new graphics card

[frenchfry164]

I have a SiS 530 8MB graphics card, and it sux. The most I have ever got with any game is 23 FPS. The actual graphics aren't that bad, just too slow. I was wondering how much a GeForce 2 32MB PCI card would help. Since it is PCI, it would probably still run slow, but I don't have any AGP ports. I was wondering if I should buy a Verto GeForce2 32MB PCI card, or if I should spend a little extra to get a GeForce 3. 4 is too expensive.

[The Junglist]

Spend a little extra and get the GeForce 3.

[TravisS]

A GeForce 4 MX is too expensive? They are less than $70 a lot of the time. But if I were you I'd get a GeForce 3 Ti series.

[frenchfry164]

I don't want to spend $80 unless I have to. I mean I can get a GeForce3 Ti with better performance than the GeForce 4 MX any day.

[TravisS]

Originally posted by frenchfry164
I don't want to spend $80 unless I have to. I mean I can get a GeForce3 Ti with better performance than the GeForce 4 MX any day.
Originally posted by TravisS
...But if I were you I'd get a GeForce 3 Ti series.

I agree with you :D

[eats only heads]

I belive that a geforce 2 is the top of the line pci graphics card. After that they are all agp

[OneStiffRod]

Just check out www.pricewatch.com

there you can get...

GeForce4 440 MX 64MB $41
GeForce3 TI 200 64MB $69
GeForce2 MX400 128MB $50

[Tommaso]

If you only have an 8 meg card, your system is pretty old and your most likely better off buying a new system. If you do go the new card route, then I suggest AGP, but if you only have PCI then get a 32 meg. Any make of 32 meg PCI will be an enourmous improvement to what you have now. Actual tests show that AGP is faster then PCI, but not by as much as you may think. Obviously if you speed test the two with a new AGP and a very old PCI your not going to get those results. But for year to year comparisons, PCI performance is very close to that of AGP.

[frenchfry164]

eats only heads: you are wrong. they make GeForce 4's with PCI and I've seen a few Radeons with PCI support.

Okay let me explain my situation. I am on a 500MHz AMD K6 system with 184 MB of RAM. I ran a benchmark test on my system and everything was okay but the graphics was terrible. I only got 13 FPS on the DirectDraw test and 8 on the Basic Direct3D test. The complex Direct3D test ran at 0.6 FPS. I saw the benchmark of another computer, also with a K6, but their clock speed was only 407 MHz, and they only had 64MB of RAM, and they had a TNT2 graphics card and they got 32 FPS on the DirectDraw, 30 FPS on basic Direct3D, and 16 FPS on complex Direct3D. TNT2 is OLD and it ran faster AND their comp had 93 less megahertz and 120 less MB of RAM than I do. Oh, and they only had a 66 MHz FSB where I have a 100. Something is wrong here. Hmmmm, must be the cheap ass onboard offbrand graphics card!

edit: oh, and AGP 4X has almost double the bandwidth of PCI.
another edit: that GeForce MX card you suggested is for AGP. I saw another one for PCI, but it was $90. I guess I'm going to have to use an old TNT2 or Voodoo card, at least I can get SOME speed with games. That way my games won't peak out at 10 FPS.

[OneStiffRod]

Even my old board has an AGP slot - are you sure you don't have one?

[frenchfry164]

I'm positive because my dad's friend gave him a GeForce 3 Ti300 AGP card and when we opened up our case (this was the first time we opened the case. I knew nothing about our computer, since my stupid dad bought it without asking me, he thinks he knows everything about computers but he is a complete dumbass) there were only PCI and ISA slots in there. I almost puched my dad in the nose! Who the heck used ISA slots? Well there were two of them in there and 4 PCI slots.

[frenchfry164]

I just got a Maddog Prowler GeForce 4 MX440SE with 64MB of DDR RAM (333MHz). It's VERY nice. I thought my games would speed up to be playable, but now I'm running all my games with the highest detail settings, anisotropic filtering and high anti-aliasing running 1024x768 resolution. The whole rest of my computer is sped up as well. Windows starts up faster (I never would've imagined), programs display their windows a lot faster, GDI runs faster than DirectX used to with my old system (that Space Shooterz game is so fast now it's hardly playable, I keep getting the crap shot out of me), I can switch resolutions faster, just to put it simply, almost everything is faster. I'm about to redo my comp from scratch (format the HD and reinstall windows xp) so I'll get a little bit more speed.

I love all the features it adds to the advanced menu in display properties:D

The only problem really is I need more cooling now. It's slowing down the processor a LITTLE bit. I used to have 499 MHz, now I'm down to 490, I can't tell the difference, my system is actually running faster now. I ran a benchmark program b4 installing the card (PerformanceTest 4.0), I had a 37.5 average score (which is terrible) and after I installed the new card I got a 50.1, which is what most computers get at 800 MHz. Man, I can't imagine how fast a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 is.

[TravisS]

Now imagine a Radeon 9700, or the upcoming GeForce FX. Hehe

[Govtcheez]

> Maddog Prowler GeForce 4 MX440SE

They make a PCI version of that?

[Gades]

Your computer must be a really cheap version (no offence here).

I have a Celeron 333, which has PCI slots, ISA and AGP. When I first bought it (not my dad )I was smart/lucky enough to spend the extra 50 dollars (I don't remember exactly the amount, but more or less) so that it came with a 16 MB Vodoo. Thanks to that I always could play all the games that I had, and the whole computer was quite fast at that time.

Definetly, whenever you buy a system, you'd better go for a slightly slower CPU and a better graphics card.

[frenchfry164]

he didn't even tell me he was going out to buy it, he just went out and did. I was VERY ........ed at him.

The reason there is no AGP is because it has on-board graphics. They expect people not to upgrade it's crappy graphics, because anyone stupid enough to buy it probably don't even know what a graphics card is :D

Man, I can't wait until I get a job. Screw buying speakers or crap a lot of other stupid preppy kids buy, I'm building me a computer!

I hate this damned computer. I mean I can play games now, but nothing ID material, except for Quake 2 or 3. RTCW I have to turn a lot of graphics card stuff down, and turn a lot of the stuff down in the game, but now I can actually play it!

Govtcheese: I guess they make a PCI version because it says PCI on the box, and it plugs into my PCI slot :p. Oh, and BTW, they make GF4 MX series cards with PCI interface, but not the Ti's (but who would put a Ti card on a PCI slot anyways?)

[Gades]

frenchfry164, if you decide to invest some more, you coud try to get more RAM. It must be incredible cheap at the moment, for an old system. With the RAM and the Graphic Card, your system should be really efficient/fast.

About building your own computer: whenever you do, just make sure that the graphics card and the mother board are compatible 100%.

[frenchfry164]

I already got a 128 MB stick ordered, just a matter of time b4 I get it. It's really cheap, it just uses PC100 RAM. This will be my second RAM upgrade, and it'll just about max out my motherboard (my motherboard can hold 320MB RAM).