Graphics Cards

[LuisP24]

Just curious on this..

 

A friend of mine has an older desktop with onboard graphics. He tells me how slow everything runs, and I told him its most likely due to using onboard instead of separate graphics card. So he asks if I could get one and put it in for him (he's paying for the card and all). So I checked out the system and it is possible to do so. Maybe not worth it, IMO, but he's paying. His system is:

 

Celeron 1.8GHz (socket 478)

1 GB (2x 512MB) SDRAM - PC133 (I think)

300 watt PSU

1 available PCI slot - NO AGP or PCI-E

 

So I see there's actually quite a few GPUs in PCI interface available. (I thought this was old technology that was replaced with AGP, and now PCI-E)

But what I'm wondering about is, how come PCI ones cost a bit more than AGP (and even some PCI-E)?

 

Example: I just got an EVGA e-GeForce 6200 AGP for my old system.. under $40

The same card in PCI format is $45

 

How come? Wouldn't the AGP one perform better and be worth more?

[el kido]

PCI would be better, but not really much.

 

for a low budget like that, your best bet is this card. LINK

 

 

It will play games like WOW and all 2D games even sims. But after that, your pushin it

[brandon]

If you build it, they will come. There's a premium because AGP & PCIe dominate in terms of interfaces for GPUs. Just like DDR is more expensive than DDR2 now.

[LuisP24]

el kido - Thanks, looks like a good deal to me. I'll show my friend and see what he thinks, maybe be ordering in the next few days for sure.

Would there be any problems using a DirectX10 card? System is running WinXP Pro SP3 which includes DirectX9.0c

 

brandon - That makes sense, I hadn't thought about it like that.

[el kido]

There will be no issues at all.

[porksandwich9113]

PCI is a load better than onboard trust me there.

 

My old system was an emachines T2042.

2.0Celeron

256MB Ram

40GB HD

Onboard Intel Graphics.

 

I upgraded, unlocked the motherboard, and OC'ed this thing to

2.7Ghz Celeron

1.25GB Ram

250GB HD

Radeon 9250 PCI 256MB card.

 

Obviously I couldn't play the best games in the world, but I could actually run things like World of Warcraft, Halo 1, Warcraft III, and Sims 2 at about 25-30 FPS. That was at a 1280X1024 resolution, and mid-high graphics settings.

 

If you ask me, a cheap route would be:

Drop a new processor in.

P4 in the 2.6-2.8Ghz range. You could find them on ebay for a steal these days. 20$ tops..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-P4-2-8Ghz-1M-533...id=p3286.c0.m14

 

Grab a decent PCI card..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814133245

[Wigan]

If you dropped a new processor in you would have to check the FSB of the motherboard.

 

This PC I'm on now is pretty old and only supports 400mhz FSB processors. I think the limit on these is 2.6ghz P4's.