Jump to content

Which Graphic Card


rickytheanuj

Recommended Posts

In most cases it´s better to sell what you have now and get a complete new one.

As always you're right! :yes:

Not that a new box has to be expensive, it's pretty amazing what you can put together for $300-ish. Yes, it might be ~$250 more than you'd spend on the vid card alone, but you'd get a system with USB2/SATA/PCI-e, tons more RAM and likely a dual core CPU (and faster bus, more L2, etc) which could actually be upgraded later unlike socket 478, better audio/NIC and so on. A video card by itself won't make much of a change, unless you're just looking to play some older games that your onboard video doesn't handle very well.

On a side note, I got a kit of Buffalo 2x2GB of DDR2 800MHz CL4 for $37 CAD last week ($30 USD), whereas the cheapest stick of 256MB of PC133 is $41, or $85/ea if you want 512MB'ers! Yes, more for a single 512MB stick of PC133 than 4x2GB of decent fast DDR2 (8GB total). Keeping old computers just costs way too much IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Don't know why SD RAM costs so much everywhere else in the world but Australia and on the other hand DDR2 RAM costs more here than most other places. What a dumb setup :wacko:

Here you go: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/512MB-Virtium-Memor...%3A1|240%3A1318

Nice cheap 512MB stick of SD RAM that will ship internationally for AU $5!

Another one: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/512-MB-133Mhz-SDRAM...%3A1|240%3A1318

Brand new 512MB stick cheap!

I don't think you have been looking very hard CoffeeFiend :whistle:

But yes I would go and build a new budget beast PC if I was planning on using the PC for modern programs but people don't realize not everyone wants to play that new game on max settings on a 24 inch monitor or run that advanced programming program etc. If it is just to play some older games, watch videos, and surf the web then the OP's PC will be fine once it has upgraded RAM and a better graphics card.

EDIT: LOL you can buy eight 256MB sticks of Samsung PC133 SD RAM here for just AU $85!

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/8-x-256Mb-PC133-SDR...%3A1|240%3A1318

Edited by Zenskas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes okay, those memories are cheap. Why? They just don't work on normal boards (that's the 5UAD one (ECC, buffered), and the 10AUD one is High-Density so it might see only half of the 512MB or not even boot up.

The last 8x 256MB one is nice by the way, those should work.

Still waiting for the anwer why a add-on video card is needed ;).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oops did not see that sorry (although you do say might not work with all boards, and the $5 one does not say in the listing that it is ECC). But I have seen plenty of 256MB SD RAM sticks for that same price. Like I said, I got 2x256MB SD RAM for $10. It is not hard to find them if you take a look.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/256MB-2-x-128MB-168...%3A1|240%3A1318

Or bid on: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SAMSUNG-1GB-2x512-P...%3A1|240%3A1318

Or if you want 2GB: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SAMSUNG-2GB-4X512MB...%3A1|240%3A1318

Or 1GB: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SAMSUNG-1GB-2X512MB...%3A1|240%3A1318

Took me all of 5mins to find these items. I'm sure one of these will work and is a lot cheaper than the prices CoffeeFiend posted.

Edited by Zenskas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a dumb setup

Not really. Offer & demand, economies of scale. There's no demand, nobody stocks it as it just sits on shelves, so everybody buys it in small quantities (so high prices) and so on. It actually makes perfect sense. DDR3 is significantly cheaper than PC133 over here (e.g. Corsair XMS3 TW3X4G1333C9DHX 4GB DDR3 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Dual Kit is $75, which is still $10 less than the cheapest 512MB stick of PC133)

I don't think you have been looking very hard CoffeeFiend :whistle:

I'm talking about local prices at reputable stores, pretty much anywhere in North America, and for decent quality stuff as much as possible. Not no-name, high density stuff that likely won't work or won't be completely seen, that still costs me half the price of the 4GB kit, needs me to register for paypal, wait a week+ for international delivery, customs clearance and all, assuming the seller can be trusted in the first place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So your saying there is no demand for DDR2 here? It is the most popular form of RAM in Australia and is cheaper than both DDR1 and DDR3 yet not cheaper than buying it in America or Canada and PC 133 is. So everyone here in Aus still buys SD RAM off the shelves all of the time? I am merely saying that you can get cheap PC 133 RAM and if that along with a better video card is all the OP needs (and he doesn't need to do anything intensive...which I doubt otherwise he would have a better PC by now) then you can cheaply upgrade it.

EDIT: BTW since you don't live in Australia, you wouldn't know anything about the "setup" they have going on here. In a local store they were going to charge me $300 for the motherboard in my sig. I got it for $200 brand new from an Australian online shop. So if the online shop still makes some profit, then how much is my local store making? There is no demand for this mobo, yet I still found it so much cheaper. If you are willing to wait a week and trust the seller then it is much cheaper. And plenty of people sell PC 133 RAM second hand nice and cheap. It would help if the OP tells us what the PC is for though. If it is for some classic gaming, DVD movies, surfing the web and MS office then would you still recommend going through the process of finding and buying a new PC, then transferring files and setting everything to the way it was?

Edited by Zenskas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, okay, guys, chill out, both of you... I get the odd feeling that ol' banhammer's gonna slip out of Coffee's hands any second now ;)

Topic's about a graphics card. Memory, yes, could be useful, but seriously: SDR on a Pentium 4? I didn't even think it was possible (Pentium 4's are native QDR... which brainiac at Intel thought to put SDR capabilities in a chipset?!). But just getting graphics duties offloaded from the main RAM to a video card would boost performance.

If you're web browsing or emailing on this system, a modern ATI Rage XL PCI video card would work very well. They're still manufactured due to demand in servers and low-intensity use, and they're more than suitable for everyday browsing and Youtubing. They have about the power of your integrated graphics, but free up the northbridge and system RAM for other things.

If you're doing anything more, an FX5200 PCI is the old standard. Cool, reliable, and very capable of many decent games (you can even play Portal on it... if your RAM can handle it).

Oh, and by the way... AGP has been around since the Pentium II's 443 chipset... they just decided not to put AGP slots on this board to save money. It's not "just old". ;)

edit: botched link

Edited by Volatus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it is for some classic gaming, DVD movies, surfing the web and MS office then would you still recommend going through the process of finding and buying a new PC, then transferring files and setting everything to the way it was?
Depends what a person sees under "classic", if it's games from before 2004/2005 he can still use his PC with 512MB of RAM or so. If he plays newer games he will end up with something that can't pull it for sure. For DVD and other home/office apps that machine will work as it is although the integrated video isn't playing MPEG/XViD/DiVX/H.264 smooth, better forget HD movies :P.
a modern ATI Rage XL PCI video card would work very well.
Not for MPEG/XViD/DiVX/H.264 ;).

PS. Why would any one swing "The Hammer"? I don't see any insulting words here...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends what a person sees under "classic", if it's games from before 2004/2005 he can still use his PC with 512MB of RAM or so. If he plays newer games he will end up with something that can't pull it for sure. For DVD and other home/office apps that machine will work as it is although the integrated video isn't playing MPEG/XViD/DiVX/H.264 smooth, better forget HD movies :P.
a modern ATI Rage XL PCI video card would work very well.
Not for MPEG/XViD/DiVX/H.264 ;).

Yeah classic meaning anything before 2005 would run on a 6200. Newer games aren't classic yet ;) I doubt he does play newer games though or a new vid card would have come a while ago.

The integrated graphics could handle even older classic games, like pre-2002 but for 2002-2005 it would struggle depending on the game. Definitely 512MB RAM would help heaps with every program on the PC though.

The ATI card Volatus recommended would be even slower in the games and the only benefit of buying that would be to take the load off the system RAM. A 5200 would be better, so I'm glad he recommended that too.

EDIT: I would definitely not buy that 5200 when I saw the much more powerful 6200 for a few dollars more!

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-256-P1-N399-LX-...FC4VS1MWFFSW0ZN

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-256-P1-N400-LR-...=dp_ob_title_ce

There is two 6200's for ya!

Or: http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-512-P1-N724-LR-...W6XS7DZ6YY3V3FT

Twice as powerful as a 6200! More memory, shader processors, faster core and memory clock, directx 10 and open gl 3 support!

Edited by Zenskas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

nVidia 8400GS/512MB isn't bad indeed, but if someone spends that much on a PCI card than I would go for an ATI 2400pro 256MB; better video features and performance although 1080/720 it will not play smoothly.

The best ATI: PowerColor Radeon HD 2400 PRO 450MHz, 256MB DDR2 | http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_...?ProductID=1715
Indeed.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep that ATI is pretty good, but HD movies will run better on a geforce 8 series card. I'm just an nvidia guy for several reasons, some of the same reasons are outlined here:

http://www.tweakguides.com/Hardcon09_6.html

Go down below the game screenshots and there is a heap of reasons why this guy chose an nvidia card over an ATI card. There is a lot on driver issues and the entire bit below the game screenshots, of his PC running different games, is quite interesting.

Edited by Zenskas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to read that but I can't believe it; ATI makes better drivers than nVidia does and lot's of us will confirm that. The 8400GS can't pull HD content either. Either way, any pick he will made between a 2400pro or 8400GS would be a huge improvement over the GMA900 he has now :).

EDIT: That guy is clearly still green behind the ears when it comes to computer technology although he is buying parts for 10 years now. Believe me, nVidia isn't even coming close to ATI when it´s about stability of drivers. The noise that a card makes does not depend on the maker of the GPU but on how cheap a video card builder wants' to ship his product and there can be found a lot of flavors of video cards with way better coolers than the stock ATI design, also the nVidia stock cooler is noisy as hell. I would not care less if it's noisy or not when I'm playing a game with my speakers dusting off or with my headphones on. By the way, ATI cards use less juice then nVidia cards, that as a side note.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ATI makes better drivers than nVidia

QFT.

I just got rid of a GeForce 8xxx series card, and it ALWAYS sucked HARD. No matter which drivers are used. Even onboard ATI 3200 (780G) is WORLDS better.

With nvidia, expect this almost daily:

nvidiafail.png

And those every couple weeks:

nvidiard7.th.pngthpix.gif

BTW, it also TOTALLY sucked for HD. Much higher CPU load than both ATI card types I got... Their claims of off-loading to the GPU are borderline fraudulent (IMO). Their video decoding assist's never actually worked, using any OS (XP x86, Vista x86, Vista x64 or Win7 x64)/any vers of drivers/any H.264 codec combination. Nevermind some video quality issues in PowerDVD (severe red blotching -- again, using any drivers, any video renderer, etc). Overall, it's been utter crap since day one. Quite possibly the worst video card I've ever had.

I moved to a nice Radeon and all the problems are solved! I wish I had never even bothered. No more nvidia garbage ever again, unless they're the very last manufacturer left and I have no choice at all. nvidia is also very well known for very poor drivers for other devices. I wouldn't want of a GTX 295 even if it was free.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...