AMD64 or P4, gaming question

[GT]

I am using a geforce 440mx right now. needless to say it sux for farcry.

any suggestions on a good <200 dollar g-card?

[BlackHalo]

video card

my majic 8ball says -

Kayla says:
Radeon 9800 PRO
Kayla says:
$349 retail
Kayla says:
CND
Kayla says:
knock 40% off that
Kayla says:

http://www.ati.com/buy/pricespccdn.html

Raffy --> All praise me! says:
ohh
Raffy --> All praise me! says:
nice card?
Kayla says:
VERY
Kayla says:
like second fastest card on the market

She's the compatibility lead so she gets to test all the toys.

[devildog]

this would be my pick: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...122-192&depa=0

[Restola]

PCI express is a lot of hype.

Tom's Hardware Guide
...it will take some time before the casual user will see any advantages in the form of improved performance. 3D games aren't designed to utilize the greater transfer rates yet, and even if they did, the question remains how much of an impact the greater bandwidth of PCI Express will really have. Sure, more and more calculations are being offloaded from the CPU to the graphics processor, but the CPU and memory would still need to (be able to) generate 4GB per second of data first and then transfer it via the bus. The same holds true for video upstreams - the system memory will be hard-pressed to keep up. Even the newest hard disks can only write an average of 50MB/s, a data rate that even PCI writes could handle with ease. And as far as real-time video editing is concerned - the CPU will still need to make a few calculations every now and then - and again the memory will probably prove to be the bottleneck. Continuous data transfers at 4GB/s look set to remain a fantasy for a while to come.

When PCI Express launches in the expected April or May timeframe, NVIDIA will be able to present a complete product family for the new bus, thanks to its HSI bridge chip. While these cards will not yet be able to take advantage of all of the improvements PCI Express offers, they should - theoretically - enjoy a certain (theoretical) performance advantage over existing AGP cards.

However, this will not be enough for the absolute all-out enthusiast / early adopter who will upgrade as soon as the new gear becomes available. Then again, this crowd will probably wait for the next generation chips from NVIDIA and ATi anyway, since they are already just around the corner. NVIDIA's main business for its PCX line will likely be smaller cards. It will also likely be confined to the OEM market. In this performance category (PCX 4300 = GF4 MX; PCX 5300 = GF FX 5200), a faster bus won't yield an advantage anyway. Lastly, it remains to be seen how high a premium NVIDIA will charge for the privilege of being part of the PCI Express hype.

Things won't get interesting until this summer, when ATi and NVIDIA introduce their new processors with native PCI Express support. Then we'll finally be able to gauge how big the PCI Express performance boost really is in practice. Unfortunately, there is the distinct possibility that the AGP versions using bridges will come with lower clockspeeds so as not to get in the way of the PCI Express hype. That will make comparing the two versions of the cards all that much harder.

The outcome, in many ways, is as unpredictable as the weather. PCI Express has a lot of potential, and not just because of its higher bandwidth. Bandwidth is no argument today - as our comparison between APG 4x and 8x prove. Whether graphics cards will benefit from this and how attractive PCI Express is for graphics usage largely depends on the motherboard and software developers. Updating only for the sake of higher bus bandwidth won't be incentive enough in most cases. What's needed are things like multi-slot solutions etc...think SLI!

http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphi...310/index.html

[Miscue]

I work for a computer store and we have never had a problem with AMD CPUs

I've installed hundreds of Athlons - the chips themselves work perfectly. Heat problems? Don't use $5 cpu fans! However, the available motherboard chipsets have been flakey for the past year. The chipsets for Intel boards are better right now. It's why I bought an Intel P4 recently (also the pricing is more reasonable lately), and I've been die-hard AMD since the K5. Breaks my heart to have to do that, but I use what works - same reason why I used AMD for several years.

[GT]

NVIDIA's main business for its PCX line will likely be smaller cards.

will we see laptops with real graphics and gaming potential?

[Buff]

will we see laptops with real graphics and gaming potential?

already available. Get a laptop, with an A64 in it w/ a mobile 9700(hyped 9600). Will game atleast as well as an AXP with a 9600pro