Need help deciding which vid-card

I'm building a new computer (I've posted several times about issues I've had even getting it to go vroom) and the final component that I need to order before I officially have a semi-decent system is a video card. I'm having a tough time deciding between two cards:



A PNY Geforce FX 5700LE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...133-106&depa=1



And a PNY Geforce 6200: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814133138



Normally it might seem a no-brainer to just go with the 6200, but the problem with that would be that I'd need to go to Windows XP. I have my Windows 98 OS set up as perfectly as possible, and I know that it can squeeze every bit of power out of my Athlon XP 2700 (it has to be set up damn good to be able to play Morrowind at medium view settings on a P3 450). I have no previous experience with Windows XP, although, from what I can tell, XP does not utilize processor power nearly as efficiently as 98.



My real question is: Would it be worth it to go with the 6200, and give up my favourite OS, or go with the 5700LE and rely on the extra processor power available to boost performance to a comparable level? I'm incredibly reluctant to go to XP, but I also want the computer to be able to work semi-decently for about 3 years, maybe less. Or, if anyone has had experience with this sort of thing, when it says that the 6200 is only compatible with XP and 2000, does it mean that it is only recommended to be run with those OS's? Is it possible to rig the 6200 to work on a 98 system?



Sorry, I ramble, but any help would be appreciated.

i say get neither and go for a radeon 9600 and higher cuz i have a geforce 5700le and i no that for $40 cheaper i could of gotten a much better 9600 and mayeb liek a 9800 im not sure wut they exact speeds are and stuff but everyone ive talked to says never get a geforce get a radeon but i hear that the radeon 9600-9800 are way more performance oriented rather than acually quality so u pick and lets get some expireinced no it alls in hear to correct me

I'm not exactly sure about the validity of the "everyone I've talked to says never get a Geforce, get a Radeon" bit. Look at the poll, I'm pretty sure that Nvidia is preferred versus ATI. Most of the people who are loyal to a certain kind of video card are so because they had a card of that particular make first. I, personally, am somewhat guilty of this. While I've never had a card of either make personally, I've seen Geforces at work, and I've been taught general guidelines for what it comparible between Nvidia cards. I'd rather be safe and get a card where I'll know what, exactly, to expect, than gamble on getting a card that I've not seen in action personally, and I don't quite trust the praise of people who bought a Radeon card because of the loyalty. Not that they would lie any more than a Geforce freak, but because a lot of them haven't compared performance of Geforce versus Radeon. I've not either, but I know what I personally can expect out of a Geforce card.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...229/index.html



Reviews for graphics cards. Here you can see the Nvidia 5700 compares to the Radeon 9600's. The LE version of the 5700 is a weakened version by the way.

well im just sayin over my mamas house when i play counterstrike with the radeon i get like 50-60 fps and over my dadas i get liek 30-40 with geforce and im not putting down nvidia im putting down teh series of geforces hehe and i generally am a nvidia kinda guy 1st of all cuz of the easiness of overclocking and they are always up to date with teh new hardware capabilities liek pci-e and most of there cards are real cheap compared to the counterpart rivals

Actually, and I should've mentioned this earlier, with the 5700LE, I'd be overclocking a decent amount to make up the difference in cards. At first I'll have to wait for a fan card, or, I suppose, if the stock is as good as a few people keep insisting, I may just OC out of the box.

umm well acually i think ur entire system may severely bottlenck that new card p3 450!!?!?!?!? eek and only a 15 gb u need a lil more of nething and in my opinion if u can do it i would jut say get a whole new comp or make 1 urself for a lil dicount

if you can get a 128mbit version 6200 you can unlock 4 more pipes and oc it, which pretty much makes it a 6600.

I'm upgrading from a P3 450, S3 Savage 4 (I think it's 32 megs of memory), a 15 gig harddrive, and 224 megs of ram, up to: Athlon XP 2700 (gonna OC it to about 3000, maybe more), one of these vid-cards, 512 megs of dual channeled pc3200, I'm adding on a 60 gig harddrive, and eventually I'm gonna Raid0 a couple of Raptors.



From input I'm beginning to sway towards the 6200, and OC'ing it to the equivilant of a 6600. The question now is: would the card be able to run properly on my Windows 98 system, or are they serious when they say you have to have XP or 2000?

Hmmm i dunno id say thats a pretty close one for me at least :S