Xabre or GF4 MX?

[macdaddy]

hey for a budget system what would you recommend....

ECS Xabre 200 64MB DDR AGPx8

or

MS GeForce4 MX420 64MB DDR TV

both for around the same price...just an opinion not a flame :D

[Wibber]

the gainward mx420 has 128 bit mem, and prolly is only $20 more, so I say that :)

[Grrr!!]

Xabre ... because of the vertex / pixel shaders.

[macdaddy]

Originally posted by Wibber
the gainward mx420 has 128 bit mem, and prolly is only $20 more, so I say that :)

ECS Xabre 200 64MB DDR AGPx8
ECS SiS Xabre 200
AG200T8-D64

Graphics Core
- 256 bit Architecture
- 200 MHz Core Clock
- 4 Rendering pipelines
- 2 Texture memory units per pipeline

Memory
- 64 MB DDR SDRAM
- 128 bit Memory interface
- 166 MHz DDR Memory Clock
- 375 MHz internal RAMDAC

Performance
- 800 Million Pixels/ sec
- 6.5 GB/sec memory bandwidth

Connecters
- 15-pin D-Sub VGA connector
- S-Video Out
- Composite (RCA) TV-Out connector
- 3D VR glasses connector


says its got 128 bit memory interface......

[macdaddy]

oh and whats a board thats actually 8x agp compatable....remember this is a budget system.,....:D

[mird-OC]

go the xabre. be different! :)

[macdaddy]

Originally posted by mird-OC
go the xabre. be different! :)

haha, i like the look :

[Blitzkrieg]

all mx420's with ddr are 64 bit only the sdr's are 128bit


errrr cheapest xabre200 i can see is $216 and mx420 is $127
this is from pricespy
where are u getting ur prices from? looks more like a $100 diff to me.

best bang for buck i can see on pricespy would be radeon7500le i think, thats if its 128bit and ddr for $156 tho mx420's can OC a hell of alot better and aint as bad as ppl think oc'ed the hell out of :D
id go mx420

[Grrr!!]

Originally posted by macdaddy
oh and whats a board thats actually 8x agp compatable....remember this is a budget system.,....:D

You really don't need AGP 8x for quite a while. The latest radeon 9700's still run at full speed on AGP 4x. AGP8x is really a gimmick for the time being, until some very powerful GPUs come around.

[p01s0n_p1e]

um
ill put it this way:
1)what are the other specs *if knowen*
2)mx420 is basically a slightly faster and more direct x 8.1 gf2mx400
3) xabre has a crap name but a budget vertex and pixel shaders card (hey you cant have your cake and eat it too!!)
4)they would both suit a web machine fine

[macdaddy]

This is what im thinking:

Soltek SL-75FRV Via KT400 Socket A DDR 400/333/266 - $264.38
256Mb PC-266 $122 - $137.25
ECS Xabre 200 64MB DDR AGPx8 - $149
AMD Athlon XP1600+ $151.88

[macdaddy]

with those components what kind of fps would you expect in cs,quake3,ut2003?

[NTBlowz]

U'll need 512MB to run UT2003 smoothly..

Btw get PC2700 for better oc ability..

For CS and Q3 it should be no problem..

[Grrr!!]

With that kind of hardware it is obvious you are NOT an overclocker.

As stated earlier. You do NOT NEED an AGP 8x port for the xabre 200. An AGP 2 port is more than enough.

This is what I would recommend:

151 Athlon XP1600 (without fan)
255 Gigabyte 7VRXP (onboard sound, lan).
149 ECS Xabre 200 64MB
145 256MB 333 DDR RAM (PC2700)

That is about the same price, has more features, and better performance.

[macdaddy]

so the same apart from mobo and ddr333 ram ?

the total for all the stuff i stated is $701 yours is $700 so $1 lessfor what kind of improvement?

[NTBlowz]

200 more marks in 3DMark :D

[Grrr!!]

Lets see:

To start with the better memory.

The motherboard is also better on many facets.

It has AGP 4x. This is the latest standard which is actually used by current processors.

It uses the VIA KT333 chipset. This chipset has been refined with the latest 'e' revision, and is know stable, unlike the current revision of the KT400 chipset. The KT333 chipset also runs faster then the KT 400 chipset.

It is a gigabyte motherboard. As many here will tell, gigabyte makes decent budget boards (unlike soltek whose boards are unstable and unreliable from the evidence that I've seen (although I'll get flammed for that one).

It has onboard lan, saving you the cost of a network card.

It has onboard creative sound, of a higher quality than that onboard the soltek board you mentioned.

It has onboard RAID, which will make life easier if you have more than 4 IDE devices.

It has dual bios ... in case you accidentally **** the thing up.

It has a cool blue colour.


Need I say more?

[Wibber]

nah I meant the gf4mx420's have 64 bit DDR, except for the gainward, which hads 128 bit, and is more like a low clocked mx440.
I wouldnt get the xabre at this stage cos the driver support seems to suck, but it can only get better I spose.

best bang for buck i can see on pricespy would be radeon7500le i think, thats if its 128bit and ddr for $156
yeah, that nis so wrong, pople should acttully look at the cards spec sheets before thaey put it on thier site
from go4auriga.com:
* Memory type, Memory and Core Clock of 7500LE: SDR SDRAM, 166MHz Memory Clock & 250MHz Core Clock.


the LE's are all 64mb 1228bit SDR witha 250mhz core, which is why they are so cheap, like mx420which are either 128bit SDR or 64bit DDR, the excpetion being mentioned above, if you're gonna buy one, get a gigabyte one, they overclock better

dualbios bytes, and the kt333e is the kt400 with the agp 8x turned off, which isn't really a bad thing, since it clocks pretty well

[swiftynz]

Originally posted by macdaddy
the total for all the stuff i stated is $701 yours is $700 so $1 lessfor what kind of improvement? improvements:
1) tried, proven and stable chipset
2) pc2700 ram which will allow you to unlock your cpu and run the computer at 166fsb :)
3) onboard raid :)

having said that, my mate has a Gigabyte 7VAX (KT400). havent overclocked the fsb much (170 or so :p) but its actually quite a nice board. its stable and comes with all the bells and whistles except raid.
one thing i did notice was the lack of decent voltage adjustment (cant undervolt, only has +5% etc :()

anyway that was slightly off topic :p
i'd stick with KT333 aswell. it will still support the latest 166fsb athlon xp's so you'll be sweet for another year or so for cpu upgrades.

/edit: hmm just a little slow on that one :(

[Wibber]

decent voltage adjustment
yeah but 2v is a breese :)

[macdaddy]

so the gigabyte it is then :rolleyes: