Ok, it's now time for an upgrade. I finish work in two weeks and go back to Uni in October. In the meantime, I have to do a few 4000 word reports for University before I go back
, but that should leave me with some allocated time to gaming! 8)
However, I am in need of an upgrade to the old graphics card if I'm to play any decent games!
I would turn my head to the latest 3dfx card (as you all obviously would) but seeing as there will be never such a thing, I have to look for alternatives, unfortunately.
Time to ditch the old GeForce2 Pro and get a beefier card. But what? ??? I'll admit, the GF2 Pro has served me well, running any game with medium/high visual settings right from July 2001 when I got it! (As I said in a previous post, it had no problem running Hidden & Dangerous 2 @ 1280 x 1024, 30fps, full highest visual seetings including complex real-time shadows and full environment mappings). But saying that, I wouldn't go back to nVidia.
1) Because of the money-grabbing strategies I believe they incorporate and they way they try to confuse the customer with their 'XT' and 'LE' versions of cards, which 'XT' clearly opposes the rules that ATI goes by.
2) A personal vendetta against them due to their harsh treatment towards 3dfx's staff, their loyal customers, colleagues and 3dfx company as a whole.
3) Frankly, I see nVidia's cards as lagging behind ATI's rival card (e.g Radeon 9600 vs. GeForce 5700, Radeon 9800 vs. GeForece 5900/5950 etc..).
As a student, I cannot afford the prices of a Radeon 9800 card, so instead I was looking at the 9600 Pro (256Mb). A powerful card, but good value for the money.
However, will this card be able to support games of the future, well enough? e.g. Doom 3, Half-Life 2?
Or does anyone recommend a better all-rounder, good power and performance, against value for money. ???