Are these the same gfx card?

pickarooney

Club3D GeForce FX5200 128 MB DVI/TV-out - €59
Geforce FX5200 128MB DDR TVout AGP €69

They seem to be, at least the description if not the manufacturer. I don't have detailed specs for them, but I find it a bit strange that there'd be such a price difference because of the sticker - the shops are practically next door to one another.

[edit]Now I've found two more versions of the same card(?) (on the same street) for €62 and €75. I'm woeful confused now. They look radically different - fan vs. heatsink, size, DVI port...
And yet another, the cheapest yet, on the web. How does one know what one's getting when purchasing these things?

airetam_storm

You wouldnt be intending to play games on those would you?

pickarooney

No, nothing beyond blasteroids. My entire system is worth approximately the cost of one fo those cards

davmigil

Not sure about those cards, but some times they will be much the same and other times there will be variations in the quality of memory used (comes in handy for overclocking) and the speed the GPU and memory are clocked at. So one might be (made up figures here folks, no need to correct!) 280/400 and another might be 320/420 and have a beefier heatsink or something. Some times nvidia set down v. tightly the specs manufacturers should use, othertimes they leave manufacturers more lee way (its black magic to me, so if any cares to enlighten more feel free).
Some might have outputs for two monitors or for S-video to send signals to TV etc.

It all gets a bit navel fluff really! Pick the card that will suit your needs, google to see manufacturer/card not a total dog and then don't look at the price of the card again after you buy! If you have the time and inclination, jot down the manufacturer and model and see if you can find their specs online.

airetam_storm

Taking that into account make sure your psu will be able to handle them

Mite as well pocket the extra tenner and buy the cheaper

Bass.exe

You need not worry if you're not planning to play any graphically advanced games. Go as cheap as you can.
Only difference is in the quality of parts(And of course, what ports are on the card), important for Overclockers and Gamers... which oddly enough usually fall into the same group :P

pickarooney

airetam_storm wrote:

Taking that into account make sure your psu will be able to handle them

Mite as well pocket the extra tenner and buy the cheaper

Good point, I think it's a 350W, though it might only be 300W. I'll check when I shut down the PC later. I might need to skimp on the card and buy a PSU with the difference

Canis Lupus

for a 5200 you shouldnt need to worry about the psu... the card is hardly a monster.

RicardoSmith

Older games will play fine. Theres lots of them very cheap or even free now. I've started playing a lot of the older games again. I'm playing Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe at the moment. Which is a free download.

davmigil

True Ricardo. Hell, due to circumstances beyond by control, I am playing Counter Strike (original one mind you!) on a TNT2 (its actually okay..ish). I had a loan of a GeForce 2Mx for a little bit and the full Direct X 7 did make a big difference!

Anyway, if you aren't a big gamer, consider a cheap 8 or low end 9 series ATI radeon too.
Otherwise convince a gaming friend his current card has had its day and that he should upgrade, kindly offer to recycle his old card for him.
Agree with Canis Lupus, unless your powersupply is a real dog you should be fine.

All the best,

Dave

RicardoSmith

I find nvidia cards better with older titles myself. But overall the image quality is better on ATI cards. Another thing to consider is a GF4ti4200 or GFti4600. You should get it cheaper 2nd hand than a 5200 and in most games will be quicker than on a 5200, which isn't that great a card. I'm using a fx5600 on my laptop, and while its not very fast. Most things are playable at some resolution. Gaming not being my priority, thats acceptable for me.

You do have an AGP slot?

pickarooney

I went with the club32 version, and got it for €55, so I was well happy with that. It only took me three hours to get it fully functional on Linux, and it's flying along now, full-screen tv-out in impeccable quality and all.