Simviation Forum - Which Video card would you suggest?

Jan 19^th, 2005 at 10:38am

Clipper Offline
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Hi. I would like to know if I can get some opinions on a video card. I have a Dell p4 2.8, 1g ram, but, unfortunately I have intel extreme 2 integrated graphics. Now the challenging part of this question: I only have a pci slot available for video card upgrade. I know I'm comprimised, but there must be a pci card that would be best suited for my system. I wonder if y'all may make some suggestions to help me out. I would appreciate any input you may have! Thanks

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Reply #1 - Jan 19^th, 2005 at 12:16pm

Asda_price Ex Member

Unfortunately, it is hard to recommend a video card for you as Dell have heavily modified Phoenix Bios', which make it impossible to upgrade and overclock your system. It's best to buy a new PC, depending on your budget.

But, to recommend a good video card, the ATi Radeon X800 XT PCI-Express is very good. I highly recommend it!

Cheers,

Rob Wink

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Reply #2 - Jan 19^th, 2005 at 2:38pm

Clipper Offline
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Hey Rob, Not exactly what I wanted to hear, as I just bought the pc a month ago. Serves me right for "cheaping out"! The card you recommended is a pci express model, something I can only dream of for now. I think, though, even a decent pci card would give me some improvement, at least be compatible with directx9.
My water textures now are ZERO. Everything looks like a frozen rink. I did try a nvidea 5200pci 256k. It sucked big time. I heard something about a 5700pci or 5900pci. Any feedback?

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Reply #3 - Jan 19^th, 2005 at 7:27pm

the_autopilot Offline
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The only pci card i know of thats good is the 5200.

Here is a 5700 LE for pci:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-140-041&depa=1

Its LE so I wouldn't touch it and i suggest you do the same. Its better than a 5200, but not by much.

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Reply #4 - Jan 19^th, 2005 at 8:21pm

Rivers Offline
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Are you sure you don’t have one AGP slot? Your computer is very recent I can’t believe there isn’t one.
Aren’t you confusing AGP with PCI and PCI-E?
How many PCI slots do you have?

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Reply #5 - Jan 19^th, 2005 at 10:29pm

Clipper Offline
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Thanks for the lead autopilot. I had a few minutes to investigate myself to-day, and came up with the same conclusion as you: the 5700le. If you were me, would you spend the bucks, or just bite the bullet and live with integrated graphics?
Rivers...appreciate your follow up, I am 100% sure there are no agp slots in my gear. I have 3 pci slots, 1 filled with sound blaster, 1 has the modem, the 3rd is empty. The real issue it seems is whether it's worth filling with a pci card. Maybe I should live with it for now. I actually average 25fps on the fs9 with the display settings pushed pretty hard. It's just the jaggies and the brutal water texture are frustrating. The intel extreme(ly mediocre)integrated graphics doesn't support directx9.

If anyone reading this has a 5200pci or 5700le pci, and aren't too embarassed to admit it, let me know how it performs.
Thanks everyone Grin

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Reply #6 - Jan 20^th, 2005 at 12:31am

Rivers Offline
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I think PCI isn’t that good for video cards but AGP won’t be an option to upgrade in the future, probably when you change your current motherboard PCI-E will be the only option so whether you buy a PCI or AGP now you won’t be able to use it in the future so I say go for the 5700le it will deliver a significant better performance then the 5200.

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Reply #7 - Jan 20^th, 2005 at 7:26am

Clipper Offline
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Yup...If I go that's the way I'll go Rivers..5700le pci. Cry

Once again, thanks for the feedback.

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Reply #8 - Jan 21^st, 2005 at 12:51am

the_autopilot Offline
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Quote:

Thanks for the lead autopilot. I had a few minutes to investigate myself to-day, and came up with the same conclusion as you: the 5700le. If you were me, would you spend the bucks, or just bite the bullet and live with integrated graphics?
Rivers...appreciate your follow up, I am 100% sure there are no agp slots in my gear. I have 3 pci slots, 1 filled with sound blaster, 1 has the modem, the 3rd is empty. The real issue it seems is whether it's worth filling with a pci card. Maybe I should live with it for now. I actually average 25fps on the fs9 with the display settings pushed pretty hard. It's just the jaggies and the brutal water texture are frustrating. The intel extreme(ly mediocre)integrated graphics doesn't support directx9.

If anyone reading this has a 5200pci or 5700le pci, and aren't too embarassed to admit it, let me know how it performs.
Thanks everyone Grin

A 5200 or 5700 is immensely different from an integrated card. In other words, a 5200 pounds the crap out of an ANY integrated solution. The 5200 is also a dx9 card too.

If i were you, I'd get a 5200 and overclock it a bit.

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Reply #9 - Jan 22^nd, 2005 at 7:34pm

Clipper Offline
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Thanks for the encouragement auto_pilot. I've tried the 5200. For one reason or another it sucked the bag. I'm going to go for the 5700. Hopefully say bye bye to the jaggies. Actually have water that dosen't look like a sheet of blue plastic. I will overclock as per your suggestion. Later...

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Reply #10 - Jan 26^th, 2005 at 1:53am

the_autopilot Offline
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Quote:

Thanks for the encouragement auto_pilot. I've tried the 5200. For one reason or another it sucked the bag. I'm going to go for the 5700. Hopefully say bye bye to the jaggies. Actually have water that dosen't look like a sheet of blue plastic. I will overclock as per your suggestion. Later...

BTW, the 5700 is an LE edition. I'm not sure, but from my experience with ATI SE cards, I don't think LE cards are overclockable. Ask around.

I generally don't deal with thede kind of cards, so I don't know too much about them. Sorry.

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Reply #11 - Feb 1^st, 2005 at 11:22am

Clipper Offline
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I finally got the Geforce 5200le 256mg pci. You're right autopilot, it pounds the crap out of integrated graphics. For any of you out there with only a pci video card option, I recommend the 5200. Not up to agp or pci express performance, but for $100.00 or so, it rips the ass outta integrated options!

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Reply #12 - Feb 1^st, 2005 at 11:28pm

carolina_ice Offline
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I was actually looking at one a P4 3 gigahertz 1 gig ram 160 gig harddrive DVD writer for 500 bucks. But found out It did not have a AGP, It did have a PCI express but it was only 1x for networking card I guess. The 16x video card was about 3 inches longer.

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Reply #13 - Feb 2^nd, 2005 at 1:46am

Gixer Offline
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Be careful. PCI Express is different to PCI.

PCI Express is a new graphics card interface and is meant to be better than AGP, though its not been taken to full advantage yet. So a mobo with a PCI Express port is fine to get. Many of the newer cards now will only start to be made as PCI Express compatible as this is the way the new motherboards will go.

AMD64 3500+ @ 2200MHz 400FSB&&MSI K8N Neo 2 mobo nForce3 chipset&&1gig Corsair XMS PC3200 timings @ 10.2.2.2 &&XFX 6800 Ultra @ 450/1200&&80gig HDD&&Loadsa fans!!!

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