good videocard, esp. for hl2?

[reaction]

hey guys,

i've been looking at different videocards since my current one(geforce 2 gts) wont do shit for hl2. i was wondering if anyone has this card or has heard good/bad things about it, thanks.

http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322428

 

[Jagermeister]

First of all, what's your budget for a card? You prefer and ATI or Nvidia?

 

[Hammer]

The GF4 4200 Ti is a decent card, and Gainward makes good products. (that's the link in original post)

However, the GF4s only support DX8 (not even DX8.1) in hardware. You want to find yourself a nice DX9 card if you're upgrading now.

DX8 will buy you good graphics and most of the effects in newer games, albeit at reduced quality and worse performance than DX9 implementations (the same effect on DX9 versus DX8 shaders can either be impossible or just take more passes).

 

[TrueWeltall]

Jumping jesus you should check out www.neweg.com first, that price is ALOT at newegg its 107$. Go with an atleast dx 9 support card if you can.

 

[bonanzaguy]

ATI == the pwnz0rs

 

[reaction]

thanks guys, ive decided to probably go with a radeon 9700 pro, ive heard the main price now is around 300, and i know i already had this answered in another thread (and im not ignoring those helpful replies =) but what do u guys think is better, a retail card from ATI or one from say...Asus or MSI?

 

[Jagermeister]

Originally posted by reaction
... but what do u guys think is better, a retail card from ATI or one from say...Asus or MSI?

Neither Asus nor MSI make 9700s.
Here's list of to choose from. The Sapphire one is really good.
Radeon 9700 Pro - ATi reference
Radeon 9700 Pro - Hercules (3D Prophet)
Radeon 9700 Pro - Sapphire (Atlantis)
Radeon 9700 Pro - Gigabyte (Maya II)