over 325 bucks. Ouch. Driver-wise, this card seems to be kicking much ass so far. I've had a few problems with drivers for their earlier Radeon cards, but there's typically a new driver that'll fix the problem.

Anyway - if you want a bang for the buck experience...

Radeon 8500s can be had for under 100 bucks and they kick ass... drivers may be somewhat of an issue... image quality is unsurpassed. I think ATI offers the prettiest graphics. nVidia's cards are typically faster, but their graphics aren't as pretty.

You can get a Gainward GeForce 4 ti 4200 with 128MB of ram for about 165 bucks that comes with its own overclocking software... you can get it to up around 4400 speeds or better. I got the 4400 version and overclocked it to just above 4600 speeds. nVidia cards have good drivers and this card has most of the features that Doom 3 will use.

As for 5.1 sound - I would get a 5.1 speaker setup for your PC. Don't dilly dally. Get a Klipsch 5.1 setup if you have the funds or else pick up the Logitech 5.1 setup for much less - it's best bang for buck on speakers.

If you have alot of money to burn, I would suggest a Matrox Parhelia for surround visuals as well. Just buy 3 21" monitors and hook em all up to this beast and frag away. It's not the fastest card out there, but it keeps a decent pace. Sounds like fun to me. :)

Basically - since you're shooting for most bang for the buck - ATI Radeon would be the way to go... the 8500 is faster than a GeForce 3 and costs 2/3 as much and has prettier graphics. You ask around at PC tech forums and they'll almost all tell you that you can't get any better bang for your buck than with a Radeon 8500LE for 100 bucks. :)

Not if that potential includes the TV Out working with any regularity.

:confused: How can you possibly expect an updated driver to fix your TV out problem? Not that I am an expert, but the fact that TV out on your card works IRREGULARLY seems to indicate that it is a hardware issue.

My original post was going with the assumption that you have a card that does not have any hardware defects. The updated Catalyst driver does fix a lot of performance issues and is much more stable. Ideally, all Radeon cards should have came with this set of drivers. You should at least try the update and find out for yourself. (You can benchmark and track the differences, but as I said before, the improvement was noticeable in actual game play and fps count without BM software.)

PAL

I do have the latest drivers, which is why I said it has not fixed my problem. Trust me, it's almost certainly an issue with the drivers or their "Control Panel."

Hmm, I just read the first post again.

There's no such card as a GeForce3 MX. There's a GeForce2 MX and a GeForce4 MX.

Not knowing what you have for sure, it's hard to recommend anything. If you have a GeForce3, it should work well enough for now. You could wait until next year to upgrade your video card. If you have a GeForce2 MX, then you could upgrade to a GeForce4 Ti4200 or so, and that will allow you to play anything currently out with no problems and should last until you decide to upgrade for Doom III.

BAH! I just noticed you said Twinview. That means you do not have a GeForce3. You have a GeForce2 MX. I doubt it's a GeForce4 MX. I say upgrade now, if you play a lot of computer games. Get something cheap, like a GeForce4 Ti4200 and then upgrade again when Doom III comes out.

I really should read posts more carefully...


edit:
If you can find them, either a GeForce3 Ti200 or GeForce3 Ti500 would work well enough as an interim card. I'd imagine both are cheaper than any of the GeForce4 Ti products.

your right. i checked last night geforce2 twinview
so sorry about the confusion. i really don't want to upgrade twice, if I upgrade now I'm probably not going to upgrade when doom III comes out.
so far, from all the good press, and the this board im leaning towards the 9700. ill probably hold off till after christmas when i upgrade the rest of the pc.