FX5200 reviews needed.
 

Hi I read this news group quite a bit and I know people seem to enjoy
putting down the MX cards and the FX5200.
I've been using a MX440se 64MB DDR PCI on a 1.2 GHz celeron, 256Mb
sdram.
I'm upgrading very soon(maybe even this morning) to an AMD 2600+ (333
FSB) 512MB 2700 DDR ram. On an asus motherboard. ( The choice of
motherboards was based on comments I read on this newsgroup).

For a short while I'll be using my present video card(mx440se PCI). I
found this card worked great in my system, but with the new upgrade I want
to take advantage of the 8xAGP etc.

The best I can do for a video card will be the FX5200. (the video cards
around here are still priced at about $129.99 +Tx Canadian for a FX5200 or
MX440 8xAGP.) I've looked on a few web sites and the Canadian stores online
are still charging around $109.99 when the tax and shipping is added its
about the same.

I guess after all this my question is does anybody using a FX5200 want
to give it a good review. Or know were I can find one on the web (besides
Toms hardware which I've read and reread.)
And or does anyone know a good Canadian online store with good prices
and a good reputation. I'd consider a more expensive card but the jump from
say a FX5200 to a FX5600 is huge and something I might have to put off till
later. I'm really not interested in the Ti series at all.
Sorry for being so long winded. Have a great day and thanks for any
help, thoughts or suggestions.

"yeeyoh" wrote in message
e.rogers.com...
Hi I read this news group quite a bit and I know people seem to enjoy
putting down the MX cards and the FX5200.
I've been using a MX440se 64MB DDR PCI on a 1.2 GHz celeron, 256Mb
sdram.
I'm upgrading very soon(maybe even this morning) to an AMD 2600+ (333
FSB) 512MB 2700 DDR ram. On an asus motherboard. ( The choice of
motherboards was based on comments I read on this newsgroup).

For a short while I'll be using my present video card(mx440se PCI). I
found this card worked great in my system, but with the new upgrade I want
to take advan of the 8xAGP etc.

The best I can do for a video card will be the FX5200. (the video
cards
around here are still priced at about $129.99 +Tx Canadian for a FX5200 or
MX440 8xAGP.) I've looked on a few web sites and the Canadian stores
online
are still charging around $109.99 when the tax and shipping is added its
about the same.

I guess after all this my question is does anybody using a FX5200 want
to give it a good review. Or know were I can find one on the web (besides
Toms hardware which I've read and reread.)
And or does anyone know a good Canadian online store with good prices
and a good reputation. I'd consider a more expensive card but the jump
from
say a FX5200 to a FX5600 is huge and something I might have to put off
till
later. I'm really not interested in the Ti series at all.
Sorry for being so long winded. Have a great day and thanks for any
help, thoughts or suggestions.



I was in the same situation you are, I was going to purchase a FX5200, I
actually did, however, they ran out of stock, so I started rethinking my
decision, and instead went for a Sapphire Radeon 9600 OEM which was only
$165CND. It's an extra $35, but you get double the card (give or take a
little). I'm not sure where you're located, but check pricenetwork.ca which
might tell you some of the stores that carry the 9600 OEM.

Harry

P.S. If you're in Toronto, get the HUB paper (formerly the Computer Paper)
there's a few places that carry the card, including one of my favorites
PCCanada.com.




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Yeeyoh, the other review someone sent you to is old, and I can't find any
current reviews that are useful. Except be aware that some FX5200 cards
have only a 64 bit memory interface, while most of the tested and reviewed
FX5200 cards have a 128 bit memory interface, which is better/faster.

See the following xbit labs link for advice on how to tell whether a card
has 128 bit or 64 bit memory interface. I have a separate post here asking
yesterday for clarification/guidance on how to tell the difference, so you
may want to follow the answers to that as well.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/d...416065424.html

I also have tried to find a direct comparison of the FX5200 with the
competing ATI Radeon 9200. It's just not there, because all the reviewers
concentrate on the more powerful gamers cards. I just want a good AGP card
with no fan (for quiet) and that only uses one slot (some passive cooling
devices require giving up the adjacent PCI slot).

"yeeyoh" wrote in message
e.rogers.com...
Hi I read this news group quite a bit and I know people seem to enjoy
putting down the MX cards and the FX5200.
I've been using a MX440se 64MB DDR PCI on a 1.2 GHz celeron, 256Mb
sdram.
I'm upgrading very soon(maybe even this morning) to an AMD 2600+ (333
FSB) 512MB 2700 DDR ram. On an asus motherboard. ( The choice of
motherboards was based on comments I read on this newsgroup).

For a short while I'll be using my present video card(mx440se PCI). I
found this card worked great in my system, but with the new upgrade I want
to take advantage of the 8xAGP etc.

The best I can do for a video card will be the FX5200. (the video
cards
around here are still priced at about $129.99 +Tx Canadian for a FX5200 or
MX440 8xAGP.) I've looked on a few web sites and the Canadian stores
online
are still charging around $109.99 when the tax and shipping is added its
about the same.

I guess after all this my question is does anybody using a FX5200 want
to give it a good review. Or know were I can find one on the web (besides
Toms hardware which I've read and reread.)
And or does anyone know a good Canadian online store with good prices
and a good reputation. I'd consider a more expensive card but the jump
from
say a FX5200 to a FX5600 is huge and something I might have to put off
till
later. I'm really not interested in the Ti series at all.
Sorry for being so long winded. Have a great day and thanks for any
help, thoughts or suggestions.

"yeeyoh" wrote in message
e.rogers.com...
Hi I read this news group quite a bit and I know people seem to enjoy
putting down the MX cards and the FX5200.
I've been using a MX440se 64MB DDR PCI on a 1.2 GHz celeron, 256Mb
sdram.
I'm upgrading very soon(maybe even this morning) to an AMD 2600+ (333
FSB) 512MB 2700 DDR ram. On an asus motherboard. ( The choice of
motherboards was based on comments I read on this newsgroup).

For a short while I'll be using my present video card(mx440se PCI). I
found this card worked great in my system, but with the new upgrade I want
to take advantage of the 8xAGP etc.

The best I can do for a video card will be the FX5200. (the video
cards
around here are still priced at about $129.99 +Tx Canadian for a FX5200 or
MX440 8xAGP.) I've looked on a few web sites and the Canadian stores
online
are still charging around $109.99 when the tax and shipping is added its
about the same.

I guess after all this my question is does anybody using a FX5200 want
to give it a good review. Or know were I can find one on the web (besides
Toms hardware which I've read and reread.)
And or does anyone know a good Canadian online store with good prices
and a good reputation. I'd consider a more expensive card but the jump
from
say a FX5200 to a FX5600 is huge and something I might have to put off
till
later. I'm really not interested in the Ti series at all.
Sorry for being so long winded. Have a great day and thanks for any
help, thoughts or suggestions.



I have the 5200 Ultra, not the plain 5200, but it was only about 20 bucks
more than the plain version. My review of mine is it's a great card for the
price. Does exactly what it's supposed to do for a budget card. A lot of
people are saying they won't run DX9 games, but I've run a couple of DX9
demos and it does great, and the graphics look just wonderful. If you're
looking for a budget card that will run games with AA and Ansio enabled with
playable frames and is DX9, the 5200 Ultra will do the job.

bluestringer

On Wed, 8 Oct 2003 18:00:55 -0400, "bluestringer"
wrote:
I have the 5200 Ultra, not the plain 5200, but it was only about 20 bucks
more than the plain version. My review of mine is it's a great card for the
price. Does exactly what it's supposed to do for a budget card. A lot of
people are saying they won't run DX9 games, but I've run a couple of DX9
demos and it does great, and the graphics look just wonderful. If you're
looking for a budget card that will run games with AA and Ansio enabled with
playable frames and is DX9, the 5200 Ultra will do the job.

DEMOS and games... two different things.

Lets lookie he
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1797&p=7

The 5200Ultra is no faster than the Ti4200... which is CHEAPER with
FSAA turned on. With FSAA turned off, the Ti4200 is almost twice as
fast as the 5200Ultra.



--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!

On Wed, 08 Oct 2003 12:05:54 GMT, "yeeyoh"
wrote:

Hi I read this news group quite a bit and I know people seem to enjoy
putting down the MX cards and the FX5200.

We don't ENJOY putting anything down (other than Nvidia and ATI
fanboys)

I've been using a MX440se 64MB DDR PCI on a 1.2 GHz celeron, 256Mb
sdram.
I'm upgrading very soon(maybe even this morning) to an AMD 2600+ (333
FSB) 512MB 2700 DDR ram. On an asus motherboard. ( The choice of
motherboards was based on comments I read on this newsgroup).

AMD 2500+ is overclockable to AMD 3000 speeds and then some out of the
box.

For a short while I'll be using my present video card(mx440se PCI). I
found this card worked great in my system, but with the new upgrade I want
to take advantage of the 8xAGP etc.

And what advantage were you expecting? Considering the BEST cards
gain very little from 8xAGP slot, a lower end will do less.
Performance differences is about 0~3%... but your new hardware will be
8xAGP.

The best I can do for a video card will be the FX5200. (the video cards
around here are still priced at about $129.99 +Tx Canadian for a FX5200 or
MX440 8xAGP.) I've looked on a few web sites and the Canadian stores online
are still charging around $109.99 when the tax and shipping is added its
about the same.

While you can... since youre on a budget - get the TI4200 for $80
(USD) pay extra to ship it up to you... www.pricewatch.com Not even
the fx5600 outruns the TI4200.

And or does anyone know a good Canadian online store with good prices
and a good reputation. I'd consider a more expensive card but the jump from
say a FX5200 to a FX5600 is huge and something I might have to put off till
later. I'm really not interested in the Ti series at all.

Whats wrong with the Ti series? Not until you get the $200
fx5600ULTRA, is it faster than the Ti4200. For that money, you might
as well get the ATI9600Pro... which I've heard is cheaper in Canada
anyways (since they are a Canadian company).


--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!

Thank you everyone for your comments and links. They lead to a lot of
interesting reading. I think in the end I'm going to be left deciding from
the small number of choices available locally.

.........Now if those parts I ordered would just arrive.....

"Darthy" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 08 Oct 2003 12:05:54 GMT, "yeeyoh"
wrote:

Hi I read this news group quite a bit and I know people seem to enjoy
putting down the MX cards and the FX5200.

We don't ENJOY putting anything down (other than Nvidia and ATI
fanboys)

I've been using a MX440se 64MB DDR PCI on a 1.2 GHz celeron, 256Mb
sdram.
I'm upgrading very soon(maybe even this morning) to an AMD 2600+ (333
FSB) 512MB 2700 DDR ram. On an asus motherboard. ( The choice of
motherboards was based on comments I read on this newsgroup).

AMD 2500+ is overclockable to AMD 3000 speeds and then some out of the
box.

For a short while I'll be using my present video card(mx440se PCI).
I
found this card worked great in my system, but with the new upgrade I
want
to take advantage of the 8xAGP etc.

And what advantage were you expecting? Considering the BEST cards
gain very little from 8xAGP slot, a lower end will do less.
Performance differences is about 0~3%... but your new hardware will be
8xAGP.

The best I can do for a video card will be the FX5200. (the video
cards
around here are still priced at about $129.99 +Tx Canadian for a FX5200
or
MX440 8xAGP.) I've looked on a few web sites and the Canadian stores
online
are still charging around $109.99 when the tax and shipping is added its
about the same.

While you can... since youre on a budget - get the TI4200 for $80
(USD) pay extra to ship it up to you... www.pricewatch.com Not even
the fx5600 outruns the TI4200.

And or does anyone know a good Canadian online store with good prices
and a good reputation. I'd consider a more expensive card but the jump
from
say a FX5200 to a FX5600 is huge and something I might have to put off
till
later. I'm really not interested in the Ti series at all.

Whats wrong with the Ti series? Not until you get the $200
fx5600ULTRA, is it faster than the Ti4200. For that money, you might
as well get the ATI9600Pro... which I've heard is cheaper in Canada
anyways (since they are a Canadian company).


--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!

On Wed, 08 Oct 2003 12:05:54 GMT, "yeeyoh"
wrote:

Hi I read this news group quite a bit and I know people seem to enjoy
putting down the MX cards and the FX5200.
I've been using a MX440se 64MB DDR PCI on a 1.2 GHz celeron, 256Mb
sdram.
I'm upgrading very soon(maybe even this morning) to an AMD 2600+ (333
FSB) 512MB 2700 DDR ram. On an asus motherboard. ( The choice of
motherboards was based on comments I read on this newsgroup).

For a short while I'll be using my present video card(mx440se PCI). I
found this card worked great in my system, but with the new upgrade I want
to take advantage of the 8xAGP etc.

The best I can do for a video card will be the FX5200. (the video cards
around here are still priced at about $129.99 +Tx Canadian for a FX5200 or
MX440 8xAGP.) I've looked on a few web sites and the Canadian stores online
are still charging around $109.99 when the tax and shipping is added its
about the same.

I guess after all this my question is does anybody using a FX5200 want
to give it a good review. Or know were I can find one on the web (besides
Toms hardware which I've read and reread.)
And or does anyone know a good Canadian online store with good prices
and a good reputation. I'd consider a more expensive card but the jump from
say a FX5200 to a FX5600 is huge and something I might have to put off till
later. I'm really not interested in the Ti series at all.
Sorry for being so long winded. Have a great day and thanks for any
help, thoughts or suggestions.


Not sure why you aren't interested in a Ti series card but a Ti4400 is
better than both of the FX cards you mention. If you must have a DX9
card you'd be far better off getting either a 9600 or 9600 Pro. If not
then either get a Ti4400 or stick whith what you have.

I guess after all this my question is does anybody using a FX5200 want
to give it a good review. Or know were I can find one on the web (besides
Toms hardware which I've read and reread.)
And or does anyone know a good Canadian online store with good prices
and a good reputation. I'd consider a more expensive card but the jump
from
say a FX5200 to a FX5600 is huge and something I might have to put off
till
later. I'm really not interested in the Ti series at all.
Sorry for being so long winded. Have a great day and thanks for any
help, thoughts or suggestions.

I'm using the ASUS Magic FX 5200 and I'm pretty happy with it, though I
don't quite have the CPU to max it yet (I only have a 1 GHz P3).

What you need to hope for is a decent overclock. I get 300/400 from 250/331
stock. If you don't want to overclock, get a FX 5200 Ultra.

Of course, I tried 3DMark 03 and I was getting around 5 fps for Games 2 3
and 4, and thought - holy ****, that's slow. But I've been told this is
relatively normal.

"Darthy" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 8 Oct 2003 18:00:55 -0400, "bluestringer"
wrote:
I have the 5200 Ultra, not the plain 5200, but it was only about 20 bucks
more than the plain version. My review of mine is it's a great card for
the
price. Does exactly what it's supposed to do for a budget card. A lot of
people are saying they won't run DX9 games, but I've run a couple of DX9
demos and it does great, and the graphics look just wonderful. If you're
looking for a budget card that will run games with AA and Ansio enabled
with
playable frames and is DX9, the 5200 Ultra will do the job.

DEMOS and games... two different things.

Lets lookie he
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1797&p=7

The 5200Ultra is no faster than the Ti4200... which is CHEAPER with
FSAA turned on. With FSAA turned off, the Ti4200 is almost twice as
fast as the 5200Ultra.



--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!


Mine works great for me. It is a budget card and definately worth the price
I paid for it. Mine is faster than my old ti4200, side by side testing
proved it for me. After extensive testing, I am very confident it will work
very well in the DX9 games I plan to play.

bluestringer