Slightly OT - or at least age old question

[Pluck]

I don't want to open up a can of worms, but I'm interested in upgrading my basic GeForce4 MX440 (64MB) to something a little more substantial. I don't think I can really afford anything near the FX5900 price tags, so I'm open to suggestions for something a little more price friendly with noticeable improvement over my current card. Any opinions re: ATI as an option ? Or should I stick with NVidia if I'm happy ? My only other app for which graphics is a performance issue is, I guess, Flight Simulator.

Anyone done a similar upgrade recently ?

[Don. Edwards]

Pluck,
If you want to have 100% compatibility with Celestia then your choice is nothing other than a newer NVidia card. I do not care how many users of ATI cards comment on this but the facts are the facts. 100% compatibility with NVidia or 95% with ATI.
It also depends on how much you want to spend. Tiger Direct has the new
GeForceFX 5900 SE 128MB card for sale at $189.00 plus shipping and handling. This is not a neutered card either. It is a real GeForce 5900 just running at a slightly lower clock rate and slightly slower memory than the more expensive ones. From there you can move down to a GeForce FX 5600 with either 128 or 256MB of VRAM but they only have about 1/4 the memory bandwidth the 5900SE has. Tiger is selling the 256MB version of the GeForce FX 5600 for about $130.00. There is also the 5700 series cards but there prices are all over the place and they are just the newer version of the 5600 series cards and as such are a little more expensive. Anything below the 5600 and your back into the MX class territory. Neutered video chips with only part of the features found on the 5600, 5700, 5900, 5950 series cards have. I don't mention the 5800 because it is pretty much a dead issue and is way too noisy and expensive anyway. The 5200 series cards are basically an MX 440 series card with the newer goodies added to it but it is still missing many features and I would stay away from it.
If you must consider an ATI card then you need to stick to higher end cards to keep to the 95% compatibility. Don't buy a Radeon 9200 series ATI card as they are the equivalent of and NVidia MX class card. They have a neutered memory bus and some of the high end features are turned off and can’t be turned back on.
So as always your wallet has a big role in this. I spent $300 on my GeForce4 TI 4600 that just died last Saturday and I only got to use it for a year. Also if you do go NVidia try your best to buy an eVGA brand card. Every write up of an eVGA card is very positive and they have some of the best customer support around. Get anything other than XFX or PNY. My card that died was a PNY so they are now on my s--t list if you now what I mean. XFX is owned by Pine which has been known to make s--ty cards in the past. I have one of there PCI GeForce 2 MX 400 cards and it is so finicky about the system it is used in that it spends most of its time in an anti-static bag versus getting used at all.
Well I think that covers things. I bet you did expect to get this kind of response did you.

Don. Edwards

[RND]

You could go for a cheaper FX5700 which still has 128mb memory and directx9 support. I cant give you prices as Im not in America. I understand that the FX5800 series had noise issues.

[Paul L]

Thanks for the replies. Don, given your experience with Celestia and various cards, which would you recommend:

A basic no-frills 5900 with 128 MB, or a top of the line 5700 with 256 MB ?

Both seem comparable in price (with the 5700 a little cheaper).

Thanks

[Kendrix]

I got a Radeon 9800 Pro and everything works fine ! (And faster than with my old GeForce 3 !).

You will only loose the "NVidia Combiners" rendering pipeline...