Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:14 am Post subject: Need Some Input on Video cards
I know this is a pc question and I did post it there yesterday but Not sure how much traffic they get over there now days and I know some of you are prety sharp on the comp stuff. so Reposting here as well.
The current card in my pc is a cheap old nvidia card that is going bad and I am looking on ebay for something to replace it. Im not an expert on the cards but it is easy to look them up to see their individual specs and performance compaired to one another so im ok on that. At the very bottom is a pic of my current dying card a Nvidia FX 5500, I have seen other FX 5500 cards but they dont look like mine, I think I got the ghetto version.
Where I am a little confused and concerned is on the subject of compatability.
I am a little concerned I will get a card and find it is not compatable with my pc or maybe too much for my pc to handle.
I was hoping you guys could tell me what to look out for on a card or what to avoid to make sure I dont get something incompatable.
I believe if your mobo is set to use ddr ram, then ddr3 would not be compatable with that mobo right? So is there anything like that for a video card and mobo? Or maybe a processor is not able to keep up with a better video card so a better card might not actualy make the games any smoother? I dont know.
I have both pci and apg slots so other than that is there anything I should look out for?
I will list some info about my crapy pc and mobo below, if you see anything I need to look out for as far as video cards and this set up please post and give me a heads up.
Computer....
HP Pavilion A700n
Processor AMD Athlon XP 2.1 GHz
Socket Type Socket A
Joined: Apr 17, 2007 Posts: 2876 Location: Oregon, USA
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:34 am Post subject:
You will for sure want to get an AGP card, those blow PCI out of the water. CPU and ram does not affect the video cards at all, speed is only determinded by the slot type (AGP for you, which is middle of the line now adays). A good high end card would be something like this:http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1642902&CatId=318 _________________
gamexxover 360-HQ Freak
Joined: Feb 17, 2007 Posts: 676
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:48 am Post subject:
Thanks, thats actualy something like I am looking at getting. Another card I was looking at for not much more offers 512mb onboard ram, would that make much of a difference? It also will support the direct x10 which I hear is pretty sweet. I would like to go for something like that if my if the rest of my computer could keep up, what do you think? Here is the card below. I have the AMD Athlon XP 2.1 GHz cpu and will have 1gb ram. But it says it has ddr2 memory and my ram is ddr, that would be bad?
And again hope im not upsetting anyone by posting this in the lounge, its just the guys that are on here regular are on the ball. If I was more knowledgable on PC's I would go over there and help a bit. _________________ "BUT YOUR HONOR,...GTA IV MADE ME DO IT!" http://www.coasttocoastam.com
dartht33bagger V.I.P. Member
Joined: Apr 17, 2007 Posts: 2876 Location: Oregon, USA
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:55 am Post subject:
I'm a Nvidia man myself so I don't know much about the different ATI cards. It looks pretty good, and you can never go wrong with 512MB of ram. _________________
gamexxover 360-HQ Freak
Joined: Feb 17, 2007 Posts: 676
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:08 am Post subject:
Thanks, Realy apreciate the input, The one on the link you sent me looks pretty great for the price, and blows my currnt card out of the water.
My little brother likes to play stuff like Star Wars galaxies, but with the current cart it runs at a low laggy frame rate even with all the graphics turned all the way down, and the card is going bad causing objects in game to streatch across the screen, you can be in one room and everything looks great, go into another and you cant see anything because there is an object in the room being streatched causing a wall. or outside a rock on the ground will streatch all the way to the sky, multiply this over many rocks and it looks like you are in a forrest. _________________ "BUT YOUR HONOR,...GTA IV MADE ME DO IT!" http://www.coasttocoastam.com
frozenfire1 Administrator
Joined: Jul 01, 2006 Posts: 1335 Location: Calgary Alberta Canada
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:11 am Post subject:
Nvidia is the way to go, if you have PCI-E, if you have AGP then you will want an ATI to play on higher settings, if your looking to play galaxies on high then this will do fine
my mouth is watering looking at all these cards! That first one looks pretty nice!, the second is a little scary looking at the reviews on some of the dificulty on the drivers, the 3rd is nice but trying to keep under $100 on this old computer, when I get a new computer it will be another story,
I will take your word on the ATI for AGP and I like the price on the first link. Thanks
I am curious about the Key on the cards that plug into the AGP slot, the ones you guys gave me on links to have 2 teeth, a wider one and a shorter one to its right, My card I use has 3 teeth or slots in the key, Im assuming the agp bus or slot on the mother board will accept ither configuration?
Ill post back once I get something installed. _________________ "BUT YOUR HONOR,...GTA IV MADE ME DO IT!" http://www.coasttocoastam.com
frozenfire1 Administrator
Joined: Jul 01, 2006 Posts: 1335 Location: Calgary Alberta Canada
Just an update, I have decided to get the card below as a replacement for my fx 5500 card that is dying on me, Do to my low power output of my psu, I have decided to just replace the bad card for now and get a great card when I upgrade my PC, It realy cant handle anything more powerful right now with out upgrading other components, and figure it would be better to just get a new PC. So for now I am going with a used fx 5700 ultra I purchased for $34, $30 less than I payed for the 5500 and it should run circles arround it as well.
Just an update, I have decided to get the card below as a replacement for my fx 5500 card that is dying on me, Do to my low power output of my psu, I have decided to just replace the bad card for now and get a great card when I upgrade my PC, It realy cant handle anything more powerful right now with out upgrading other components, and figure it would be better to just get a new PC. So for now I am going with a used fx 5700 ultra I purchased for $34, $30 less than I payed for the 5500 and it should run circles arround it as well.
i had a 5700 ultra great card (good solid card) and it should do great till you update your PC...... _________________
gamexxover 360-HQ Freak
Joined: Feb 17, 2007 Posts: 676
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:54 am Post subject:
Quote:
i had a 5700 ultra great card (good solid card) and it should do great till you update your PC......
Thats what I like to hear. _________________ "BUT YOUR HONOR,...GTA IV MADE ME DO IT!" http://www.coasttocoastam.com
IrishGunner 360-HQ Elite Member
Joined: May 13, 2008 Posts: 326
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:20 pm Post subject:
My buddy has the 8800 ultra, and he swears by it. He is going to put another one in just cuz he can.
gamexxover 360-HQ Freak
Joined: Feb 17, 2007 Posts: 676
Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:05 pm Post subject:
UPDATE
The FX 5700 ultra arrived in the mail today, it looked better than I thought, looked brand new to me.
I noticed right off how heavy it is compaired to my 5500, you can see in the pics below the size difference as well.
First thing I had to deal with was the fact that the 5700 requires a power connector to be pluged into it (unlike the 5500) from the PSU. after putting the 5700 into its slot I had no connector that could reach it, the closest was about 6 inches away. So I had to do some slick cutting of wires and some fancy splicing to make an extension. It came out to be JUST long enough.
so now came powering the PC back up. I was a bit nervous first of all this being a used card, second, my psu at 250w was at the very bottom min of the suggested requirements for the card.
Powered up the pc, it did not shut down and I got a picture, so good so far.
went to nvidia web page and downloaded the latest drivers and restarted the pc.
no problems and everything works great! Even have the video card controll panel now that I did not have with the 5500.
The 5500 had 256mb ddr, the 5700 is 128mb ddr2.
I did not have any high end games to test frame rates to compair the better performance. But I did have Delta Force Extreme. so put in the game and played with the graphics options allong with FRAPS to see what kind of frame rates I would get.
my pc with no card on lowest graphics and res got...8-12 fps
My old 5500 when new at lowest graphics settings and resolution gave me an average of 22-26 fps.
the 5700 on highest graphics settings and res got about 23 fps avg. about the same as the 5500 at the lowest settings.
the 5700 with game settings low gave me and average of 62 fps. But keeping the graphics all the way up and lowering the screen res size back to what I am used to I got about 52fps. Not bad
and now all the crazy screen artifacts are gone and everything looks like it should. Not bad for $25 plus $9 shipping. This will hold me over till I get a new pc built.
By the way, thanks for the assistance guys. _________________ "BUT YOUR HONOR,...GTA IV MADE ME DO IT!" http://www.coasttocoastam.com
frozenfire1 Administrator
Joined: Jul 01, 2006 Posts: 1335 Location: Calgary Alberta Canada
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