geforce 3 (which one )

[infielder6]

which company should i get a geforce 3 ti 500 from... i know that visiontek and asus are good but which one is better all i really know is that the chip is the same and that they both seem to have good features... which one should i be going for... or is there another company that is even better... thanks for the info

[Darthtanion]

Most GeForce3 cards perform very close to each other. Unless you need one with DVI or some special feature, just shop by price.

[Beefy]

Pretty much what Darth said, the only major differences between all the cards is what extra features / software it has. I bought a Jaton Geforce 3, has basic software, TV and DVI out, and it was $200 AUS cheaper than any other GF3 card at the time... and it's just as good as the rest...

So unless you need / want extra features and software, like Darth said.. go for the cheaper ones...

[quietkev]

I just bought a Leadtek GF3 Ti200 , the brand new model with 128 DDR. I have been trying to decide over one for a while now and the reviews of the Leadtek's have been very good , especially with regards to overclocking and price. The 128meg of memory might not give it all that much more power right now but it was only $50 over a regualr TI200 so I figured why not. I plan on OC'ing it to GF3 level at least!!!

[Albinus]

The Leadtek cards are pretty good at overclocking, but pay special attention to cooling the RAM - Leadtek generally don't cool the DDR SDRAM well enough for serious overclocking

[quietkev]

Well I have a 120mm fan mounted on the case that blows over the AGP slot and CPU, but I was going to check and make sure the heatsink is actually touching the chips. Any suggestions is a larger fan on top of the Heatsink would help ?

[Darthtanion]

I use the Crystal Orb on my vid card and it works wonderfully. On average, it dropped my temperatures 9C under load, so it was a very worthwhile addition. :)

[quietkev]

But doesn't the Crystal orb want to be on the GPU itself ? The leadtek's have that huge all in one heatsink with a fan in the center. Do you think putting a crystal orb on top of the heatsink would be effective ?

[Darthtanion]

To properly install the Crystal Orb, you will need to remove the old heatsink.

[quietkev]

Well I've stuck it into my system and have been pleased so far. I have put the GPU up to 200mhz and the RAM to 450mhz without any problems , and without any major increses in heat output. I was going to run some Q3 demos in a loop to see what stress does to it at that level. :devil: