video card dilemma

[mecharmor25]

When it comes to computers, I usually don't go for the best out there but rather something that sounds fair and an all rounder. The following cards in my area have the same price::

ATI RADEON 9200 128MB DDR AGP $90.00 canadian
NVIDIA GF FX 5200 128MB DDR AGP 8xTVout (RB) $90.00 canadian

If it were you, which would you choose out of those two??? currently I have a Geforce2 32MB MX400. I was considering the ATI brand but I heard that it is very bad especially when it comes to a program called EPSXE or NEMU64 and of course I'd happen to use them so would it be a problem for me if I were to use ATI instead of NVIDIA??? I heard that many people hates the FX5200 but the question remains, Will it be ALOT faster than the Geforce2 32MB MX400?? Your opinions on this?

[Lindy]

nVidia card, I use a GeForce 2, and because of it, I can use the BRILLIANT OpenGL drivers for ePSXe, Pete's OpenGL of course.

ATI is really screwy, I tried it on a friend's PC, and we had to use the DX drivers in the end, which was just horrible.

nVidia all the way, believe me.

[Rainecloud]

I've only ever used Geforce cards, and they seem to work fine for me.

I suppose it depends on what you're going to run with them, I guess.

[Bulldog]

Do you have different cardproducers to choose from, like Palit, MSI, Soltek, Asus, PowerColor, Club 3D and whatnot?

[crono_logical]

ATI would be better of the two if you were video capturing or recording from the TV out or using a TV as second monitor or whatever (in general, I don't know if that particular card can do all that), otherwise nVidia for games and stuff. In fact, the ATI card I have here sucks really badly at playing back some videos in full depth colour for some reason, the videos look so much better using the TV output instead, or on nVidia cards on other machines. So I guess that might affect which card you go for too, if you watch a lot of videos on your PC.

[Citizen Bleys]

For reasons of driver support, I would go with nVidia unless you plan to get a Radeon 9800 or better; The 9800 is about where Radeon's superior hardware becomes significant enough to override nVidia's superior drivers.

[mecharmor25]

Another question though, Is there alot of difference between the GF-fx5200 and the GF4 ti 4200?? cause the ti4200 I saw is double the price of the GF-fx5200. Is ti4200 so much better than GF-fx5200 that it is worth 2x price??

[Dr Unne]

No idea about fx5200 vs. ti 4200, but nvidia > ati definitely. *has nothing important to add*

[Citizen Bleys]

I'd go with the 5i4200. I've heard mostly bad things about the FX series...like the fact that it takes 2 PCI slots and sounds like a flaming Hoover.

[Meow]

All i know is that i've heard many nasty things about ATI. They seem to be a respectable company as professional criticism goes, but they're also the only company i've ever known anyone to boycott for their graphics cards. GeForce cards are usually solid buys; i'll just add another indestinguishable reply to the stack and vote nVidia.

i'm pretty sure the 'Ti' series is, in essence, the 'high-performance' series, but i couldn't say much more than that.

[Endless]

Originally posted by Citizen Kane
I'd go with the 5i4200. I've heard mostly bad things about the FX series...like the fact that it takes 2 PCI slots and sounds like a flaming Hoover.

They lied to you xD

My MSI FX5200 T128 can't sound like a hoover for a simple reason: it doesn't have a fan. And it takes only one slot, AGP. (PCI? *shakes head*)
Overall I'm satisfied with the card: it lets me play my favorite games at high res and good framerate, it has a TV out which I use for DVD playback on the telly (it bigger than my monitor and at a better place in the room) and it works perfectly.
My only regret is that I couldn't find that model with a remote, because now I have to go to my comp when I need to pause/skip/whatever the movie instead of doing it from the couch.

[Citizen Bleys]

I don't know about the specific card you mentioned, but I do recall the FX series for the big honkin' fan that takes up an extra PCI slot and sounds like jet aircraft are taking off in the next room, as reviewed in Maximum PC. I trust MPC.

Probably just a different FX-series card, though.

[Endless]

Ok, I found it on Zdnet. It's the GeforceFX 5800 ultra that had the vacuum sounding fan and two slots used (1 AGP, 1 PCI I guess). Since consumers complained, the 5800u was quickly dropped and replaced with the 5900 ultra, which is way less noisy, performs better, but still uses two slots.

However, these are the top-of-the-line cards that are here to compete against the Radeon 9800 Pro, so, they cost a lot of money. The 5200, however, is the low price model, and for its price, it does pretty good.