Best Graphics Cards on the market!?!

I've been wondering what the best graphics card is now as far as benchmarks, 3Dmark scores, etc. There are too many companies that make the GeForce series for me to browse through each one and see what they claim to have scored. I want to know what you guys have and what you have scored on your boards. Personally, I just have a Gainward GeForce 2 Pro, but am considering upgrading if the prices will come down some. Also, any ATI users feel free to try and persuade me to buy an ATI 8500 or VooDoo or whatnot. I'm not partial to any brand, just performance.

You could use the search feature here. Also, there are a number of review sites out there. Here are two:

www.anandtech.com
www.tomshardware.com

if u take benchmarks that use opengl and direct x (those wich don't favor nvidia) like 3dmark 99 max, or some other one, the voodoo 5 performs great, though noone has tried a geforce 4 ti4600 with it...

What I think I know...

ATI Radeon 8500 is better than:
GeForce 3 Ti 500 (I think)

GeForce 4 Ti 4600 is better than:
Whatever cards you can think of

Though in the market, I've only seen up to GeForce 4 MX 440, guess I need to do some travelling and searching

I think it all really comes down to your budget and your requirements.

For example, are you planning on doing some serious 3D rendering???

Or do you not have that much money to spend on your machine, and just want to play Quake III and Unreal Tournament?????

Be aware that even a budget Geforce 2 MX will play a lot of these games, and some newer ones, if paired with appropriate processing power.

Re: What I think I know...

When ATi releases good drivers, you won't think... you'll know.
The R8500 is better in terms of specs, but it's almost a tie performance-wise: R8500 beats Ti500 in some areas while Ti500 beats R8500 in others.

Check out this comparison between the two cards from Tom's Hardware. It's dated 11/07/01.... not sure if that's old to you or not...

Radeon 8500 beats all GF3

GF4Ti4600 Beats all cards but too expensive IMHO

GF4MX Suck big style

Best manufacturer for cards IMO Hercules

I've also heard that Hercules makes great cards. What's they're advantages over others? Also, I know that ATI has tons of extras like hydravision, where you can use 2 monitors at the same time. AHHH, don't know what to do!!!

Cruise 3DMark's website, the first 5 best scores achieved were by people running ATI Radeon 8500's. The 6th was a GeForce4 Ti4600. IMHO, if ATI releases a 128 MB DDR version, like a 9500 soon, it will dominate.
This battle is completely similar to Rambus vs. DDR. Rambus works better on paper (if the software you're using is tailored to it) ATI's support of DirectX 8.1 sets it ahead of the GeForce3 with FUTURE DirectX 8.1 supportive games. But NVIDIA's chips are better NOW with their raw processing power.

Next ATi Card will be a Radeon 8800 128Mb

Also 8500 128Mb - should be cheap & good

WHuZ Ta BeZT ViD CaRD d00d?

WHuZ Ta BeZT ViD CaRD d00d?

Benchmarks are only relative to same/like/similar machines. It also depends on what games you're playing. The Unreal engine is cpu dependent, whereas the Quake engine is vid-card dependent.

Phantasm66 is correct; it depends on your budget & tastes. I prefer my Voodoo, color rather than speed. But I also have an old PIII platform w/ a TnT2 that's adequet for gaming.

He is also correct; a budget GeF2-MX (-$50) is a fine gamer. Understand that vid-cards are a High Profit item. Your paying an absolute premium for performance you may not utilize, only to be overshadowed by the next new card release in 6 months.
Games (other than the newly released aquanox) have yet to be written to utilize the potenial of thes $400 cards. Personally, money wise, I think they are a waste.

The Good and the Questionable

I heard that the ATI 8500 is strong enough for most games and "too powerful" for others, which could lead to paying for tech that you may not be able to use before the next great thing comes out

However, I have a quandry as well.

I am about to get a Athlon XP1800 with 512 MB of DDRAM, but I was told that a GeForce2 MX400 would be okay enough for the system. Is this true? (Daytona MX400 by Pilat.)

thanks

triom

I have to stand by my GF3. It was a great investment last year that I am still using with no issues. All my games run perfectly. A good video card allows me to get the most out of my games. I like to run my games with 4X AA at high resolutions. Only a high end video card such as the GF3 will allow me to do that.

My video card is fine for everything I do with it. I was just wondering about the differences between companies such as ATI and Nvidia. Now it seems I have them with the Direct X 8.1 compantability and whatnot. Thanks guys for filling me in on this. I think I'll probably stick with my GeForce 2 Pro for right now, and see what big breakthoughs come along in the near future.

GEFORCE 3 Ti 200

if u want performance and high quality, at low price i suggest the geforce 3 ti 200, i have one and it work perfect.
Price $180
not bad for the graphics and performance u are going to have running on ur computer

ANY videocard will do fine as long as its base on GF3, GF4, or Radeon 8500 and it's produced by a fine manufacturer. Even a GF4 MX440 will do significantly better than your old card (in my case I get a constant 20% boost over the GF2 Ti).

I would personally not waste the money on a Geforce 4 ti 4600. I would rather buy a Ti 4400 or 4200 and overclock it (assuming they have decent cooling if not mod it). The Ti 4200's should be great value for money =) :grinthumb

I have...

A creaky GeForce 2 MX-200. Though I believe that a lot goes to CPU. I would think of probably a GeForce 4 MX 440, but Ti 4400 also seems tempting to me

If you want that your computer should have a great ability in grafix 1st see for ram you should have more then 512 RAM.Then look for a very good VRAM like gf4.