AD11 Video Card

[ceh4702]

For my FIC AD11, I have an ATI Readon VE 32 MB AGP video card that keeps giving me problems. It will just crash after a few minutes. My son wants me to get something else. Got any suggestions?

If I was to buy a Geforce2 video card what is the best kind and why? Is there a company that is better or a type that runs better? What is the difference between MX, GTS, TI? I am really tired of playing with this ATI video card. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[butchrecon]

FOR THE MONEY...

The Geforce2 Ti is the best card. I have reviewed the MX200, MX400, and Ti. I found the Ti has better performance. The MX200 did not do as well as I hoped so I took it back and got a MX400. It too had some issues with one of my games (Ghost Recon). So again I took it back and upgraded to the Geforce2 Ti. I have been VERY pleased with its performance. The Geforce 2 GTS is basically the same as the TI except it slighty slower on the memeory transfer. The Ti has i think 6.7GB/Sec transfer and the GTS 4.6GB/sec. I have not tried the GTS personally. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[butchrecon]

I am sorry. I forgot I did have the GTS card briefly for review. Its not as good as the Ti. I am looking at my notes here and basically the GTS was not much better than the MX400. I suggest doing a bit of research on the different Geforce2 cards. The Geforce3 cards are still TOO pricey for most people. James Collins
Field Service Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

Please let us (Tek-tips members) know if the solutions we provide are helpful to you. Not only do they help you but they may help others.

 

[dakota81]

I've got the AD11 motherboard in my computer too, and I have had several different video cards in it to test out. The Radeon line of video cards have a lot of power and certainly great potential, but as history keeps repeating itself, ATI does not have a clue how to write drivers for their hardware. I'd love to buy one of their cards, especially their all-in-wonder card, but without good drivers the hardware is more trouble than it's worth.

For the differences between the Geforce cards, the MX line of chips are marketted more for business users, as a lot of the 3D optimizations of the Geforce chip has been disabled. This doesn't mean it's bad, as it still performes better than the original Geforce chips. In my opinion, if you think you just need one of the MX chips, go with the MX200 as that extra 32meg of memory on the MX400 is wasted away unless you play a 3D game at 1024x768x32 colors - which if you were you'd buy the GTS or Ti chip instead.

The GTS is nVidia's performance chip which offers excellent performance, then the Ti was released to combat ATI's new line of Radeon cards, given the Geforce cards a little extra power.

No matter which card you buy, the MX, GTS, or Ti, they all perform very well, it's just a question of what your use is. If you use the computer mainly for business applications or surfing the web, and even the occasional 3D game, buy a card based off the MX200 line. If you want to play Quake 3 online with 15 other players and a resolution of 1280x1024 and want to smoke them all away, then look towards the GTS or the Ti, and just decide how much money you're willing to spend.

Myselft, I've got a Geforce2 GTS Pro with 32meg ram.

 

[paparazi]

The problem with comparing these cards is that they are from two generations of G/force 2 products.
The older line up was:G/force 2 MX, GTS, Pro then Ultra.
New G/force line up is: MX200, MX400, Ti200, Ti500.
All are based on the G/force 2 chip, some of the older product range are still being sold along side the newer models and overlap in terms of speed.
This is Basically how they stack up:
Slowest first:
MX200
MX
MX400
GTS
Ti200
Pro
Ultra
Ti500
All use the latest Detonator 4 XP drivers.
And obviously 64mb versions are more desirable than 32mb
Whatch out for Golden samples that have faster memory onboard and will perform slightly better.
Branded tend to be better made, and also better sofware bundle. Martin
Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[dakota81]

What should be added is those speed comparisons only figure into 3D graphics. When running 2D applications, the best and fastest GeForce3 card performs at roughly the same speed as the bottom GeForce MX line of chips. Even if you're running the most sophisticated 2D program out there, it still isn't even coming close to filling up the first 32 meg of video ram - you don't really even get past the first 16 meg of video ram.