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Graphics Card Upgrade
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Posted by: Lain
Hi i want to upgrade my graphics card but have no clue to which one would work in my pc. I'm fairly confident i could install it my self but i'm not so confident i would buy the right one for my pc. I am currently using a NVIDIA Geforce2 MX 32Mb i want to upgrade to a 128Mb card these are my system specs.
Dell Dimension 4300
Pentium 4 1600MHz (L1 cache: 8.00 Kb, L2 cache: 256.0 Kb) Ext.clock: 100 MHz
256 Mb (261 132 Kb) DIMM_A: 256 Mb(SDRAM,Synchronous,7.5 ns)
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX (32.0 Mb): 800 x 600 - True Color (32 bit)
The pc manual says it has a AGP 4X video controller i don't know what other info you would need. Before i install the graphics card i'm going to upgrade my Ram to 1Gb if that makes a difference. Any help would be appreciated.
Posted by: redwench
open the case and see if you have an agp slot. sounds like you do, but you should verify this. it will be the topmost slot and might or might not be occupied by the current graphics card. if it looks different from the other slots, its agp. if its the same, its pci.
buy a 128mb card in either agp or pci, as appropriate.
Posted by: Lain
I opened up the case i do have an AGP slot and is occupied by my graphics card. Can i just buy any agp card or do i have to get an agp 4x only.
Posted by: goranpaa
No, you can use any agp card you like. But choose a 128 or 256 mb memory card.
Just avoid the Geforce MX series.
If you feel that you can afford it. Get Radeon 9800 Pro or the X series.
If you think they are too expensive. Get Radeon 9700 or 9600 XT.
Nvida got some good cards also.
The 6000 series and FX 5900XT and 5950 ultra.
Posted by: Superfly3176
You can buy any video card. Stay away from the 9600 series completely. A 9500 Pro is the best cheap video card out (about 50 from ebay). Stay away from the entire nvidia fx line unless is 5900+.
Heres about the order in nvidia
Ultra=best
GT=2nd
Reg=standard
Xt/le=bad crippled card
Radeon series
XT=best
Pro=2nd best
Regular=standard
SE/LE=worst/crippled
Posted by: Bix VT
 Quote:
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Originally Posted by Superfly3176
Stay away from the entire nvidia fx line unless is 5900+.
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my 5700 Ultra works great, thank you very much.
if I were you I would buy a 6600GT or a 9800pro. both very good cards for the money.
Posted by: GCDude
How much cash have you got to spend might be worth knowing, and if u are happy to go second hand. Thing with getting a nice card like a 6600GT or a 9800 Pro is that the rest of your system will be a bit of a bottleneck. I would suggest using some of your money to get your system memory up to at least 512mb ram.
Posted by: TecH-
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Superfly3176
You can buy any video card. Stay away from the 9600 series completely. A 9500 Pro is the best cheap video card out (about 50 from ebay). Stay away from the entire nvidia fx line unless is 5900+.
Heres about the order in nvidia
Ultra=best
GT=2nd
Reg=standard
Xt/le=bad crippled card
Radeon series
XT=best
Pro=2nd best
Regular=standard
SE/LE=worst/crippled
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My old 5900XT is a very good card and it ran HL2/doom3 on high settings (when I got my 1gig of ram). In the Nvidia ratings XT isnt worst and LE = Limitted edition, take what you want from it. SE = Seccond edition, mostly just means same card with lowerd clock speeds, you can over clock and get the same thing (in most cases).
I would recomend a 9600XT or 5700Ultra it sounds like you dont have the need for a very "Beefy" card, and your system is kind of a bottelneck. Get another 256 ram (or even upgrade to a gig). If you really want a good gaming card go for the 9800Pro or 5950Ultra. There are higher end cards but I wouldnt recomend spending 500$ and putting the card in an AGP x4 slot...
My word of advice is, if you want a good card and dont want to upgrade the MoBo buy a 5700Ultra cheap card and I have seen It work with doom3 on med settings and HL2 on high.
Posted by: goranpaa
Whatever gave you this idea, that XT cards are bad Superfly?
I have tested all the "Difficult" games, like Doom, Halflife, Halo etc. This without any lag or other issues. ( This with 4 X Anti alizing, and 4 X Anisotrophic filtering)
And as the 5900 XT is just a downclocked version of 5950 ultra. So why should this card be bad?
And The FX 5700 ultra, is also a very nice card.
I want to, I can clock my MSI FX 5900 XT to this speed, without issues:
Normal GPU clock speed : 390 MHz
Normal Memory speed : 700 MHz
Optimal over clock frequense:
Gpu: 426 MHZ
Mem clock: 772 MHz
This is how FX 5950 ultra and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro compaires:
FX 5950 Ultra:
Gpu clock speed: 475 MHz
Mem clock speed: 950 MHz
ATI Radeon 9800 pro. 128 mb
Gpu clock speed : 380 MHz
Mem clock speed : 680 MHz
Posted by: Superfly3176
http://www20.graphics.tomshardware....1004/index.html
Watch the FX5900XT bring up the rear on 5900 series cards. Even loses some to the 5800U. Its not really a bad card theres just better. Also if you research on line directx 9 is disabled for hl2 on the FX series of video cards. So The "high" settings are "high" in DirectX 8.1 and not in the shaders that 9.0 produces.
Quote:
This is how FX 5950 ultra and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro compaires:
FX 5950 Ultra:
Gpu clock speed: 475 MHz
Mem clock speed: 950 MHz
ATI Radeon 9800 pro. 128 mb
Gpu clock speed : 380 MHz
Mem clock speed : 680 MHz
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Theres holes in your statement. ATi cards in the 9500 series and up have been proven to do better in directx 9, Than their nvidia counterparts. The clock speeds stated have no real affect to realworld performance.
Also the 5950U uses 256mb of ram while the 9800 pro uses 128mb. This is a rather poor comparison, the 9800pro was meant to face against the 5900, and the 9800xt against the 5950 and 5950U. Look at the vga charts in non-opengl games the previous series of ati cards are on top. Also check out the vga charts III on the site it has more games and uses previous gen cards.
I absolutely believe that the Ati cards of the previous generation (9x00 series vs. FX) had much better value.
Posted by: Bix VT
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Superfly3176
I absolutely believe that the Ati cards of the previous generation (9x00 series vs. FX) had much better value.
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no argument there, except for the 5200Ultra and 5700Ultra. both of the ones I owned overclocked like there was no tomorrow, in fact the 5200U is currently in my old overclocking rig that I sold to my friend. it runs everything he wants it to on med to high settings with no problem. the stock speeds on that thing were 350/650 and I ran it consistantly at 475/800 with no problems whatsoever.
Posted by: Superfly3176
I had an fx5200. It was the worst card i've ever owned. Should have just bought a Ti.
Posted by: Bix VT
that's the truth. I have an FX5200 in my A-XP 2200+ and it performes worse than the GF3 500Ti in my sempron. not to mention it won't let me play starcraft 
Posted by: oderus1671
Download sissoftware sandra and double check that your AGP version will run the newer 8x cards. use the mainboard module tool to check what "x" it will support. i know an 8x will work with a 4x motherbaord, but will run at 4x speeds, so why spend all the extra green for a feature that isnt supported by your motherbaord. you could maybe get a half-decent 4x card cheaper. dunno. i suppose i could be wrong. someone else will know about this more than i.
Posted by: Superfly3176
Its not like you say it is orderus. Not like the card will work at 1/2 speed, it will work at full speed, so its still most definately worth it.
Posted by: goranpaa
Well, I can agree to that compairing a 256 mb card to a 128 whas slightly unfair.
And I, dont think that 9800 pro is a bad card in any way! On the contrary.
And I'm sure, that if I at that time for about 1 1/2 year ago could afford to buy a 9800 pro.
I would for sure have done so. But then, the 9800 Pro whas quite expensive.
And I have come to like this card!
But when it's time to upgrade my video card, The problems are even bigger. Now that I have the 6000 series from Nvidia, the X600 and X800 series from ATI + The PCI express stuff, to consider.
What in H..ll, should one choose for upgrade?
Should I get a 6600GT? Or wait and save up the money to get a PCI Express rig?
I really dont know?
Posted by: redwench
no 4x card around is worth buying for gaming. they just dont make something like a 9800 in 4x. everything after a gf4 is 4x/8x.
Posted by: kyle_katarn3
Pah, personally, I like my 9600Pro. Aside from the fact that I broke my original and had to get a new one under warranty, it has served me very well
Posted by: Superfly3176
Quote:
But when it's time to upgrade my video card, The problems are even bigger. Now that I have the 6000 series from Nvidia, the X600 and X800 series from ATI + The PCI express stuff, to consider.
What in H..ll, should one choose for upgrade?
Should I get a 6600GT? Or wait and save up the money to get a PCI Express rig?
I really dont know?
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No problems yet. All the newer video cards have been ported to agp. 6800 and x800 series except the lower series like x700, 6200 w/ turbocache.
Posted by: Lain
Thanks for all the advice i went with a ati radeon 9550 250 mb. I didn't want to get an expensive card for this pc i'm just going for good enough. Because as soon as i learn how i wana build a gaming rig, then ill start thinking about the high-end cards.
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