Best Video Card?

MdX MaxX · 03-05-2007, 03:15 PM

My video card is seriously outdated. First of all, it's not vista compatible, so I can't upgrade. Second, when I play SM songs with a lot of video and animation, it gets all choppy and annoying. So does anyone know what's a good video card out there, and where to get it? I just want one with S-video out, and can run any Stepmania song (w/ video, character, etc.) with ease and smoothly. I have 3 PCI slots on my computer, my video card plugged into one of them. So I can go up to PCI, I don't know about PCI-E at all, the manual for my motherboard doesn't say. I am going for up to 200 dollars, I'll only stretch that high if it's really good. If you need to know, my motherboard is an ASUS P4S533-MX.

EDIT: Okay, I don't think I even have a video card anymore. I actually have a PCI-based Ethernet adapter. I see VGA out, but it doesn't connect to any video card anywhere. Is it possible to not have a video card? I don't think so, but I don't see one in my AGP slot or any of my PCI slots.

WiLLiSTER · 03-05-2007, 09:05 PM

Uhm, I'm not sure but it's between the Nvidia 8800 and the ATi (or AMD)R600

But I'm pretty sure you don't want to dish out that kind of money for some stepmania. I'm guessing you probably have a pci video card or a really old agp. Can you tell us which it is?

t('' ) · 03-06-2007, 04:57 PM

uh best? most of the time it is the most expensive one.

UnrealArcher · 03-06-2007, 05:17 PM

PCI, AGP, or PCI-E?

We're gonna need more details as to what type of card you need before we can really do much of anything.

Enaress · 03-06-2007, 05:53 PM

I would say the nVIDIA Geforce 8800 is the most powerful, being the only DirectX 10 card. It'll run you between 300 and 700 dollars.

If Geforce isn't your bag, the ATI Radeon X1950 is the best so far I believe. I don't think they have any DX10 cards out yet, the X1950 is DX9. They will run you between 100 to 300 dollars.

The best cards are also on PCI-E, so make sure your mobo has a PCI-E slot (AGP cards are dying very fast, being that AGP is 8x speed and PCI-E is 16x).

Megamanny · 03-06-2007, 06:13 PM

ATI is a terrible piece of shit company, Nvidia is where it's at because the cards are cheaper and usually more powerful then ATI.

**dieKatze88** · 03-06-2007, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enaress

I would say the nVIDIA Geforce 8800 is the most powerful, being the only DirectX 10 card. It'll run you between 300 and 700 dollars.

If Geforce isn't your bag, the ATI Radeon X1950 is the best so far I believe. I don't think they have any DX10 cards out yet, the X1950 is DX9. They will run you between 100 to 300 dollars.

The best cards are also on PCI-E, so make sure your mobo has a PCI-E slot (AGP cards are dying very fast, being that AGP is 8x speed and PCI-E is 16x).

Incorrect sir. 16x PCI-E and 8x AGP are on completely different metrics.

16x PCI-E means its 16x the speed of one PCI Express port, because its litteraly just 16 of them in parallel.

8x AGP means its 8 times the speed of the original AGP interface.

Since neither interface compares to eachother in any way other than they both accept video cards pretty readily, this comparison is invalid.

Enaress · 03-06-2007, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dieKatze88

Incorrect sir. 16x PCI-E and 8x AGP are on completely different metrics.

16x PCI-E means its 16x the speed of one PCI Express port, because its litteraly just 16 of them in parallel.

8x AGP means its 8 times the speed of the original AGP interface.

Since neither interface compares to eachother in any way other than they both accept video cards pretty readily, this comparison is invalid.

Oh I thought they were multipliers of original onboard video speeds, way back in the day.
Still, AGP is dying and PCI-e is taking over.

***Paul*** · 03-06-2007, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enaress

I would say the nVIDIA Geforce 8800 is the most powerful, being the only DirectX 10 card. It'll run you between 300 and 700 dollars.

Uhm, if you think that's the best i'm PRETTY damn sure you havn't heard of the Quadro Plex.

Nvidia Online Store - Product Information

WiLLiSTER · 03-06-2007, 10:21 PM

Hahahaha, freakin RSP...

Philipio · 03-06-2007, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by red shoe paul

Uhm, if you think that's the best i'm PRETTY damn sure you havn't heard of the Quadro Plex.

Nvidia Online Store - Product Information

The Quadro isn't designed to play games. The 8800 would still perform better in gaming.

Enaress · 03-06-2007, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by red shoe paul

Uhm, if you think that's the best i'm PRETTY damn sure you havn't heard of the Quadro Plex.

Nvidia Online Store - Product Information

I doubt he has a spare $17k to spend on a card. 8800 is the best bet, or a decent Geforce 7 card, like the 7950GT.

kimcicle · 03-07-2007, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megamanny

ATI is a terrible piece of shit company, Nvidia is where it's at because the cards are cheaper and usually more powerful then ATI.

Uhhh . . . no.

The generation gap between video card chipsets for ATi and nVidia occur pretty much in the lull of the other company. In between ATi releases, nVidia will put out their new card, and ATi will put out a new card in between nVidia releases. For instance, yes the X1XXXs from ATi cost more than the 7XXXs from nVidia, because the X1XXXs are newer than the 7XXXs. The 8XXXs from nVidia cost more than the X1XXXs because they are newer. You're skewed into thinking that since both the 7XXXs and the X1XXXs aren't the newest thing that they are equal, but they are not.

And once the new R600 chipset comes out and trounces the 8XXX chipset as the pattern of history repeats itself, I'm sure you'll complain about how expensive ATi cards are. And yes, current benchmark cards for the R600 show it completely demolishing the 8800 across the board.

nVidia has fucking horrible video drivers and I've had nothing but issues with their cards. At least ATi puts out their own cards instead of shoving their chipsets to other companies and saying "make our product please."

Back on topic, if the original poster has such a dated computer I'm sure he will not have a pci-e slot. I can't think of any high-end cards that are decent that come in agp anymore. :/ I know you can get a R400 core (X800) in AGP, but I doubt any higher than that.

MdX MaxX · 03-07-2007, 03:00 PM

Well my motherboard manual says I have an AGP slot, but I don't know about the video card. So am I sunk? If I am, what's the best VGA->TV Converter?

EDIT: Wait, the manual also says I have PCI slots, 3 of them.

EDIT2: Yeah, I see my video card plugged into one of my PCI slots. It only has VGA out. So can anyone recommend a good PCI card w/ S-Video output?

UnrealArcher · 03-07-2007, 06:04 PM

If you have an AGP slot like your manual says, see if you can pick up an ATi X800 card. It's basically as high up as you're going to get with AGP, seeing as how all new cards are PCI-Express.