Video card upgrade

[Tindalos]

OK, I'm getting ready to upgrade my video card (I am currently using an old 3D Banshee, blech!). I recently upgraded to an Athlon T-Bird 1.13 GHz processor, 256 Mb DDR, and the following MB...

<<Special Features
Live BIOS
Fuzzy Logic 3
CPU
Socket A (Socket 462) for AMD® Athlon™/Duron™ Processor.
Athlon (Socket A) up to 1.4GHz
Duron (Socket A) up to 950MHz
Chipset
VIA® VT8366 chipset. (North-Bridge 552 BGA)
266MHz FSB
AGP 4x and PCI Advanced high performance memory controller.
VIA® VT8233 chipset. (South-Bridge 376 BGA)
High Bandwidth Vlink Client controller.
Integrated Faster Ethernet LPC.
Ultra DMA 66/100 master mode PCI EIDE controller.
ACPI
FSB
Supports 200/266MHz FSB
Main Memory
Three 184-pin DDR DIMM.
Maximum memory size up to 3GB.
Supports 2.5v DDR SDRAM DIMM.
Slots
One CNR (Communication Network Riser).
One AGP 4X slot.
Five PCI 2.2 32-bit Master PCI bus slots.
Supports 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface.
On-Board IDE
An IDE controller on the VIA VT8233 chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA 66/100 operation modes.
Can connect up to four IDE devices.
USB Interface
6 USB ports: 2 rear and 4 front ports supported by JUSB2 & JUSB3.
Controlled by VT8233 Southbridge.
On-Board Peripherals
1 Floppy port supports 2 FDD with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes.
2 Serial ports (COM A + COM B), 1 Parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode.
1 IrDA connector for SIR/ASKIR/HPSIR.
1 Audio/Game port.
BIOS
The mainboard BIOS provides AMI "Plug & Play" Flash BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.
The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface(DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.>>

I assume I can use an AGP video card. I am looking at the GeForce 2 MX400. Anything I should be aware of before I make this plunge?

[hiredgoonz]

From what you posted, yes, you can use an AGP card...and the MX400 is a pretty good card...

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When all else fails, read the instructions.

[BigBlue66]

Hi and Welcome,

Whewie! Nice rig. You should have no problem with the Geforce2 MX400. From what I have heard, they are a good card, however, with your current system specs, why not consider the Geforce3? Check it out here:
http://www.mainframe-designs.com/geforce3/index.html

Cheers,

Big Blue 66

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Woe is me.

[Tindalos]

I appreciate the lead...

THe only reason I'm looking at the GeForce2 right now is price. I can get the MX400 for around $100.00. My wife will be less than pleased if I spend too much more money upgrading this system.

If I could get her to let me spend $350.00... Believe me I would!

Thanks again!

Anyone else have any input?

[Tindalos]

Due to various factors (not the least of which is my wife...) I have just purchased the following...

Video Square nVidia Geforce2 MX400 64MB SDR AGP w/o TV Out w/Cooling Fan- Full Retail Box!

Cost with shipping $87.25

Maybe in a year I'll put the latest and greatest in... Keep in mind I just replaced my Celeron 550, 96 Mb PC100 with an Athlon T-Bird 1.13 GHz 256 DDR set up... and, of course, the crappy video card I mentioned at the beginning of this thread.

I really appreciate all of the input!

[iisbob]

Not ot sound like i'm braging or any thing Tin( seriously i'm not! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif ) but i've used vid cards from the best voodoo on up-i've installed a g2mx400 in a friends system and it works just fine. But.....unitl i got the G3, i didn't know what gaming truely meant! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif All those years of dumbing down my system becuase i couldn't get both image quality and game frame rates, are now gone!!

never has a piece of hardware impressed me so much like the new Geforce3 ( not even my first glimpse of a whopping 10 GB hard drive http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif ) Not only do i run all my games full out all options( including anit-alias, that which makes games look sooooo smooth ) but they don't stutter one bit!

Ahhh, the satisfiaction of seeing your enemies exploded in all their gory detail! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif The blinding beauty of your nemesis reduced to glaring sub-atomic light!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Believe me, it's been worth all $400 and the constant griping from my wife. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif Sometimes a man just gotta do what's best for his soul. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[sea69]

but seriously tin......could you post a bit more of your system specs ??


http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)


;)~

[Tindalos]

Sure, I suppose...

Diamond Monster MX300 sound card
Yamaha YST91 Speakers and Subwoofer
Cable Modem
17" Sony Trinatron
Logitech Wireless Optical Mouse
Ummm...

Oh wait you were kidding weren't you?

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

[This message has been edited by Tindalos (edited 07-25-2001).]

[ZeroCool]

This is to iisbob. hehe... you need to do some research on vid cards (no offense) I have the Radeon 64 mb DDR and that is just as good PERFORMANCE WISE. There is aboslutely no diff between the two performance wise, but benchmark wise -- yes. but so what? my point is -- you should get the card that suits your needs AND has a cheap price instead of wasting the extra hundreds of dollars on your ego... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by ZeroCool (edited 07-26-2001).]

[iisbob]

zero you are soooo wrong! and i did do research bdfore i bought the G3; the ati cards do not offer support for Transform &lighting which is what all games are leading towards-and if you've read and understand the concept behind the new G3 GPU you'd see that it will support independant programming per game! Whcih means that game developers are not longer bound by the same old tired specifications on how their graphics are handled-no more building games so they'll run on any mom&pop system-now they can specifiy codes to get the most image/speed out of their games.

And evey benchmark i've seen awith any comparsions of the G3 and radeons show the the radeons start choking at high res and color depth, not to mention when anti-alais is turned on they die just as quickly as older Geforce cards based on the same processor structure.

The raedon does compare favorably to theG2 series-yet once again at higher res&color depth its's substitute T&L engine ( hyperZ ) just doesn't hold up; and none of the cards-older Geforce's or the newer raedons hold a candle to the performance of the Geforce3 when all options are maxed out.


Here (http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/video/ATi_Radeon64/p4.htm) is just a sample of an older test with the raedon/Geforce2 series, you can see it barely holds it's head with the same " type " of graphics arcitechture; here (http://guru3d.com/review/creative/geforce3/) is an excelllant review of a Geforce3 card, not too mention detailed explanantions of AA, vertex shading, etc..


So the final word i'll have to say is that, while the raedon would be a good inexpensive choice compared to the Geforce2 series of cards; in no way does it hold a candle to the Geforce3 http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[ZeroCool]

Very Good Point iisbob but ask yourself -- does the Radeon 64mbDDR get the job done at this point in technology very smoothly and precisely?? And by the time my Radeon dies from anti-aliasing ( a long time from now ) I will have bought the "GeForce4" for about $100. You can give me your spiel about all of the technicalities, but again, it all comes down to your ego... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[sea69]

Oh No!!!

are you guys saying that my Nivdia TnT2 16Mb Graphics card is out of date?????????

huh??

hehe

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif



------------------
sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)


;)~

[hiredgoonz]

I remeber when the TNT2 came out...I wanted one SOOOOOOOO bad http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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When all else fails, read the instructions.

[iisbob]

Zerocool you've missed the entire point; why did you go out and buy the raedon if you're so concerned about price?! And if you read my post you would see that i stated that for sticking with same price range options, then the raedon was a good a choice as a geforce 2. Your first post blithly stated that ".. the radeon was as good as the Geforce3.." which in any measure of the terms was a false statement.

As for my ego; yeh-i suppose you'r right http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif , but tell me this-are you still working with a 266-300 PII? or an AMD K9-5/6 series processor? WHY NOT?! They perform adequately with all of todays programs?! Why did you get the radeon?! didn't your old video card do ok as long as you dumbed it down?!

I built a new system SPECIFICALLY for gaming, should i therefore skimp on one part of it becuase it happens to be a little bit expensive?!

What's the point of having a ferrari if it's a 4 cyclinder?!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

[This message has been edited by iisbob (edited 07-26-2001).]

[AwARe]

Boo!



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What I meant by what I said is hopefully less confusing then the contemplation of the question that led to the confusion in the 1st place.......

[kayden azagthoth]

Hmmmm...I have a 32 mb TNT2 card and it works well for me. I haven't seen a better video card in action though, so I have nothing to compare it to. Reading a card's specs and how many fans it has, it's anti-aliasing ability, glide features, t&s mip mapping...whatever, it's like reading Japanese to me. I just have to see the bugger in action. I'm the same way with cars. You can tell me the hp, valves, plugs, torque, up the ying-yang but I don't care until I try it out.

But I imagine my card is kinda wimpy by today's standards. I play a fair amount of games (Both 2D and 3D) and I haven't had any problems 'yet'. Sadly, I read a lot of PC gaming magazines and a lot of the newer games are looking for steeper system requirements, so that's going to mean an upgrade for me soon.

Time to dig deep...

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And all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be.

-Pink Floyd