Given my employment situation (or lack of) I was not planning on buying any new computer goodies, but I noticed there is a $10 rebate on this particular Abit graphics card and now I'm intrigued.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=183845

For $45 I think it's a good deal but my knowledge is not so good on what graphics cards are good these days (besides the familiar Radeon cards). Does anyone know if Abit has a reputation for good graphics cards? I'm only somewhat 1/2 employed right now and the last thing I need is an expensive computer goodie - but for $45 it's a small luxury I can afford.

EDIT:

My current graphics card is: 32 MB NVidia DDR GeForce 2 GTS.

When I did a Google search, this particular card came up which I noticed uses the same chipset as the one mentioned above. So does that mean they are equal in performance or will they differ since the manufacturers are different? If they both use the same chipset, will the functionality / features be the same for both?
http://www.electronicsoutfitter.com/store/8952-060.html

Well, it's certainly better than what you have.

Yes, it's a very good card. It is not a gamers card, but then it doesn't cost $300 either. ATI sells their graphics chips to many manufacturers, and cards based on the same graphics chip, and with the same amount of memory will perform much the same. Abit is a very good first tier manufacturer.

Shelly

Thanks Shelly. In the list of specs, it says, DirectX Support: DirectX 8.1

Is that maximum or minimum? I'm assuming they're saying that it supports v8.1 and above??

It will directly support DirectX 8.1 and BELOW. It will not be able to perform the features of DirectX 9 or above. But, if you aren't a gamer, you probably won't need DirctX 9 features.

>It will directly support DirectX 8.1 and BELOW. It will not
>be able to perform the features of DirectX 9 or above. But,
>if you aren't a gamer, you probably won't need DirctX 9
>features.

Rats. I'm not a heavy gamer but I've collected a few games over the past few years and was hoping it would be the minimum it would support.

Whatever, for only $50 - it will have to suffice until I save up enough clams to build a whole new system.

To run a game that needs DirectX 9 you just need the DirectX 9 runtime for it installed in Windows - it's just the card will only support the effects and stuff of DirectX 8.1 and below. You will still be able to play it you'll just be missing the odd effect (provided your other specs are good for the game).

You are correct. I should have been more clear on my explanation. Thanks.

>
>To run a game that needs DirectX 9 you just need the DirectX
>9 runtime for it installed in Windows - it's just the card
>will only support the effects and stuff of DirectX 8.1 and
>below. You will still be able to play it you'll just be
>missing the odd effect (provided your other specs are good for
>the game).
>

I've had DirectX 9.0(C) ever since it came out and that's what I originally thought Steve, but Docs answer confused me a bit. Thanks for that clarification. My current card is really not bad considering it only has 32 MB - I still get surprisingly rich graphics and Fx are lacking only with the most recent games.

But when it comes to BIG games as Chickenman says - it is lacking. The only recent games I have that I can't fully enjoy are Halo and MS Flight Sim 2004.

Now I"m really curious to see how much difference I'll notice when I get the new card. I'll try to post some screenshots... old vs. new.

Chickenman, hope you're wearing a flack jacket.

>>It will directly support DirectX 8.1 and BELOW. It will
>not
>>be able to perform the features of DirectX 9 or above.
>But,
>>if you aren't a gamer, you probably won't need DirctX 9
>>features.
>
>Rats. I'm not a heavy gamer but I've collected a few
>games over the past few years and was hoping it would be the
>minimum it would support.
>
>Whatever, for only $50 - it will have to suffice until I save
>up enough clams to build a whole new system.

If your games are a "few years" old...then they won't be using all of the features of DirectX 9.0. Only in the last year ( or two for some BIG games like UT2003 and Doom3 ) have game developers even STARTED exploring the features of DX 9.0

I wouldn't worry about it. My Radeon 8500 ( now have a 9600Pro ) ran DX9.0 games just dandy. I may have been missing a few fancy-shmancy details....but I couldn't really tell when playing. Too busy avoiding getting my A** shot off!!!

DirectX support is a hardware aspect of the card - it means it runs DirectX components directly in hardware. For example to compute an explosion or the glossy surface of a moving liquid takes a lot of processing so with DirectX support on the card the game programmer can just say "I want an explosion here" and the hardware will take care of it reducing the load. That's how I kinda understand it - I'm by no means an expert. The 9250 has hardware support for DirectX 8.1 so effects specific to DirectX 9.0 wont be utilised but if your not gaming it won't make a lot of difference. You'll still run the latest DirectX in Windows - just you're card will only support the hardware routines up to 8.1 specs.

EDIT - Need to type faster Docs got ya back.