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furryspork

12-16-2003, 08:28 PM

I just bought a new computer to use at home because my old computer stays at my college while I'm on breaks and I needed a computer at home. I was looking for a cheap computer to do fairly average things like run photoshop, do basic video editing, and possibly run Maya PLE to refresh my memory about the things I'm learning in class. I wanted something cheap because I'm only buying it to use during breaks, so I bought a used HP at a local store. It seemed like a good deal because it had a P4 1.7GHZ processor, CD-RW, DVD, 1394, WinXP, and basically everything I needed for only $400. When I got it home and started it up, though, I discovered that it had an NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 graphics card. I did some research and found out this was considered a crappy card in 1999!

What should I do about this? I don't want to spend any more than $50 or $60 (maybe up to $100 if I had to) on a new card, since I got the computer itself so cheap. Could anyone recommend any old cards that might be okay to run Maya PLE on? I would probably be buying a used card on ebay. Would a Geforce 4 be a good card to get?

JDex

12-16-2003, 08:51 PM

If I were you I'd look for some Quadro 2 cards on Ebay... I picked up a very nice used one from a fellow 3dbuzz member for $60 US.

Also you could probably find someone selling Geforce 4200's in your price range around the web, check price watch.

MattClary

12-16-2003, 09:42 PM

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-135-120&catalog=48&depa=1

or

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-064&catalog=48&depa=1

furryspork

12-18-2003, 03:29 PM

Thanks for the info!

I think I'll go with the Quadro 2 since for some reason the Geforce 4 isn't qualified to run Maya PLE 5. The Quadro 2 seems to be going for about $60 on ebay so it looks like the best choice.

3Dfx_Sage

12-18-2003, 04:52 PM

I have a GeFrce4 Ti4200 that overclocks to 305 / 620 (slightly above 4600 core speed, slightly below 4600 mem speed) without a problem. Currently, I have it SoftQuadro'd and it's very nice. The problem is that you are limited to certain driver versions for SoftQuadro to work. I will have it for sale here in about a month. Still, you might be better off with a RealQuadro 2 :p

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