I currently have a GeForce 4 MX card and I wish to upgrade. Any suggestions is most welcomed. I want to prepare for Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and other future FPS games, especially Deus Ex which I heard does not support MX cards. :( Thanks in advance. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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I have a GeForce FX5900 Ultra and the results are stunning. Offcourse, if you need to pay the full price, it becomes somewhat expensive. Go for the mainstream card: the FX5600 Ultra with 256MB of RAM. It costs like 20 dollars more than its 128MB counterpart and is well worth the investment. You can get one for about 179 dollars US. Just be sure to get a MOBO that has 8XAGP capabilities: DOom3 will use it. Also, games like KoToR start to benefit from 256MB vidcards, so it's really a best buy for the buck kinda deal. And be sure to get the ASUS version of the FX5600 ultra: the ASUS smartcooling is truly silent and thus pleasant.
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IMO Radeon > Geforce .

I would suggest something like a 9600PRO, or a 9800. 9800 PRO is pushing it a bit for price.

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Let me comment on the Radeon Vs GeForce situation: for the non-fanatic gamer it doesn't matter. The issue of this battle can be tossed overboard. You see a GeForce you like and can buy: buy it. With Radeon its exactly the same. Yes I know there are differences in performance and quality, but like I said: if you dont care about the extra 2 1/2 FPS, it doesn't matter at all.
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Because you want to play these future games, I DEFINITELY recommend a video card that is DirectX9 capable. All of the cards mentioned above should work, so I would recommend the following:

nVIDIA GeForce line
Fx5900
Fx5600

ATI Radeon Line
9600 Pro
9800 Pro

Definitely buy a card with no less than 128 MB of memory, and if you have the $, opt for one with 256 MB.

In general, these products run neck-in-neck with their counterparts (I've owned products from both lines). HOWEVER, there is evidence that the ATI Radeon blows the GeForce line out of the water when running Half-Life2. This may be resolved by the time the game is released, but I definitely wanted to provide as much information as I could.


Check out this site for further reading pleasure:
http://www.tomshardware.com/business...r_nvidia_cards

Not forgetting the FX5800 also...hehe. I run an Asus V9900 (FX5800) and a Gigabyte Radeon 9800Pro and the differences are practically non existent.
If you can't spend too much then the FX5600 or Radeon 9600 are your best bets but if you can put a bit more into it, the FX5900 or 9800Pro are your state of the art for today. (within reason)
If you want to go between a FX5900 and 5600 then get the 5800 like I did. It's an amazing card and if you bench test it along with the 9800Pro you won't be disappointed as the results are slightly apart. Then again I preffer to let the games do the talking as opposed to the bench tests but that's just my cup of tea.

Ati Radeon 9600 XT. Faster buffers, 100MHz faster memory and GPU, enhanced pipelines, excellent cooler, beautiful price. If you have almost twice the money, take 9800 Xt.

EDIT: you get free Half-Life 2 with any XT card. I think that alone can convince you to take it.

[ 12-04-2003, 11:59 AM: Message edited by: Bozos of Bones ]

sorry to be a drag, but Nvidia are going downhill fast. you may think that its ok to get an Nvidia card, but the build quality is terrible now. :( nvidia were my favorites before they started using cheap parts, but now ATI are doing better quaility at a cheaper price.

And FYI, your responce came across to me very atacking, almost barbed. im sure it wasnt meant this way, but it just seemed to say to me 'your opinion doenst matter'. :(

FREE?! Are you sure? Really? No joke? Okay is this for ALL XT's or from a particular store? Thanks everyone for your input. So much knowledge here. :D

Untill Half-Life 2 actually comes out, you get a special cupon with the card- When it does come out, just go to the store, give them the cupon and they give you Half-Life 2. Just take 9600 XT, it's the strongest, coolest, fastest mainstream card available. Beats the hell out of nVidia GeForce FX 5800, and is the second best card for Half-Life 2(the best is 9800 XT)!