TR Forums

As I've shamefully mentioned a couple times on TR, I've got an S4 Savage 3 in my AGP slot.

[pauses for laughter to subside]

I want to upgrade, for obvious reasons. But the rest of my rig will undoubtably be the limiting factor, no matter what card I get.

It's an Aptiva
PIII 500
256 MB cheap ass generic RAM
full specs here: http://www5.pc.ibm.com/us/products.nsf/ ... p/_2171585

I've had my eye on the ATI all in wonder 7500 (http://www.ati.com/products/pc/aiwradeon7500/index.html), but Damage's recent vid card roundup makes me not so excited about that anymore. The only other main option I see is the AIW 8500 (http://www.ati.com/products/pc/aiwradeo ... index.html) b/c I want TV and I dig the remote control. But maybe there are cards / solutions I haven't thought of?

The other part of my quandry is that I won't be running this system forever - I will probably build a new system this summer, perhaps near the end of summer. By then it'll be either a TBred or 533fsb P4 or something much better than what I got now. And whatever card I get now will migrate to that system.

I'm NOT a major gamer, but I like the option to play even the new games if I can. I was playing Serious Sam on a Duron 950 with built in video (at what must have been like 5 fps) but still enjoyed it.

So for the now-and-again gamer, is the 8500DV aiw so much more necessary than 7500 aiw?

Personally, I've never understood this "casual" gamer mentality. Even if someone only likes to play games once in a while, I'm sure they want them to look good and not run like **** when they do actually play them. Don't buy a 7500...hell, I'd buy a GF4MX before a 7500.

My advice: buy as much video card as you can afford. If you have to suck up the 500mhz Aptiva for a little while, so be it. I would recommend the GF4 Ti200 over the 8500 any day. ATi still hasn't made the most of the impressive hardware capabilities of the 8500, and I doubt they ever will. The 8500 should destroy the GF3 series with its specs, but it doesn't. Makes me wonder if ATi's problems are only driver-deep...

The 7500AIW clock speeds are lower than the 7500s, and fall about where I've got my Radeon DDR 64 clocked to right now. It play the games that are out now decently enough- but in a year, I'm pretty sure it's going to be choking unless the resolutions and details are heavily cranked down.

"Casual gamer" shouldn't be so much of a mystery, Vrock. If you're a casual tennnis player, you don't have a $300 racquet. If you're a casual drinker, you probably don't drink expensive imported scotch. If you're a casual gamer, you don't really want to spend $300+ on a GF4.

Well, hold on - I want to, but I don't have enough money to do all the things I want. And playing Q3 Arena at 100 fps at resolutions that my monitor probably doesn't even support is not that high on my priortity list. Tuition is.

I may end up throwing down for an 8500DV aiw after all. But I thought I should explain the whole casual gamer thing.

If you wait a bit, the 128mb 8500AIW should be coming out. More importantly than the extra memory, it's clocked at normal 8500 speeds of 275/275, instead of the lower speeds I can't remember. Also should have BGA memory (cooler and more overclockable) if I remember correctly. I'd suspect it will probably enter around the current 8500AIW's price, and that the current one will drop in price. So wait a bit and you should be able to either get the card you wanted cheaper, or a better one for the same price.