Getting a new graphics card.... advice? =)

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 5:52 am

I run with a Ti4600. I love it. I trust nVidia more than I trust ATI, so personally I'd go with RW and say take the FX, but it's your money, do some research, make the call.

However, based on your money situation, I say you wait a month or two until the major bills are out of the way and you can put down some more cash for an even better card.

Mad Max is right though, it's also a matter of the shape of the rest of your system. If your computer is running an 800mHz processor with 128 megs of pc 100 ram... I suggest you work on that before you spend the big bucks on a new graphics card.

ExtremeDrinker · Post by **ExtremeDrinker** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 1:33 pm

My third system was a PIII 500, 1GB PC133 RAM..I tossed in the Ti500, and I was playing Morrowind, Quake III and Unreal Tournament with no problems....Probably just because I had a shit-ton of RAM...But still...Older systems, when properly beefed up can do well with decent video cards..

Hell, if anything, you would be able to play The Sims of Sim City 3000 like a breath of fresh air on an old system. But who really wants to play those anymore...Hmm..

I'm in the habit of playing old, pre-1995 DOS games lately. Actually, Doom(sday) is pretty sweet..I love these Open GL projects for old games. Can't wait for a good Duke3D Open GL project to blow me away.

MurPHy · Post by **MurPHy** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 4:35 pm

Does anybody still use a really old videocard like me? I'm using a Geforce 2 MX 400 w/ 32MB of SDRAM. Battlefield 1942 and Call of Duty barely runs. Does anybody else have this problem?

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 6:48 pm

I've got a Radeon 8500LE 64MB, and I can run BF1942, NWN, KOTOR, UT2K3, Halo, Max Payne 2.......

My system is beefed up tho.

Forty-six & Two · Post by **Forty-six & Two** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 8:14 pm

MurPHy wrote:Does anybody still use a really old videocard like me? I'm using a Geforce 2 MX 400 w/ 32MB of SDRAM. Battlefield 1942 and Call of Duty barely runs. Does anybody else have this problem?

I got a GeForce 3 with 64 Ram. Thats why I need a new one =).

MurPHy · Post by **MurPHy** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:51 pm

Forty-six & Two wrote:MurPHy wrote:
Does anybody still use a really old videocard like me? I'm using a Geforce 2 MX 400 w/ 32MB of SDRAM. Battlefield 1942 and Call of Duty barely runs. Does anybody else have this problem?

I got a GeForce 3 with 64 Ram. Thats why I need a new one =).

Yeah. Unlike you though, I haven't got the greenbacks for a new video card. But if I ever scrape together enough cash, I'll either go with a Radeon 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro.

s4ur0n27 wrote:I've got a Radeon 8500LE 64MB, and I can run BF1942, NWN, KOTOR, UT2K3, Halo, Max Payne 2.......

My system is beefed up tho.

Mine isn't. I've got a 1GHz AMD Athlon T-Bird under the hood with 192MB of PC100 SDRAM. I overclocked it to 1.1GHz, but that hasn't helped much.

Doyle · Post by **Doyle** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:25 am

Unless you plan on upgrading the rest of the thing shortly thereafter, putting a 9700/9800 in that would be a waste of money.

MurPHy · Post by **MurPHy** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:41 am

Doyle wrote:Unless you plan on upgrading the rest of the thing shortly thereafter, putting a 9700/9800 in that would be a waste of money.

I'm sorry for not explaning that part.

And now I will unveil my upgrading master plan *trumpets sound*.

I have a good upgrade motherboard, a K7S5A from ECS, so I will upgrade the 1GHz T-Bird with a 2400+ XP CPU (I think it uses the Thouroughbred B core, but I might be mistaken).

My motherboard can use the 2600+, but only at a FSB speed of 266MHz, and boxed versions of those became impossible to find many months ago. The 333MHz FSB version completely replaced the older 266MHz FSB version. I have seen OEM 2600s for sale online, but there is no real guarantee that the thing won't be DOA (for me, anyway). So scratch that. The 2400+ running at 2.0GHz will have to do.

As for the RAM, I am again blessed with a good upgrade mobo. It supports SDR SDRAM as well as DDR SDRAM (But not both at the same time, of course). So I'll get a stick of 512MB PC-2100 DDR SDRAM from www.crucial.com (Micron's sales division), and that will be that.

Everything else is hunky-dory at the moment, so after this upgrade (along with the previously mentioned videocard), My rig will run fine like this for a few more years.