Currently running a g4 mx440 128mb, on a biostar m7vkd motherboard, with a 1k athalon processer, 512 pc133 sdramm, win98se.

I want to upgrade to a better video card. I am considering g4 ti4600, geforce 5600 fx, geforce5800fx all with 128 mb memory. I would like comments on which would be best for my machine.

Motherboard is single data rate, limited to 4x AGP. all of the above cards have in the descriptions area of the website.  Some thing like:

" Easy Plug-and-Play AUTORUN installation from CD-ROM, supports 8x, 4x, and 2x AGP. "

Am I correct in assuming that this mean the cards are backwards compatible to at least 4x AGP?

I fly all the Micro$oft flight sims except FS2004 C.O.F. CFS 3 being my only problem sim. My previous videocard a g2mx400 64 meg handled cfs3 much better, after tweaking, than the g4 mx440 128mb before tweaking. In fact the g4in cfs3, un tweaked  handles cfs3 un tweaked about the way the g2 did.  The machine has dvd player which has become almost unuseable for action films like Spiderman, Lord of the Rings,.... during the heavy action scenes the film staggers just like cfs3 when attacking an enemy base at 50ft alt.

Any comments ,suggestions, welcomed!

i only recommend a 5600 or 5800,when you're going to upgrade your mainboard ,cpu and ram within the next months. the reason is,that the rest of your system has too little power to supply those FXs efficiently,this simply means that your  video card gets "bored". i recommend the 4600,because it fits quite well to your system.and yes,every graphics card is backwards compatible,i'm running an AGP-8x-card on an AGP-4x-slot,too.

Quote:


I think he is meaning that while your CPU is calculating everything and getting maxed out the graphics card is wanting more and more information to process and the CPU cannot supply it with enough info so really you would be paying a lot of money only to use maybe 50-60% of the cards capabilities

Please correct me if I am wrong

Paul2k10

no,you aren't wrong,paul. well said.

I've been having a nightmare  to get either of two GeForce FX 5600 cards (Asylum or PNY) to work with direct X 9.0a on Win XP with FS2002 and a P4 2.4 Gig machine.  So far .... no go.  Tech support can't solve it.  See other threads on this subject.

best,

...................john

I have done some research and decided the 4600 will be the way to go. Instead of upgrading this System I plan to give it to my wife to replace the 200 mhz pacard bell she now uses. Then I will build a new machine stripped  for gaming i.e. no DVD player. no burner. By the time I can afford to do this. I should end up with a faster machine, than if I bought the 5600 now and upgraded this one later.

Well I already ordered the 4600. I may have the cash left to up grade to the mainboards 1.8 gpu bios limit. that should give it a little more to work with.

Power requirements?The machine has a 300 watt power supply.

    The Ti 4600 made a world of difference in my machine. I looked at and turned down the 4800 for some reason. But I cannot think of why now.  My dvd player works smoothly now and my copy of cfs3 flies much better now. When I get time to tweak it out, it should play flawlessly.
    By the way the amperage on the 3.3v lead from the power supply is 14 amps and seems to handle the load. Any one know the Ohms law formula for wattage?

Opened up the case again and checked, 14A , checked with a magnifying glass to be sure there was not a dot between the numbers.

Yup. Roger that! Quite happy with it. For the first time I don't have any problems running any thing I put in the machine. It is great!