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How to Shop for a Graphics Card? 1
- Thread starter bilebalar
- Start date
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1
- #2
bilebalar
Just the motherboard really but if you just give us your specs we will advise.
CPU
Motherboard
Ram
HDD
Operating system
What you want the card to do
Price range
Martin
Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.
Just the motherboard really but if you just give us your specs we will advise.
CPU
Motherboard
Ram
HDD
Operating system
What you want the card to do
Price range
Martin
Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.
The motherboard of course if the biggest factor, but others like the speed of your CPU play an important role telling you how high-end you should go. You need to have a decently fast processor to take advantage of the faster cards.
~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
- Thread starter
- #4
The FIC AZ11EA has the Via KT133 chipset with 200front side bus so basically Thunderbird CPU's upto the 1.4 (200fsb version) 4x AGP slot, SDram
Because of the motherboards age, memory type and older AGP bus version, any modern performance card is going to be seriously bottle necked by this platform, you may also have compatibility problems.
My suggestion would be to go for an older graphics card type but one that would have been top of it's range ie:
Geforce 3 Ti500
Radeon 8500
GF4 4200Ti
Most are still more powerful than modern, lower end cards but obviously with less compatibility issues.
a Geforce 3 Ti500 for instance will soundly outperform a geforce FX5200 in most games.
Look on somewhere like ebay where these cards are still available refurb OEM at knock down prices.
Martin
Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.
Because of the motherboards age, memory type and older AGP bus version, any modern performance card is going to be seriously bottle necked by this platform, you may also have compatibility problems.
My suggestion would be to go for an older graphics card type but one that would have been top of it's range ie:
Geforce 3 Ti500
Radeon 8500
GF4 4200Ti
Most are still more powerful than modern, lower end cards but obviously with less compatibility issues.
a Geforce 3 Ti500 for instance will soundly outperform a geforce FX5200 in most games.
Look on somewhere like ebay where these cards are still available refurb OEM at knock down prices.
Martin
Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.
I threw a 9600se in last week.
Motherboard - MSI K7t Turbo2
Memory - 512 Mb PC133
Processor - XP2400+ @ 142x15
...and it worked just fine which means that a better card (9600, 9600pro or 9600xt) would also function on this board. I didn't see the benefit of a nicer card on this old machine and bought locally in case it didn't work.
Eighty bucks at my local PCClub freed up my old ATI 7200 for a giveaway machine and I can play FarCry at higher settings after overclocking the card and voiding my warranty. It played the same game at medium settings out of the box. Not too bad for a three year old machine and minimal money.
Skip
Motherboard - MSI K7t Turbo2
Memory - 512 Mb PC133
Processor - XP2400+ @ 142x15
...and it worked just fine which means that a better card (9600, 9600pro or 9600xt) would also function on this board. I didn't see the benefit of a nicer card on this old machine and bought locally in case it didn't work.
Eighty bucks at my local PCClub freed up my old ATI 7200 for a giveaway machine and I can play FarCry at higher settings after overclocking the card and voiding my warranty. It played the same game at medium settings out of the box. Not too bad for a three year old machine and minimal money.
Skip
SkipCox
Although old, the setup you compare to bilebalar's has some major performance advantages:
An XP2.4+ CPU for instance
KT133A chipset compared to KT133, yours has ATA100 interface (not ATA66)
Nevertheless it is useful to know that the Radeon you have, works on a near comparible platform so in theory similar Radeon's should be OK with bilebalar's rig.
Given this info something like an ATI 9500/9600 might be a good choice even though it will seriously bottlenecked it will offer the oportunity to go with a future upgrade where it will get it's ideal 8X AGP interface.
Martin
Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.
Although old, the setup you compare to bilebalar's has some major performance advantages:
An XP2.4+ CPU for instance
KT133A chipset compared to KT133, yours has ATA100 interface (not ATA66)
Nevertheless it is useful to know that the Radeon you have, works on a near comparible platform so in theory similar Radeon's should be OK with bilebalar's rig.
Given this info something like an ATI 9500/9600 might be a good choice even though it will seriously bottlenecked it will offer the oportunity to go with a future upgrade where it will get it's ideal 8X AGP interface.
Martin
Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.
- Thread starter
- #8
The brand doesn't matter as much, but the two cards you compared aren't the same. The XT version isn't even in the same league as the SE. Check the chart on this page:
With a 175MHz jump on engine clock and 200MHz on memory, not to mention going from a 64-bit to 128-bit interface, you can bet that there would be a huge difference in performance between the two. Again it probably won't matter too much which one you go with, since a lot of the bottleneck will be the CPU and RAM in your system.
~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
With a 175MHz jump on engine clock and 200MHz on memory, not to mention going from a 64-bit to 128-bit interface, you can bet that there would be a huge difference in performance between the two. Again it probably won't matter too much which one you go with, since a lot of the bottleneck will be the CPU and RAM in your system.
~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
Glad cdogg cleared up the performance difference between the different card models...well explained. And, as paparazi suggested, either the 9500 or 9600 would be a better choice than the 9600se I bought.
The price difference does reflect the qualilty and performance of the different cards.
Skip
The price difference does reflect the qualilty and performance of the different cards.
Skip
bilebalar
SE stands for "slow edition" well at least thats what they are generally regarded as being, with around half the performance of a Pro or XT version.
A straight version (just 9500 or 9600) might be best value for you.
Martin
Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.
SE stands for "slow edition" well at least thats what they are generally regarded as being, with around half the performance of a Pro or XT version.
A straight version (just 9500 or 9600) might be best value for you.
Martin
Start by questioning and soon you will be answering.
So please take but remember to return and give when you can.
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