what fx card do i need?

[fanaticalace]

Hello all

Im thinking of buying an Nvidia FX card - now i wonder if anyone knows which kind of card (5200, 5600, 5900, etc) that i need to use all the goodie effects (water, shading etc) in games of today (daoc, swg, wow etc).
Ive tried looking for this info on nividia homepage and some manufacturers but they are really good at hiding these specific issues - all the different card qualities seem oh so good when you read their descriptions...

I dont wanna end up with the fx counterpart of the geforce4 MX(which im running now) =/

 

[JoxerTheMighty]

Well..it depends on how much do you want to spend but in any case I advise NOT to buy the 5200-model. Although it is pretty cheap you get a lousy outcome for your money (thats at least what i read about it).

May I suggest an alternative? Have you ever considered buying a Radeon (I am talking about the 9700 and higher models)? Check out some websites and benchmarks before you buy a card (which ever it may be in the end).

 

[Teh Krypt]

Im no techie, but ive heard the FX's make an awful noise...

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Depends how much cash u want to spend?

And yes the FXs when rendering 3d make more noise then a fat man farting

 

[dylan32]

Only the FX 5800 are noisy. Leadtek now do an almost silent fx5800 which looks cool.

Don't go for the fx5200, although their only about £50, their pretty naff.

The fx5600 is a good midrange. You can get an asus one for £125 from overclockers.co.uk. It performs about the same as a high end geforce4ti in directx 8 games, but outperforms them by a lot in directx 9 games (although none available yet).

The fx5900 is very nice, but not available yet, and will be around £350.

So, either got for the fx5600 for £125 from overclockers, or wait for the fx5900 to come out (and come down in price a bit).
Or, go for a radeon.

 

[mestoph]

FX5800 is discontinued, and is just waiting to sell out.
Cost ~ £300

FX5900 is the replacement for the 5800, NV35 chipset, slower core clock than the 5800, but 256bit interface. It only just outstrips the 5800, but doesn't require the cooling.

Cost ~ £300 (128 meg), ~ £350-450 (256 meg)

Competitor:

Ati 9800 Pro, Cost ~ £300-350* (128 meg), ~£350-450 (256 meg)

*Expect this price to drop to same as 5900, when 5900 fully on market.

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FX5600, if you go for this option make sure its NV31 chipset and not NV30 based. Its a nice all round mid range card. But i'd still go with Geforce4 Ti 4600 x8 (4800SE) AGP card if you are not going to be playing the DX9 games of the fall (DOOM III etc).
Cost ~ £120 (128 meg) £150 (256meg)

Competitor:

Ati 9500 & 9600, Cost ~ £120 & ~ £150, Both are 128meg cards. I haven't seen any signs of 256megs of these cards in this country.

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FX5200 is the replacement for the old MX series and should not be considered for Gaming, but only office applications.
Cost ~ £50-110

Competitor:

Ati 9000 & 9200, Cost ~ £50-100

With these 2, your really looking at how much crap they put in the box to force the price up.


**
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Out of all of the above, find which card is in your price range. Then go read the reviews at www.hardocp.com / www.tomshardware.com & http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/review/14/1/4353.html and any other you find. Ignore and 3dMark03 results ***, they are not real gaming benchmarks and hold little sway, just look at UT2K3, Splinter Cell, Code Creatures, Serious Sam 2 .... for current day gaming performance. But bare in mind, that the 256megs on any of the above cards will not be, being used at this time. Only the new Dx9 games will push a card to use that much memory to any extent or 3dmax/lightwave. So if your wanting a card that will last into next year, get one with 256meg ram and Dx9 compatible.

From what i've seen upto today of the FX cards on Doom III, the only real Dx9 game for testing atm. They leave the ATi cards for dust. But i would think Ati will have newer cards out in Q3 to compete with Nvidia. And to top it all, nvidia did what they do best. Get the new games optermised for there cards, and let ATi have to rewrite there drivers to get the performance right, which takes time.

** All prices will change, as new prototypes and reference boards appear for testing.

*** On a sidenote, ignore all of the cheating stuff with Both card companies with 3dMark. Both have done it constantly, and will continue to do it. Until the benching arena, gets some protocols in place that reflect todays gaming. As HardOcp and Kyle are trying to push for and have the backing of both Ati and Nvidia. Real game benching, and across all gaming platforms (FPS, MMPORG, etc.).

 

[cjkaceBM]

Don't want to be pedantic but the 4800SE is a 4400 with 8x AGP, the 4800 is the 4600 with 8x AGP. Neither are particularly worth the money.

If you are buying a new card now then you really should be buying one with DX9 support which gives the FX5600, FX5800, FX5900, Radeon 9500, 9500Pro, 9600, 9600Pro, 9700, 9700Pro, 9800, 9800Pro as they are more value for money as they will last longer.

 

[F.I.V]

Also it should be noted that while ATI make quality cards, they couldnt/wouldnt make decent drivers if they were held at gunpoint

 

[dylan32]

I posted this in one of my own posts, but thought that it would be usefull here (and may make you hesitate before going for a geforce FX). I just had this email from support in the US;

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The Geforce FX series of graphics cards do not currently work properly with the Shrouded Isles game engine. Please note, our developers are continually working with Nvidia in order to release a future series of drivers that will fix the issues that the cards are having with Dark Age of Camelot. One option you may wish to perform is to turn off the shadow effects option in the game menu options screen. Although the previous solution may help with the above known issues, Shrouded Isles may continue to be unstable with the GeForce FX card at this time. Please check back in the near future for updated details.
========

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Originally posted by F.I.V
Also it should be noted that while ATI make quality cards, they couldnt/wouldnt make decent drivers if they were held at gunpoint

You sir, are an idiot

 

[mcdonalds]

Originally posted by F.I.V
Also it should be noted that while ATI make quality cards, they couldnt/wouldnt make decent drivers if they were held at gunpoint

pity it's true tho

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Originally posted by mcdonalds
<Nvidia fanboy alert!>

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by mestoph
Out of all of the above, find which card is in your price range. Then go read the reviews at www.hardocp.com / www.tomshardware.com & http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/review/14/1/4353.html and any other you find.

Pity hardocp and tomshardware know about as much a small dog about 3d graphics hardware really, or anything in a modern computer for that matter.

As for 3dmark, it's not that bad, but nvidia (and possibly ati) cheat massively in it - nvidia drivers actually check if it's 3dmark running and switch mode to go faster (at the expensive of image quality).

I wouldn't be too worried about dx9 features at this stage, it'll be a fair while before they're supported.
Also on the subject of which to get, don't buy any FX below the 5800, the 5600 is about 10% faster than the 5200, which puts it significantly slower than the gf4 ti4800se / ti4800. In contrast the fx5900 is about 4 times faster than 5200.

 

[wid_caedes]

Recently got a ATI RadeOn 9800 Pro which imo is great. Got 1 problem in daoc though, and it's the textures of enemies dissappearing at a distance, but apparently that will be fixed in 1.62, so no biggie

Costs a few bucks, but it's well worth it if you have your gaming set at 'high priority'. There are a lot cheaper versions out which do dandy also. GeForce4 for example is a great card imo and not very expensive. Heck I used the TNT2 Ultra until like a month ago when I got the RadeOn device. Worked swell, just didn't have all them eye candy

Cheers, and goodluck!