3D Graphics card |
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netepic
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card  Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 3:39 pm |
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Location: Southfields, London, England
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What do you guys recommend? I have a 2.3 GHz machine with 512MB of RAM but no 3D card, this is the bottleneck slowing my games.
I am not loaded at the mo (long month ahead :S) but and looking for one that is very effective at a reasonable price.
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CrimsonFury
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 4:54 pm |
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What card is right for you depends on a few things.
1) What price range are you looking at?
2) What sort of games do you play? (eg First Person, Strategy, Racing etc).
3) What type of CPU do you have. I know you mentioned 2.3Ghz, but theres quite a bit of difference between different brands\models with the same speed, eg is it an Althon, Pentium 4, Celeron etc?
4) Does your motherboard have an AGP slot? (used for most modern video cards, the majority of motherboards have an AGP slot these days, but not always)
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netepic
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 4:59 pm |
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Location: Southfields, London, England
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Grumble, grumble, cheap nasty emachines piece of poo.
Only has a PCI slot, which had the advantage of limiting my choice to pretty much only this card: XFX Geforce Fx5200 128MB DDR PCI TV-Out Retail Box
But unfortunately, as far as I am concerned any card on a PCI slot is a load of [CENSORED].
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iblisdrax
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 12:37 am |
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Ahhh emachines. You know, this company definitely brings the phrase 'you get what you pay for' to mind.  Seriously tho, I feel for you. There is a Radeon based card that might be better than the Nvdia that you mentioned. Seems to me, last I looked at it, that one of them was faster, but wasn't a Dx9 card, and the other, while slower, was a DX9 capable card. Something to think about.
my 2cents,
iblisdrax
_________________
"Have Leman Reuss, will travel"
"Hallo. My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die!"
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primarch
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 1:12 am |
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Location: Edmond, Oklahoma USA
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Hi!
ATI Radeon 9800.
I beleive it was voted "the best" for last year on the tech forums. It is worth more than 300 dollars though, but it seem to be top dog.
Primarch
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iblisdrax
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 2:44 am |
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Well, I would agree that the Radeon 9800 XT is the card to beat, but unfortunately, it does not come in PCI flavor. So that one is out. Even if it did, honestly, the performance would be throttled by the PCI bus so bad that it wouldnt be worth the money. No, the card I was talking about was the 9200, I believe.
my 2cents,
iblisdrax
_________________
"Have Leman Reuss, will travel"
"Hallo. My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die!"
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CrimsonFury
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 9:25 am |
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What CPU do you have? Instead of a video card you could always consider a new mobo that has reasonable onboard video (as good as anything you'll get in PCI form) and an AGP slot for future expansion.
eg for Althons\Durons, an Nvidia Nforce 2 based board. (onboard video comparable to a Geforce 4 MX(
For Pentium 4s\Celerons an ATI 9100 based board. (onboard video comparable to a Radeon 9200)
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netepic
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 11:09 am |
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2.3GHz Celeron - dammit, it was V cheap tho.... 
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CrimsonFury
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 9:23 pm |
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If it will fit in your case, a mother board like this should give you better video performance, fit your exsisting CPU and have more upgrade options for the future:
ASUS P4R800-VM
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socket4 ... rview.htm#
I have no idea what the best place to shop is over there, so i'll leave you to figure that out  .
That board is based on the ATI 9100 chipset I mentioned. Graphics wise its the equivelant of a Radeon 9200 video card (low end 3D card), but alot better than any other onboard video on the market for P4\Celeron systems.
It has an AGP slot, so if you want to buy a better video card later you can, and just disable the onboard video.
Compatibility requirements to check for:
1) Your case must be able to fit a micro-ATX motherboard
2) Must have DDR RAM
3) Powersupply must have the P4 12V connector (square 4pin power connector)
If you meet the above 3 requirments that board should work with your exsiting components.
If you've never put together your own PC before, I recommend getting someone who knows what they're doing to help you with the motherboard installation. (physcially putting it in is easy, getting everything to run properly after is the tricky part  )
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primarch
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2004 10:19 pm |
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Hi!
Crimson makes valid points. Its not only the video card but the motherboard, case and voltage stats for your power supply that will determine if you can use such a powerful card.
Also the heat generation of these new cards is high since they use an expanded AGP slots at a higher voltage, they are even selling cooling kits for AGP video cards now.
Its a slippery slope upgrading/custom building systems. I got out in time, since I was seriously thinking in getting a watercooled CPU, Chipset, AGP cooler combo, damned thing costs over 300 dollars, plus 300 for the high end video card and...well you get the idea. Lots of money.
You dont need the best graphics in the world to enjoy games, I find my Geforce 400MX is good enough.....
Primarch
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iblisdrax
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:36 am |
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Well, if you are going to make a point for a new motherboard...take into account that the new standard, PCI Express, will be soon into production this year. Just to throw a monkey into the upgrade works! 
my 2cents,
iblisdrax
_________________
"Have Leman Reuss, will travel"
"Hallo. My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die!"
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CrimsonFury
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 7:02 pm |
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Yes I know, but I choose a product that is available and affordable now .
Even after PCI express is out, AGP cards will still be retailing for a long time. Much like there are still some PCI video cards retailing now.
Also with PCI-E comes a whole bunch of other requirements. It requires a new ATX 2.0 PSU with 24 pin power connector. Also on the Intel side of things the mothers with PCI-E will all be for socket 775. Which will not fit netepic's socket 478 CPU.
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CrimsonFury
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 7:05 pm |
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| Quote (primarch @ 18 2004 Mar.,21:19) | | Crimson makes valid points. Its not only the video card but the motherboard, case and voltage stats for your power supply that will determine if you can use such a powerful card. |
That wasn't what I was saying (although that is true for AGP cards)
NetEpic has already said he doesn't have an AGP slot. The highest PCI card you can get is Radeon 9600 or Geforce FX 5600. Both of which are crippled in PCI form, and perform scacely better than the much cheaper Radeon 9200 or Geforce FX 5200.
The mother board I suggested provides the same graphics as a Radeon 9200 for not much extra cost, while providing a bunch more options for future expansion (such as the option to add an AGP video card).
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iblisdrax
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 10:37 pm |
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I was just thinking to myself about PCI-E's potential to have multiple video cards in the same system...like the old 3dfx Monster2 cards...which I have 2 still round here somewhere. I also found out that it has always been possible to build a motherboard with 2 AGP slots on it. It is just that nobody would build one.
Sorry, just drooling again.....
my 2cents,
iblisdrax
_________________
"Have Leman Reuss, will travel"
"Hallo. My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die!"
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CrimsonFury
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Post subject: 3D Graphics card Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 6:09 pm |
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Most PCI-E systems won't allow 2 video cards. PCI-E video cards will all use a PCI-E x16 slot, and motherboards will only have one of those. The other PCI-E slots will be x1 slots.
Also you can't just add a 2nd AGP slot to a motherboard, it would require a 2nd northbridge chipset, as well as some kind of bridging chip between the 2 north bridges, and a special type of BIOS. All of which would increase the cost of the motherboard alot and make the designs extremelly difficult from an engineering point of view.
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