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What kind of video card should I buy?

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  • #16
    Don't upgrade your video card unless your processor is 1GHz or faster. Your bottleneck will be your system, not the video card.

    Don't buy a GeForce 4 MX -- it's a DirectX 7 card.

    A Radeon 9000 is a DirectX 8 card.

    Radeon 9500/9700/9800 and GeForce FX cards are all DirectX 9 cards.

    DirectX 9 are by far the most powerful, and flexible, and support DirectX 9 features in hardware that you otherwise do without or are emulated with great performance loss on older cards.

    Most games these days are DX8, but tomorrow's (and DOOMIII's) will be DX9-level games...
    "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
    Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

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    • #17
      will a 64 mb card go wasted on a 700 mhz procesor?

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      • #18
        Originally posted by Asher
        Don't upgrade your video card unless your processor is 1GHz or faster. Your bottleneck will be your system, not the video card.

        Don't buy a GeForce 4 MX -- it's a DirectX 7 card.

        A Radeon 9000 is a DirectX 8 card.

        Radeon 9500/9700/9800 and GeForce FX cards are all DirectX 9 cards.

        DirectX 9 are by far the most powerful, and flexible, and support DirectX 9 features in hardware that you otherwise do without or are emulated with great performance loss on older cards.

        Most games these days are DX8, but tomorrow's (and DOOMIII's) will be DX9-level games...
        I was hoping you would provide some advice.

        So here's what I have:
        A tnt2 model 64, 16mb, bus type pci
        AMD K-7 500mhz
        256 ram
        windows 98

        So is there any point in a simple upgrade to a 32mb video card? Can I upgrade to a 64 with PCI? Or should I be looking at a complete upgrade?

        The other thing is: Is this the time to do a big upgrade. The computer I have is about three or four years old.

        The other thing is I'm not using this for major graphics games. I just want something middle of the road.
        Golfing since 67

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        • #19
          If possible I'd be looking at a full upgrade.

          Look at getting a KT-400 board (Asus or Gigabyte), a Althon XP 1600+ and some new DDR-RAM.. this shouldn't cost too much. And is considered midrange.
          For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)

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          • #20
            Originally posted by Tingkai
            I was hoping you would provide some advice.

            So here's what I have:
            A tnt2 model 64, 16mb, bus type pci
            AMD K-7 500mhz
            256 ram
            windows 98

            So is there any point in a simple upgrade to a 32mb video card? Can I upgrade to a 64 with PCI? Or should I be looking at a complete upgrade?

            The other thing is: Is this the time to do a big upgrade. The computer I have is about three or four years old.

            The other thing is I'm not using this for major graphics games. I just want something middle of the road.
            I would definitely do a big upgrade. You might be able to find a PCI card with 64MB of RAM, but it'd be useless. PCI's memory bandwidth is rather pathetic, AGP has way more. What that means, in layman's terms, is PCI is like sipping a 2L bottle of pop with a tiny straw, and AGP is like chugging it. PCI doesn't cut it for graphics, not even close, which is why AGP exists. Even AGP is getting too slow and is being replaced next year, and it's 8x faster than PCI.

            It's actually fairly cheap to upgrade your computer fully. Look for shops near you like www.memoryexpress.com, you can deck out a very nice computer for about $800CDN.

            For instance, here's an example for how cheap it can be (CDN $):


            And I get a 10% discount on top of all their prices due to having a CS undergrad society membership...
            "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
            Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

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            • #21
              What you need is a Nforce 2 motherboard - Abit the best,, the rest pretty much the same...

              buy an 1700+ athlon, or 1800+ very cheap at the moment actually up to 2600+ it is not very expensive ~80£ for 2600+ while 1700+ is £40... as for gfx card - ati radeon 9000 ~ £40 if you want more expensive try and buy a 128 MB 9500 pro for ~ 135£ that is the best mid range card at the moment that will be good for next 3-4 years hopefully good for playing at low resolutions towards the end ... if not that Radeon 9600 pro should be a decent bet but you have to overclock the card to get most out of it... (around 20-25% more) which is than at 9500pro level or a bit better...

              ok and those ECS K7S5A's are decent motherboards for dirt cheap price... I had one before and it was OK... maybe up to 10% slower with the same specs as an Nforce 2 but still it is ony around30-35£ in UK now compared with minimum 70£ for Nforce 2 so go and make your pick as the prices in your country will very likely have similar distribution
              Socrates: "Good is That at which all things aim, If one knows what the good is, one will always do what is good." Brian: "Romanes eunt domus"
              GW 2013: "and juistin bieber is gay with me and we have 10 kids we live in u.s.a in the white house with obama"

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              • #22
                I recommend NForce2 Asus A7N8X.. get the regular model..the deluxe model costs $30 (US) more.. you can find the regular model for $110 (US).

                OneFoot, has the Euro climbed that high already.. lol... that is probably just killing spending power in Europe.
                For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)

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                • #23
                  Hey I thought you were pissing off Fez.
                  www.my-piano.blogspot

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                  • #24
                    Boddy, don't spam please.

                    This is a computer thread.. meaning you should stay out of it.
                    For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)

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                    • #25
                      OK I will..but you said you were leaving?
                      www.my-piano.blogspot

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                      • #26
                        Originally posted by Boddington's
                        OK I will..but you said you were leaving?
                        A year or so ago and then again a couple of weeks ago, to which dummy spitting incident are you refering?

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                        • #27
                          A couple of weeks ago? I never said I was leaving..

                          About four and half months ago yes.
                          For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)

                          Comment

                          • #28
                            Originally posted by Tingkai


                            I was hoping you would provide some advice.

                            So here's what I have:
                            A tnt2 model 64, 16mb, bus type pci
                            AMD K-7 500mhz
                            256 ram
                            windows 98

                            So is there any point in a simple upgrade to a 32mb video card? Can I upgrade to a 64 with PCI? Or should I be looking at a complete upgrade?

                            The other thing is: Is this the time to do a big upgrade. The computer I have is about three or four years old.

                            The other thing is I'm not using this for major graphics games. I just want something middle of the road.
                            OK TingKai, here are some options - as I'm in the same situation as you, I've got a slightly more realistic perspective.

                            1) That GeForce 4 MX card, in PCI format, will at least let you play some FPS like Max Payne, Red Faction and similar, because there is enough memory on the card. These are all a couple of years old though.

                            2) Have a look inside to see if you have an AGP slot. This is a brown slot, next to the white PCI slots, and I've yet to see a motherboard with 2 of them. If you have an AGP slot (it will be AGP X1) then fitting a GeForce 2 Max or Ultra should give a little bit better performance than a PCI card.

                            Above that, you are looking at changing the motherboard, processor, and that 256Mb of memory. A complete rebuild. First, do you have an AT case? The easiest way to check is unplug the keyboard and look at the connector - if it's a full size DIN (about 1 cm = approximately half inch) in diameter, then yes, you have an AT case. If it's a mini DIN - similar to SVHS connectors on TVs/videos/game consoles (about half centimetre in diamter = approximately quarter inch) then it's an ATX case, and all recent motherboards will fit it.

                            A) Your best option for an AT case would be a motherboard upgrade to a system wit 133MHz RAM is the next step. A Pentium 3 at 700 MHz to 1.3 GHz (or it's cheaper Celeron equivalent) will let you use an AGP X2 card - MOST X4 cards will also work in X2. The PCI bus only works at 33MHz, even AGP X1 works at 66MHz and AGP X2 is 133MHz - so you will still get a huge advantage in gaming power. It's also the cheaper upgrade route, because you will be buying 2nd hand.

                            B) If you have an ATX case, then you can still go P3/Celeron, but AMD Duron/Athlon gives you a better top limit. You could start off with say a 1GHz Duron (and 200MHz DDR memory) and increase it later. However, be careful which motherborad you go for - some are limited to 200MHz DDR memory, many are limited to 266MHz DDR, some will go to 333 or 400 MHz DDR.

                            C) Of course, you could go P4. This will give you the highest system clock rate, the best throughput, and leave the biggest hole in your wallet. As it is not my upgrade path I won't comment further.

                            Hope this helps.
                            Some cry `Allah O Akbar` in the street. And some carry Allah in their heart.
                            "The CIA does nothing, says nothing, allows nothing, unless its own interests are served. They are the biggest assembly of liars and theives this country ever put under one roof and they are an abomination" Deputy COS (Intel) US Army 1981-84

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                            • #29
                              "I've got a 550 AMD"

                              Since Socket A goes all the way up to the barton core (although actual support is stingy)

                              "Can someone explain in layman's terms the terminology of video cards? What's all this stuff about non-pro and PCB?"

                              Pay attention to Clock Speeds, RAMDAC, Make sure it has FSAA, AA 4x, etc. Depending on your board get an AGP Pro, unless your board is older, then just get a version PCI busmaster mode. Slower (66mhz, I beleive)but still good. You can get TnT2, Radeon 9000 or Geforce2 PCI for cheap.


                              Tinkgai, if your buying a newer board (Nforce2 or KT466,etc cs) you should get up to the high end XP 2400-2600. If the board sucks, just get an XP 1800 or something T-bred B core (no palomino unless u want a fire).

                              If your not using windows 98, You should look into a Geforce fX 5200 Or Rad 9500 light-Version, but Nvidia v. ATI thing is really your decison.

                              Comment

                              • #30
                                Originally posted by faded glory
                                "I've got a 550 AMD"

                                Since Socket A goes all the way up to the barton core (although actual support is stingy)
                                that depends Tingkai on whether you have a K7 or a K6-2 like me.

                                The K6-2 is the last line in the Socket 7 series. The K7 is the first of the Socket A.

                                Have a look inside your case. Socket 7 processors are square in outline (it will have a big chunk of metal strapped onto it and a fan on top).

                                Socket A are more like slots - thin rectangles - although it will still have a chunk of metal etc etc.

                                If you have the square socket 7 like me, you will need a motherboard upgrade to get a faster processor.

                                If you have a socket A, then faded glory is quite right and you can put in a Duron or Athlon, although getting one in that configuration can be tricky.

                                Oh yeah, "My computer - Properties" should show your processor type (K7 or K6-3) but it's usually wise to check under the bonnet to make sure.

                                A couple of pictures might help. Both of these are 550AMD processors without the heatsinks and fan;-



                                That's the K6-2. This is the K7 (quite different)

                                Last edited by Cruddy; June 5, 2003, 23:20.
                                Some cry `Allah O Akbar` in the street. And some carry Allah in their heart.
                                "The CIA does nothing, says nothing, allows nothing, unless its own interests are served. They are the biggest assembly of liars and theives this country ever put under one roof and they are an abomination" Deputy COS (Intel) US Army 1981-84

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