I searched this forum and found nothing on this topic, so I apologize if this has been discussed before. My GeForce 2 video card just died and I need some tips on what video card I could get for under $100 US. I have found a GeForce FX 5200 AGP 128 MB card at buy.com for $75.17. Is this a good card? Is there a better card in my price range? Is is suitable for OpenGL programming as well as the upcoming release of DOOM 3? Thanks for all your help. vaporlock

noooooooooooooo the geforce fx 5200 is the biggest failure nvidia can ever produce.

Any other FX model just not the 5200 is good, Let me C
190 FPS i q3 Medium Settings (800*600)
And then i turned antialiasing 2x on and it went down 2 70 fps.

I Replaced it with a 5700LE (256MB) which costed R950/6.5 = $140

Nvidia® GeForce™ FX5200 128MB DDR AGP 8X with TV-OUT $70
Nvidia® GeForce™ FX5500 256MB DDR AGP 8X with TV-OUT $110
Nvidia® GeForce™ FX5700LE 256MB DDR AGP 8X with VIVO $140

but i live in africa and those are supplier prices.

NO what ever you do dont by a fx5200, A Geforce 4 MX440 128MB Scores the same points in 3dmark as the fx (Except ofcourse the fx supports directX9)

mm

Quote: Original post by vaporlock
I have found a GeForce FX 5200 AGP 128 MB card at buy.com for $75.17. Is this a good card?

Depends on what "good" means for you.

Quote: Original post by vaporlock
Is is suitable for OpenGL programming

If you want to experiment OpenGL functionailities, then yes it's very good for OpenGL programming. It's by far the cheaper graphics card that exposes the most functionality. In fact, you can display the same things with a FX5200 as with a FX5950 ! You just don't display it as fast. And this is what makes the difference, especially for gaming.

Quote: Original post by vaporlock
as well as the upcoming release of DOOM 3?

Definately not. As mentioned above, Doom III will be as beautiful (in terms of picture quality) on a FX5200 than it will be on a FX5950, but the FX5200 is way too slow to run Doom III at a decent framerate.

Quote: Original post by vaporlock
Is there a better card in my price range?

For $75 you'll hardly find better. For $100 you can find something else for sure. But you will hardly find something suitable for Doom III, unless you are ready not to set details to the maximum. Actually I'd recommend Geforce FX 5700 128MB which costs around $100 and is a very good price / performance ratio. Well you could even set the details to the maximum with this card. On a Pentium IV 2.4 GHz with this card, the game would run ~30fps. Not so bad.

I'd go for a Radeon 9600 (or 9700 -> might just be cheap enough) if I where you. I don't know about the prices over there, but over here they're about 90 euros. And I believe euro's and dollar's have about the same value...

Radeon 9600 for 90 Eur ? tell me where :)
Well you could find a 9600SE for about 70 Eur but it's just comparable to FX5200.
Otherwise on the ATi side there is the Radeon 9550 that is pretty cheap, but I don't know about its performance capability.

Look at this page.

There's a Sapphire 128MB Radeon 9600 bulk. It even seems to be a PRO. The price is 87 Euro (dropped from 150 some days ago). I would also recommend this card, although it's a bit more than $100 ;-)

i had a fx5200 and it ran far cry fine(On medium settings) when i replaced with 5700 256mb it run even finer and much faster but the graphics was pretty much the same(on medium setting)

DJ

The GeForce 5200 may be cheap, but that's its strength! It has DirectX 9 capability, for $75. The fill rate is nothing to write home about -- this is the bottom of the line, the GeForce MX replacement. Just be happy NVIDIA didn't do a "4 MX" and make "GeForce 4" mean nothing all over again -- "FX" means "DX9," period.

For the next step up, I'd go with a Radeon 9600 Pro. It runs very well, and has great DX9 performance (much better than FX 5700).

After that, I'd choose a Radeon 9800 Pro or XT, rather than the GeForce FX 5950; the 9800 has better performance in most cases I care about.

At the top end, I'd choose a GeForce 6800 GT -- it's 100 bucks cheaper than the Ultra, and only takes one slot instead of two; still, it has most of the performance and all of the features. The X800 has lots of performance, but lacks a bit on features (it's about the same as the 9800).

If you need under $100, it's hard to beat the FX 5200, but DON'T expect it to be a kick-ass gamer cards. Those start at $150 and really come into full swing around $275.

If you want a mid-level card that will be capable of playing Doom 3 I would suggest the GeforceFX 5700 card.

Not only does it give you the best performing mid-level card, it also has a great price tag. Not only does it beat the 9600 performance-wise (I don't know how the guy above can state the 9600 is "much better" than the 5700 considering you can look at the 5700 pass the 9600 on benchmark sites), but also offers better drivers and better supported OpenGL if you use that API.

As others have said GeForce 5700 or Radeon 9600 are your best bet if you're willing to spend a little more than the 5200, which is capable but on the slow side. I've seen 9800 pros as low as 200 now, but thats out of your stated range. Personally I'd never spend much more than 200 bucks on a video card. Generally I set that as my goal and evaluate performance of cards in that price range to determine the final purchase. I may spend a little more, or a little less. My last purchase was a 128mb Radeon 9800 for $225 and I've been very happy with it. Rather than spending $500+ every 2 years, I can spend about 200 every year and a half or so. I may never be on the bleeding edge, but I'm pretty much always in the sweet-spot of what high-end games require: enough to crank up the graphics features and resolution at a 60+ framerate. When you think about it, that last 200 or so dollars on a high-end card get you very little gain usually, maybe 20%. Its just not worth it IMHO.

Since I seem to have wandered off topic a bit :) I'll end with one last helpful hint, Saphire makes very good 3rd party radeon cards which often come with software overclocking capabilities. My Saphire 9800 can overclock by as much as 90Mhz without additional cooling :) As always, if you overclock be aware that it voids your warranty and could damage your card.