Simviation Forum - How long will my system be good for?

Reply #15 - Oct 26^th, 2003 at 9:53am

JBaymore Offline
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Interestingly enough, while I was reinstalling the network I noticed the AGP is free and the GF4 is on the one I don't know the name of( Roll Eyes

)

Birdman,

Not sure if you are saying that your existing video is PCI or if it is a "built in"....... but ........ if it is PCI........... woah! Most ANY new video card using agp will likely give you quite a performance boost. They don;t call it ACCELERATED graphics port for nothing Wink

.

best,

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

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #16 - Oct 26^th, 2003 at 1:42pm

bm Offline
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Thats what's strange, its not in the AGP slot, or a PCI slot, but in a slightly larger than PCI one I think. Ill see if I can find the name of the 'slot'. I don't no where I can find out...... (don't think the PC came with instructions Roll Eyes

)
Im pretty sure its not built in. Just seems strange there's an AGP slot with no graphics card in it!

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Reply #17 - Oct 26^th, 2003 at 2:02pm

bm Offline
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Acually I think it probably on the AGP, there is a smaller one which I think is, according to the manual could be a 'CNR' slot - dont even know wht it is....
I was looking through the manual and it said 'AGP 4X mode slote'. Does that mean that these new graphics cards that say 8x wont even work?

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Reply #18 - Oct 26^th, 2003 at 11:52pm

Daz Offline
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Why "upgrade" to a 3D card thats already obsolete

yeah but the xfx ti4200 128mb card overclocked can whip the pants of the fx5600 which is a direct x9 card. i bought this card for the price 88 pounds and it came with 3 games and a free gamepad.. not bad i dont think that can outperform a direct x9 card which costs a lot more! i know games like half life 2 will bring the ti4200 to its knees but the 5600 hasnt got the legs either you want at least the 5900 or the ati 9800 to keep up and not be obsolete for quite a bit.

my card model is basicaly 1 1/2 years old and i swear by it- i recently bought the card below knowing full well that its not a direct x9 card otherwise i would have bought the 5600 but that didnt bother me as i knew the overclocking potential

if your motherboard only has 4x agp it still will support 8x cards just not run them to their full potential

AMD athlon XP2800+ @2.34ghz&&Epox 8RDA3G 400 fsb, 8x AGP&&1024MB DDR400 PC3200&&XFX 256MB FX5950 Ultra (oc 525/1.04)&&40 gig maxtor 7200rpm&&80 gig seagate baracuda 7200rpm&&

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Reply #19 - Oct 27^th, 2003 at 5:22am

Professor Brensec Offline
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if your motherboard only has 4x agp it still will support 8x cards just not run them to their full potential

So what's the point in getting an 8x card? You may as well stick to the one you have if an 8x isn't really going to run much better than a 4x.

(Is the card Bird man has now - 'the GeForce 4 something' an 8x or 4x?)

If it's 4x in a 4x slot then will an 8x 'anything' really make much difference in a 4 x slot? Grin

P.S. I just made the 'upgrade of the century' to my old piece of crap. My old (2 years!!) 'Compaq' scroll wheel mouse was really driving me to distraction. The ball got 'gummed' up or something and no amount of cleaning, rubbing, shaking or belting would make it turn well anymore. It was causing me to become capable of very serious and meaningful foul language.
Well, I bit the bullet and bought a 'laser' mouse for $25.

I'm in a different world now.......................heaven!! Grin

&&&&http://www.ra.online-plus.biz&&&&&&I cried because I had no shoes - until I saw a man who had no feet.&&&&Dell Dimension 8100 - Intel P4 1.7 Gb - 512 RD Ram - nVidia GeForce 128 mb FX5200.

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Reply #20 - Oct 28^th, 2003 at 6:22am

bm Offline
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If I get an 8x card for my 4xslot. Will I still see a huge difference (large enough to warrant the Price) in performance?
Can I upgrade the slot itself to an 8x? ???

I just can't believe this computer was new last year and it wont support a new graphics card... 10 months on.... hardly looking ahead.....

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Reply #21 - Oct 28^th, 2003 at 4:40pm

4_Series_Scania Offline
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So what's the point in getting an 8x card? You may as well stick to the one you have if an 8x isn't really going to run much better than a 4x.

Simple, despite a sincerely crap Jetway (VIA chipset,AGP 4X or 2X if you don't like blue screens!!!) motherboard equally crap PC2700 RAM (unbranded) when I swapped my old Geforce MX440 64mb (overclocked by about 30% with a silly and damn noisy fan!) the performance increase, at every resolution my monitor can support , with my Asus 9560 FX5600 128 (Non Ultra) 8xAGP with every game / sim I've tried is simply staggering!
The notable exception to this was CFS3 stutterish as ever! Roll Eyes

what a surprise that was! I bought the FX simply for CFS3 ! Angry

CFS3 is as smooth as a baby's rear with "everything off" hardly the experience I'm after though!!!

I'm not too bothered though, when I bought my FX a few months ago I started to scrimp a few beans together, once I've clubbed santa I'm sure I'll have enough for one of those nice 2.8ghz p4's that have just dropped nicely in price..... Combined with a nice shiny Springdale or Canterwood chipset mobo, I think my FX5600 will be finally able to do CFS3 some justice.

If you only use FS, don't expect to want to buy future direct X 9 games then buy a GF4ti or any other Direct X 8 card for that matter! - Most are cheap and offer levels of power un imaginable a short while back.

But, and its a big un!
No matter how great and mighty your GF4ti DX 8 card, a a humble GF FX5600 or even a 5200 if you want a laugh! , combined with decent i.e 2ghz XP or p4 will run the next generation of DX9 games with no problems. - As I say, as long as you've got a decent CPU, eye candy will still look very nice!

If your not quite sure what I'm getting at, try to run a Direct X 9 benchmark with a Direct X8 Graphics card, see how far you get.

Its your money, not mine. Wink

Posting drivel here since Jan 31st, 2002. - That long!

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Reply #22 - Oct 31^st, 2003 at 2:01am

Professor Brensec Offline
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I don't undertsand a word you're saying Scania Grin

but that's nothing new. I have no idea about any of this stuff.

I have the DirectX9 driver installed (because I was told to get it as it might improve my graphics speed). But I've only got Intel integrated 11 mb shared graphics...............ha ha. Wink

So how would I know?

I thought DirectX9 etc were 'drivers' not cards. ??? Shocked

So there you go!

All I know is. When you buy something, 12 months later it's out of date. If you wait 12 months, you get everything for half the price you would have paid in the beginning. Simple! Grin

&&&&http://www.ra.online-plus.biz&&&&&&I cried because I had no shoes - until I saw a man who had no feet.&&&&Dell Dimension 8100 - Intel P4 1.7 Gb - 512 RD Ram - nVidia GeForce 128 mb FX5200.

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Reply #23 - Oct 31^st, 2003 at 3:11pm

4_Series_Scania Offline
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I don't undertsand a word you're saying Scania Grin

but that's nothing new. I have no idea about any of this stuff.

I have the DirectX9 driver installed (because I was told to get it as it might improve my graphics speed). But I've only got Intel integrated 11 mb shared graphics...............ha ha. Wink

So how would I know?

I thought DirectX9 etc were 'drivers' not cards. ??? Shocked

So there you go!

All I know is. When you buy something, 12 months later it's out of date. If you wait 12 months, you get everything for half the price you would have paid in the beginning. Simple! Grin

I rarely understand myself either! Wink

What I mean by Direct X9 "Card" is a card such as my FX5600 that has hardware support for direct X9 (as in the software) features such as nice reflections or whatever. - Basically, running a game written for direct X9 with a direct X8 card at best will result in low graphics quality due to the said lack of hardware support , or, at its worst extreme, the said Dx9 game would'nt run at all with a Dx8 card. - this is quite unlikely though.

Confused even more mate? Wink

Posting drivel here since Jan 31st, 2002. - That long!

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Reply #24 - Oct 31^st, 2003 at 9:40pm

Professor Brensec Offline
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No, actually that bit makes some sense. I think! Shocked

Is this right:

As I thought, 'DirectX9' is a software item (ie Driver).
You're saying that a Game that has been specifically designed to work with a Card designed also specifically to work in conjuntion with the DX9 driver, will perform badly with a Card that is designed for DX8 or before, even if the DX9 Driver is installed.
The DX8 Card will still work with the DX9 driver installed, but it can't use any of the 'DX9 specific' features.
If a Game is 'dependant' on these 'DX9 specific' features, then there's a possibilty of bad performance or no performance, depending on the level of the Game's dependance on the DX9 features.

If this is correct, then I have learnt something. If it's wrong, then I'm still as dumb as I used to be! Grin

&&&&http://www.ra.online-plus.biz&&&&&&I cried because I had no shoes - until I saw a man who had no feet.&&&&Dell Dimension 8100 - Intel P4 1.7 Gb - 512 RD Ram - nVidia GeForce 128 mb FX5200.

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Reply #25 - Nov 1^st, 2003 at 4:34am

bm Offline
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Well, I did it! I went for the ;
256MB GeF FX5600 DDR TV DVI 8x £99.00

But, when I was on the way home I rang dad up and he said "They didn't have it so I got the other one" Roll Eyes

. So I have this one:
128MB GeF FX5600 DDR TV DVI 8x £102.00
The performance increase is huge! on high settings in FS the FPS are about 23 Grin

Compared to about 8fps before. If this is not running it to its full potential on the 4x slot - how fast does it go on an 8x slot Shocked

Im just wandering what the 256MB one would have done.....

Thanks guys for all your help, its been extremely useful.

With cards being linked to the DirectX as soon as DirectX10 is out all of them will be 'out of date' and they release a new one every five minutes....

Quote:

If your not quite sure what I'm getting at, try to run a Direct X 9 benchmark with a Direct X8 Graphics card, see how far you get.

I tried doing 3Dmark with the old one, I was doing 5fps before the complicated bit - I gave up. 8)

Quote:

All I know is. When you buy something, 12 months later it's out of date. If you wait 12 months, you get everything for half the price you would have paid in the beginning. Simple!

I like your thinking! Wink

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