Want to upgrade, but to what?

Glaanieboy

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I want to upgrade my videocard, since most budget cards are faster/better than what I have now. But I have two problems: 1) Tight budget and 2) Not so powerful machine.
Here are some basic specs of my current setup:
Pentium III 800 MHz @ 133 MHz
256 MB SD-RAM
MSI 6309 mobo, capable of handling AGP 1x,2x,4x
GeForce 3 Ti200 with 64 MB DDR, running at 199.9 Mhz core and 410 MHz memory (as you can see, slightly overclocked)

I just want a videocard which can handle at least Directx 8, maybe 9 and have as much graphical tricks as possible. I was thinking along the lines of Geforce FX5200 or Radeon 9200, as they come quite cheap. Would this be a real performance gain in games like Call Of Duty? CoD is running quite slow at times (with big explosions etc, and have the lowest quality and resolution setting as possible), would this game run faster with one of these cards? What videochip is about the fastest for my system?
 
Ohh, I just looked at the AOpen Aeolus MX4000-V64, 64 MB AGP 4x,8x:
NVIDIA GeForce MX4000
64 MB DDR
Engine 275 MHz
Memory 266 MHz
RAMDAC 350 MHz
AGP 4X
VGA-output 15-pin D-sub
TV-output S-video en composiet

The only downside is, it doesn't have DVI, but would this be worth considering? It's only about 47 euros. Or should I spend a little more money on a much faster card?

edit: I found the AOpen Aeolus MX4000-DV128, 128 MB, with DVI and 128 MB memory, for 59 euros. The rest of the specs are the same, but the question remains: Worth the upgrade?
 
Definatly avoid anything with the word MX in it.
The problem with these things, as always, is the longer you wait the better and cheaper these cards are going to be.
 
Since you mentioned GeForce FX5200, you might want to have a look at this: http://www.icomputers.nl/product_detail.asp?A_ID=257&SS_ID=709&S_ID=410

€68.00 is pretty cheap for a reasonably well card. :)

Or you could have look here for cheap 64 MB cards: http://www.pcmegastore.nl/catalog/default.php?cPath=1_4_73

http://www.pcmegastore.nl/catalog/default.php?cPath=1_4_73 for 128 MB ones. You never know. :p

They also have 256 MB, but I doubt you'd need that. Anyway, these are my suggestions. I could give you more, but for now, I think this is sufficient. :)
 
both mx4000 and fx5200 are INFERIOR to ti4200, in terms of speed or anything. fx5200 IS capable of doing dx9.0 stuff, but at a VERY SLOW speed that it is not worth it. ti4200 is a VERY worthy card imo, you should just think about upgrading heatsink on it and oc a lil more..
 
lol. I thought you had ti4200. but gf3 ti200 is still a very good card, and only thing ti4200 brings is more speed (no additional graphics stuff) that your computer probably is not able to handle, hence no visible difference.
Ti200 is a very worthy card still. not top notch, but for that system, very good.
 
oh and of course, gf3 ti200 is MUCH faster than mx4000 or fx5200. those two are not worth the money if you play games.
 
If I take a look at the stock clock speeds, my GF3 is slower compared to the MX4000 or FX5200. And the FX5200 supports DX9, while the GF3 only supports DX7, so why wouldn't it be good then?
 
BTW, the GF 4 MX, has one of the shaders (forgot whether it's the pixel or vertex) missing, which was present in the GF 3. Personally, I would avoid that card as an upgrade from a GF 3 for that reason... There was also I think, a coupla things added (a friend had this on a laptop he bought, so we compared them one night). Performance wise, this might not be an upgrade either... I had a GF3 Ti500 at the time... It's been awhile though, so I don't remember the exact numbers we were pulling off the top of my head...
 
Nother card that just flashed before my eyes, the GF4 ti series. I have just looked at some benches and the GF4 TI series are waaaaaay faster (almost double for the 4600) than my current card. The only downside is that it is only available in the second hand market :\
 
what is your maximum budget in euro's and where are you seeking to get your card from in the area?
 
forget about mx400/fx5200 - they are sometimes slower than ur ti200. And don't get fooled by clock speed / memory, as an example, i swapped a ti4800se (275/550) for a fx5600 (oc to 345/550) and it still got 10000 3dmarks compared to 11000 for the ti4800se. I suggest you look at perhaps a Ati Radeon 9550?
 
Maximum budget would be 70 euros (as soon as I sold my Pocket PC) and it has to be somewhere around north of the Randstad (Amsterdam, Haarlem, Beverwijk). Dunno if you can use that, as those are cities in the Netherlands.
 

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