when i first took a look at shaders, i soon realized that my anemic gforce 4 440mx wasn't going to do the job. since i really didn't have the budget for a new card, i simply put my attention elsewhere.

i still don't have the budget for a new card but am seriously thinking of buying one anyway... so please keep in mind, that the less i have to pay for this, the better it will be.

Questions:

in order for me to jump into the shader pool, what would be the bare minimum entry-level type card that would provide good access while remaining affordable?

is there a current advantage towards either ati or gforce?

would the bottom of the line cards do what i need ...
ie: gforcefx 5200 or ati 9200 ?

i've been reading through the posts in the shader forum and have been piecing together as much info as i can, and i apologize if this topic has been covered before... i just haven't found it

I personally prefer ATI cards... The ATI 9200 is generally about $100 (USD) at most stores in the US. Don't know about Canada though, although you could always order directly from ATI.

That card should be sufficient to get you into the shader realm.

@ Alkai - hey, thanks for your input... i'm considering this card at the moment.
i've been reading about the various versions of vs's and ps's and just want to make sure, that the card i settle with will do (most) everything for me.

if there are any notable deficiencies in the 9200 i'd really like to hear about it 'before' i spend the cash.

Better off to spend a few bucks more for a 9600.

As opposed to buying a video card which has limited support for DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2, you get one that fully supports both. If you went with the 9200, you would need to buy a new card again next year (DirectX 9 is on the forecast page - so it will get here eventually), where with the 9600 - it should be good for a couple years to come. Depending on what stores (online or local) you can get to ship to you - the price difference is only $20 or so.

you are right. i have a 9600pro and am very happy with it. its worth the money

@ myrlyn68 and ello -

this is 'precisely' the info i was looking for - thanks!

9200 isn't good, if you want a better card for less money buy an old 8500 or 8500LE :]

Hi,
hey where has nvidia gone in this thread guys
I recently read about the new GeForce FX 5900 XT; it's a slower version of the top model 5900 thus cheaper, but provides better perfomance than any other graphics card in this class! I think it is about 150€ or possibly 200€ ...
It is 100% dx9 capable which means PS 2.0 and VS 2.0 so - give it a chance

Yep, but pocorev said he's on a budget, so something cheap but good.
Also I'm not too keen on buying new cards any more ever since i got screwed over with Geforce4 MX. It was the first Geforce 4, I payed 200$ for it, and a year later it was crap, now I can throw it away lol.

Also not many people have cards with full dx9 support, so programming for it is kind of pointless - For Now! :]

Isn't the NVidia GeForce FX 5200 100% DX9 compatible also, with all the pixel and vertex shaders?

You can get it for around 60 to 80 dollars. It is a pretty good card, and for someone on a budget it is probably the best deal.