Janey

I'm glad that I found this thread. I just purchased a Dell P4 last september, which has an integrated video card. I guess that this means that it is part of the motherboard, not separate. (i'm dumb with this stuff). I've noticed that some games that I play or my nephews play have video problems e.g. sponge bob sq.pnts, the outline of spnge bob is visible but the character is transparent when he turns sideways. Is this a problem with the capacity of the video card?

also, when I play zoo tycoon 2, the game gradually slows down until the curser jumps and hangs, and I have to quit, re-boot to do (what I figure is) clear the memory buffers...

am I ealing with Video card problems? If so, should I be purchasing a card to install? what would be a good one to buy around the C$ 100-150 mark?

And Most Importantly: how do I put it in the computer?? what are the tricks, things to watch for? (i'm nervous because my attempt to add a cd burner to my Dell P3 a couple of years ago, resulted in my being unable to get it out of safe mode, and I had to take it to a computer guy to retrieve all the data, and reformat).


thanks!

Lasereth

That sounds like old videocard drivers to me with the Sponge Bob game. Same thing with Zoo Tycoon 2. The onboard video on your computer undoubtedly sucks, however, and could be causing some of the problems.

For $100-$150 I suggest ordering an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB 256-bit memory interface. You won't find a better deal. You'll have to disable the onboard video in BIOS most likely to get the new videocard to work.

The only thing to watch out for when putting in the new videocard is static shock. Unplug the computer and touch a screwdriver to the metal pieces in the computer to discharge the electricity. Then firmly press the videocard into the AGP slot. It should click in fine!

-Lasereth

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Lasereth

Made a few changes:

The Radeon 9800 Pro is approximately $120 now. That's unbelievable. I can't suggest anything else from $100-$200 now. This is the best deal I've seen in a long time.

Changed a few of the higher end videocard prices.

-Lasereth

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guthmund

Okay, I've read through the thread and still have a couple of questions that I didn't see answers to.

Since I'm a relative idiot when it comes to the world of video cards, I'm following the advice at hand to the letter and trying to stay as close as possible to the other recommendations.

I'm looking to buy a new video card and had my eye on this one...

9800Pro at Newegg.

Now for some questions, if you don't mind...

1- I notice a lot of different variations on the 9800Pro card. I mean, a simple search at newegg will net like 17 different cards all with different (I assume they're manufacturers, right?) names attached along with different price tags. Aside from the obvious differences (some have aftermarket stuff added) what's the big difference between a "Sapphire 100556L Radeon 9800Pro" and a "JetWay 98PR-AD-128D Radeon 9800Pro?" Are there any differences other than in name?

2- I want to spend between $100-150 on a new card. I'm not looking for anything overly obnoxious as I don't play all that many games on my PC. Just looking for something that might run HL2 moderately well if I choose to play. So, I guess the question is...Is this the good choice?

By the way, I don't know if it matters to the particular question, but the system running the card will also be running an Athlon XP 2800+ and a gig of RAM.

Thanks in advance

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Lasereth

Go for the Radeon 9800 Pro. The cheapest one will do. Make sure it has 128 MB of memory on it and that the memory interface is 256-bit. DO NOT buy the 128-bit memory interface version...it's gotta be 256. Yes, they are different manufacturers. Just buy the cheapest one with the aforementioned specs.

-Lasereth

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Gatorade Frost

I've got a 9800 Pro I'm trying to get rid of right now.

I'll happily delete this if a Mod says "No selling on the forum", btw. Just thought I'd throw it out in case I could pass on a deal.

I'm not 100% if it works right now, though. My computer died a few days ago and I had to take it to Fry's to get it fixed and I don't know if my screen screwing up was because of the VC or the Hard Drives that crashed.

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Emo Philips

Lasereth

Updated quite a few prices and made some additions including the new GeForce 7800 GTX.

-Lasereth

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guthmund

Check and check.

Thank you very much, Lasereth

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ChistledStone

Heya one ontopic question and a couple really off-topic but hopefully not out of Lasereth's league.

1. Will a GeForce 6600 card be okay for multimedia usage e.g. TV Tuning and Recording, Halflife 2 and media streaming?

2. In this setup (HP Media Center m7088d Desktop PC - if link doesn't work) will 512mb of ram be okay?

3. If the card is pretty crudy, do the processor speed or RAM have any affect on it (uplifting, I hope)

Thanks, even if you can't answer some of them.

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Mr_Q

Lasereth, I just wanted to say thanks for putting this together. It was very helpful in coming to a decision regarding my new video card. Heck, just the part on the naming schemes is worth having this as a sticky.

Keep up the good work!

kel

Thank you Lasereth, you have saved me hours.
Now if I weren't stuck with this damn socket 754.

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the420star

I am sure i am the 100000 person to ask this question, but here it goes. I am getting back into this desktop deal after finishing college and after reading some reviews about the card that is coming with my new dell... i realized i need a new card. My new dell is coming with a ATI x300 PCI-Express. I do not want to be able to play doom or any of the new "hot" games. What i want is to be able to play some of the less demanding games like sims 2 and maybe some of the older first person shooters at the highest graphics settings as well as a card to take advantage of my LCD moniter. I am looking to spend under $200 IE less than $150 on ebay. Please let me know what your suggestions are, i would prefer a card that has its on dedicated memory as i only have 512 for right now.Let me know if you need more info from me. And i would like to thank you in advance for your help.

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soccerchamp76

Well first, any dedicated graphics card will have dedicated memory. Onboard video uses system RAM.
Lasereth has a huge thread on video cards for each price range.

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Hanabal

i hear the geforce 6600GT is great, and you should be able to find it for less than your price. Its the card Im getting soon to replace my decrepid geforce2

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guthmund

I'll second Lasereth's thread.

I know jackshit about video cards, but I read the thread, asked a couple of questions and bought a Radeon 9800Pro for $120 off of newegg.

It does all I ask of it and more. Lasereth really knows his stuff.

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kel

The card you have currently is more then adequate for running any game, especially older ones. Why do you think you need to downgrade to play older games?

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canuckguy

Thanks again for the thread, great job. and thanks again for answering my pm's.

nightmare

thanks a lot for this information, its about time it was spelt out for us less proficient technophiles

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canuckguy

Just wanted to add again, thanks Lasereth. With some more help today, i got a ati radeon 9800 pro off ebay. Great deal as well, beat the pants off any retail card price i could find new/used that did 256bit.

Lasereth

Added a brief section explaining the difference between PCI-E and AGP videocards.

-Lasereth

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canuckguy

I know this thread is for video card info, but just wanted to update on my recent upgrade. Hot Damn! that can only be the word to describe playing games with my new radeon card. I can actually have all the graphics displayed when gaming! love it! thanks again.

Lasereth

Made a few changes after looking over some low-end videocards.

-Lasereth

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Lasereth

Updated a few prices and added the Radeon X800 GT.

-Lasereth

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Lasereth

ATI released their X1000 GPUs today. I'll update the guide tonight...I may not need to make any changes since the X1000 prices are gonna be really high for a while (like the 7800 GTX when it first came out).

-Lasereth

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Lasereth

I've studied the reviews on the X1000 GPUs. So far, the only update I need to make is the X1800 XT. The other cards offer good performance, but performance isn't the only factor here...what this guide is REALLY about is the pricing. The pricing of these new Radeon X1000 GPUs are simply too high right now. I'll make more changes when the prices fall.

*EDIT* Removed the X1800 XT. The GeForce 7800 GTX can be bought for nearly $100 cheaper. I didn't realize the price had fallen so much.

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Lasereth

Updated a few prices. The GeForce 7800 GT has been added since it's only $350 now. This is the card to get at the $300-$400 range.

I also got rid of the $10-$50 price range. It's really not worth upgrading right now if you're only gonna spend $50.

-Lasereth

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

StanT

It seems my 2 year old Radeon 9800 Pro has gone to video card heaven. While I spent $350 on it the first time around, I can replace it for $120 or I can get a GeForce 6800 for $50 more.

I only game occasionally, but don't want to limit my options. Is the 6800 worth $50 more?

I'll be installing in the following 2 yr old homebrew system:
3.2M P4 (Northwood)
Intel D875PBZ MB w/AGP 4x/8x
2G memory
2x120G Hitachi drives in a SATA Raid0 array

Lasereth

Yes.

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

uber1

I dont know much about computer insides. My computer came with ATI Radeon Xpress 200. I asked the guy at the store if I could play Doom 3. He said it would be choppy. I wanted to play some cool games but im not a hard core gamer. What video card should I upgrade too?

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tubulartuddles

billege

Hey Lasereth, thanks for the guide, it helped immensely with my last purchase. Now I need to lean on you for help with the second one.

I'm putting a productivity PC together for my wife. Her 10 year old Gateway Celeron 466 box is finally being replaced!

The new boxen will primarily be your Email/Word/Exel/Outlook/Firefox/with-occasional-foray-into-downloaded-TV-show-episode-watching-box.

Extr33m3 fully hax0red PWNT JU!! performance won't be necessary. However, I still want to make a smart purchase.

The overall box budget is about a G. I've got a parts list all done at $1,271.23 and am putting together a "pared down" list.

The board is PCI-X, primarily because I want socket 939 and that upgrade path. With PCI-X I'm finding myself completely unfamiliar with the graphics cores.

I tend to like ATI.

My first pick, primarily from a PCI-X/256mb search criteria was the SAPPHIRE Radeon X700 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM for $103.

I have no clue how this compares to the Sapphire 9800XT 256 AGP card in my box. That's part of my problem, I can't find pages comparing PCI-X products to what I'm familiar with.

Under consideration today is the SAPPHIRE 100118 Radeon X550 128MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM for $65. Link to that one.

Since the whole purpose of the "pared down" list is to get things down to thier minimum cost level, I'm also trying to figure out if the X550 is going to be a foolish way to save $40, and I should just rather buy the X700 and cut costs elsewhere.

Any help is most appreciated, and I will check back if you need me to provide any parts list type info.

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Lasereth

I wouldn't be wasting money on an Athlon 64 if it's not a gaming machine, but that's me. It doesn't really matter about the videocard. The Radeon X700 isn't a bad deal, but it's still overkill for what you're doing. The X550 will be fine. Any new videocard will play TV episodes easily, and since that's all you're doing, there's no reason to buy better than that!

-Lasereth

__________________
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Lasereth

I'd probably go with a GeForce 6600 GT or Radeon 9800 Pro. The 6600 GT will play Doom 3 way better than the 9800 Pro simply because of the game's design towards nVIDIA's cards.

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

MooseMan3000

Except isn't the Xpress an onboard video card? Unless I'm mistaken, the Xpress line is all onboard solutions, which means that they're cheaper in the beginning, but you can't upgrade them. Maybe I'm getting mixed up, but I coulda sworn it was onboard.

n0nsensical

Xpress (200G) is a whole chipset with integrated graphics. He'll have an empty PCI-E x16 slot on the motherboard for a new video card unless he's got a very strange board.

MooseMan3000

Ohhh, a chipset. Right on. In that case, you're right, there's a good chance he has the PCI-E slot. Thanks for the info!

Lasereth

An update is coming soon! I've been busy with WoW, and now schoolwork is starting to get overwhelming. There are certainly some new cards out right now and they'll be added to the list once I check them out in detail.

-Lasereth

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

djflish

Your guide has definitely opened my eyes, I was just going to go for the one that had the highest MB! I'm buying a PC and I've been given a choice of graphics cards for it, but I haven't got a clue which one to go for.

128MB GeForce FX5200
256MB GeForce 6200
256MB GeForce 6600
256MB Radeon 9550
256MB Radeon 9600 PRO
256MB Radeon 9600XT

That's the choice I've got. Cost doesn't matter, I just want the best one for the latest games (Half Life 2, FEAR, Battlefield 2, etc.) Which would be the best one?
Thanks for any help!

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I know which one I prefer.

Lasereth

The 6600 is the easily the best choice of your selections!

__________________
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Bratwurst

I just bought an GeForce 6600 GT, 128 MB because I couldn't find a 256 in AGP configuration. Maybe I didn't look enough to find the 256. Its going to replace a GeForce fx 5600 Ultra.

The main game I play right now is Day of Defeat source, and I'll probably be playing some more HL2 mods as they come out.

So my big question is, I know my 350w PSU is probably way under powered for this, if I upgrade to a 500w unit, is that enough?

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Lasereth

The wattage doesn't matter Bratwurst. The only thing that matters about your PSU's capabilities is the amps from all rails and the actual brand of the PSU. Luckily, the 6600 GT isn't that much of a power hog, so even a poor-quality 350w PSU should be fine. If you wanted to be safe (I am), I'd buy a Sparkle, Antec, Enermax, or Thermaltake PSU around 350w. My Enermax 350w powers a 120 GB HDD and a 6800 GT with 2 GB of RAM fine.

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