Giving up on ATI ... need help with Nvidia

Driver upgrades on my ATI AIW just hosed up my system again (Dell desktop,
XP SP2). Neither Dell nor ATI can figure this out.

Situation: I need to be able to play newer games. New Tomb Raider shows
glass/transparent floors and walls with the old drivers. Even an older game
like GTA San Andreas reduces pedestrians to sparkly triangularly-pixelated
crap.

The new ATI drivers clean this up (both games), but then the AIW TV/capture
stuff won't work, and the whole Windows desktop is too big to fit on screen.
Buh-bye ATI.

So I need help figuring out which Nvidia card to buy.

Must I buy an Nvidia card, or would another manufacturer (using Nvidia chip
sets) be okay?

What do I make of the bewildering mess of numbers? Numbers like 7000-series
and 8000-series, and suffixes like GT, GS, GTX, etc?

I don't want (or need) top-of-the-line stuff. I'd like to come in at $100,
give or take.

There are lots of cards that get discounted/rebated to $100 - $120. But I
can't distinguish the diamonds from the lumps of coal, so I'd appreciate
some good information.

Alfred Einstein wrote:

snipping blah blah blah


There are lots of cards that get discounted/rebated to $100 - $120. But I
can't distinguish the diamonds from the lumps of coal, so I'd appreciate
some good information.

Any current card (from ATI or Nvidia) will suit your modest requirements
and low budget.

Start at the Guruof3D.com for hardware reviews of current cards then buy
any card that New Egg features that fits your budget, those two steps
should keep you busy.

"Alfred Einstein" wrote in message
...
The new ATI drivers clean this up (both games), but then the AIW
TV/capture stuff won't work, and the whole Windows desktop is too big to
fit on screen. Buh-bye ATI.

So I need help figuring out which Nvidia card to buy.

Well, none of the nVidia-powered cards has TV tuner/capture capability (I
guess you can call those guys smart for avoiding this driver mess
altogether...).

Must I buy an Nvidia card, or would another manufacturer (using Nvidia
chip sets) be okay?

nVidia doesn't market cards under its own name, so you will have to go with
"another" manufacturer like BFGTech, eVGA, XFX, PNY, Foxconn, etc.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

$100-$120 won't get you a video card fast enough to play newer games like
FEAR and Oblivion.
The Nvidia 7900GS can be had for around $150.Lots of life left in it even
though is not a DX10 card.

"Mr.E Solved!" wrote in message
. ..
Alfred Einstein wrote:

snipping blah blah blah


There are lots of cards that get discounted/rebated to $100 - $120. But
I
can't distinguish the diamonds from the lumps of coal, so I'd appreciate
some good information.

Any current card (from ATI or Nvidia) will suit your modest requirements
and low budget.

Start at the Guruof3D.com for hardware reviews of current cards then buy
any card that New Egg features that fits your budget, those two steps
should keep you busy.

That's Guru3D.com. The link you gave is actually a "squatter" site full of
ads...

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Mr.E Solved!" wrote in message
. ..
Start at the Guruof3D.com for hardware reviews of current cards then buy
any card that New Egg features that fits your budget, those two steps
should keep you busy.

"don't look" don't wrote in message
...
$100-$120 won't get you a video card fast enough to play newer games like
FEAR and Oblivion.
The Nvidia 7900GS can be had for around $150.Lots of life left in it even
though is not a DX10 card.

How do you figure out what card is needed for a game?

"Alfred Einstein" schreef in bericht
...
"don't look" don't wrote in message
...
$100-$120 won't get you a video card fast enough to play newer games like
FEAR and Oblivion.
The Nvidia 7900GS can be had for around $150.Lots of life left in it even
though is not a DX10 card.

How do you figure out what card is needed for a game?

You can take a look at Tom's graphics charts and compare
different cards.
They don't test that many games but it gives a good estimate
on what you can expect.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

Look at the frames-per-sec (fps).
For first person shooters you need a descent framerate,
let's say at least 30fps for good playability.
For adventure/rpg's like oblivion, 15 is enough but more
is always better.
Those numbers are a bit personel though, some don't
care if the numbers are even lower, others say they
can't play the games if it's below 60 or whatever.

Also look at the resolution you want to play on.

You didn't mention what mainboard you have.
If you click on the bars in the graph, you get more
details like if it's an AGP or PCIe card.
First check what slot you have on you mainboard
before you buy anything.

And as 'first of one' said: there's no video capture
on nvidia cards, or not that I know of.

regards,
Marcel

don't look a écrit :
$100-$120 won't get you a video card fast enough to play newer games like
FEAR and Oblivion.

I play fear on my 5yo TI4600...

On Sat, 9 Jun 2007 20:05:08 -0400, "Alfred Einstein"
wrote:

"don't look" don't wrote in message
...
$100-$120 won't get you a video card fast enough to play newer games like
FEAR and Oblivion.
The Nvidia 7900GS can be had for around $150.Lots of life left in it even
though is not a DX10 card.

How do you figure out what card is needed for a game?


dell desktop, AIW, clueless...

And you give people **** in other newsgroups.

blonk.