A Few Questions About Video Cards

[toddiscool]

Hey just a few things that I want to be sure of before I buy.

1. Is AGP backwards compatible, meaning if i get a 8X agp card, will it still work on 4X slot?
2. How much diffrenence is thre in series, meaning from a readon 9200 to a 9600 for example. I would think that a 9200 128MB would be better than a 9600 64MB. But the price does not confirme this, so I confused a bit.
3. How much of a factor does DDR play in video cards, meaning if I upgrade my G4 mx440 64MBDDR, to a 128 card is there going to be alot of improvment. Or are all video cards DDR now and it just is not stated anyomre.
4. Do I need to be worried about my PSU in upgrading my vid card. If so how can I check the (wattage?) or whatever I need to be concerned about.

Usually my mentatlity is too just go into the store, and upgrade. However this is happening at a bad time, and I am a little strapped (my girlfreind needs money for christams shopping) so If anyone has any suggestions.

Ball park I am looking at about $150 canadain which has me looking aroung the radeon 9200 128MB agp card. However I can spend more should there be some value there, but I just cannot afford, nor do I need a top of the line card right now.

Specs, if you care:

Mother board: Intel 845ept2 (demension 4200) (I know that this should be on my top priority for upgrade, but it is just not a possibilty right now)
768MB DDR ram
P4 2.0
2X80GB HD's
Creative live sound card (also needs to be upgraded)

Thanks for the time, and god I hate asking about video cards since this question is posted so often.

[Keikan]

1. Yes it will work jsut don't expect the best performance
2. Usally the higher the number model, the btter the card is going to be. In your example you gave a 9200 128mb and the 9600 64mb the 9600 is faster (I think)
3. All video cards are mostly DDR now
4. I know nothing about power.

[3RA1N1AC]

1. don't worry about it. the advantage of 8X over 4X is not that great. in theory it is, but in practice it is not.

2. the numbering systems for video cards are confusing. here's a simple breakdown of Nvidia and ATI's "classes," basically going from slower to faster. it's hard to make it totally accurate (because of variations within a single model that affect performance), but i think it's basically correct.

*Geforce 2 class = Geforce 2 MX, Geforce 2 GTS, Geforce 4 MX, Geforce 2 Ultra.
*Geforce 3 class = Geforce 3 Ti 200, Geforce 3, Geforce 3 Ti 500
*Geforce 4 class = Geforce 4 Ti models, and the Geforce FX 5200 & 5600 basically perform at this level even tho they do have hardware DirectX 9 support
*Geforce FX class = Geforce FX 5700/5800/5900/5950

*Radeon 7x class (equivalent to Geforce 2) = Radeon, Radeon 7000/7200/7500
*Radeon 8x class (equivalent to Geforce 3) = Radeon 8500/9000/9100/9200
*Radeon 9x class (equivalent to Geforce 4 and FX) = Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800

the oddity of the model numbers has to do with the fact that every several months they release a new set of cards, both higher and lower end-- and the lower end cards are designed to replace the previous series' low end, so they are often based on technology from the previous series and they're just given some minor tweaks and speed improvements. the Radeon 9000/9100/9200 cards for instance are essentially 8500s with some design modifications, while the 9500 & up are based on completely new processors with significant new features supported.

3. DDR is good. early on when it was first introduced a few years ago, its benefit was questionable. but that technology has been refined now to the point where it is a must-have.

4. you shouldn't have to worry about the PSU unless you buy a high-end Geforce FX or Radeon 9x.

[Smurfette]

Originally posted by toddiscool@1 November 2003 - 08:10
Specs, if you care:

Mother board: Intel 845ept2 (demension 4200) (I know that this should be on my top priority for upgrade, but it is just not a possibilty right now)
768MB DDR ram
P4 2.0
2X80GB HD's
Creative live sound card (also needs to be upgraded)

Dimension 4200 is a Dell, isn't it? Every damned Dell I have opened has had a Dell power connector which means if you upgrade your mobo, you gotta do the PSU as well.
I'd recommend any soundcard but a CL as well

[SciManAl]

hey check out the cards at compgeeks.com, i think you will be happy they have for 150 some high ddr, pretty good cards... i bought from there and there cards are as good as my ATI 9800! just an idea remember CHEAP!!! and no power is not an issue garrunty it! if you didn't have enough for an upgrade at this point then your comp wouldn't have started up...

get a sound balster live set up... for bout 20 bucks...

[johnboy27]

Originally posted by SciManAl@1 November 2003 - 14:54
hey check out the cards at compgeeks.com, i think you will be happy  they have for 150 some high ddr, pretty good cards... i bought from there and there cards are as good as my ATI 9800! just an idea remember CHEAP!!! and no power is not an issue garrunty it! if you didn't have enough for an upgrade at this point then your comp wouldn't have started up...

get a sound balster live set up... for bout 20 bucks...

If I am correct he is looking to spend $150.00 Canadian, which is only a little less than 100 American and compgeeks is an American site isn't it?

Toddiscool- If you are willing to pay a bit in shipping (assuming you are far from Nova Scotia) then you can try this site greenlyph.com .They have the best prices around here where I live .He has a Radeon 9200 for 80 bucks Canadian and he has daily specials which can some times knock 10-25 bucks off his cards or other stuff.I am not too sure about how he ships but I know if you e-mail him he'll set you up with some prices.He is a real good guy and won't rip you off.

[bigdawgfoxx]

GeForce Ti 4200 and higher are great cards. They are older and cheaper but they run pretty fast. My friend has a Ti 4200 (the slowest Ti card you can get, there are Ti 4200, 4400, 4600, and 4800, 4800 being the best) and his performance on all games is GREAT. He has a 2200 and 512MB of ram. Its an emachine.....but its still very nice. WOOOOW I just saw this look at these prices on CPUs!!!! wowwww newayz i found this for you it is 90 bux but is on an American site, I dont know if your in America or what. Ti 4200 . It is a basic gaming card, nothing real real fast or nething, but you dont need one newayz and it is a very good card trust me.

[toddiscool]

Wow thanks guys, those were asome replies.

In looking around i found three cards in price range which were all ones that I you guys mentioned.

Radeon 9200, the one that you pointed out johnboy is deffinetly alot cheaoer than the ones I have found. Although I am not from nova scotia, I am from Ontario. The thing tha I have noticda bout the 9200 is there seems to be a big difrence from the 9200 SE/pro/and standard. Being that the SE is at 62bit (I am not sure what that means but for about ten bucks to double it seems good.

The geforce fx5200 or ti4200, seem relatively close and I think that I will probably go with which ever of these two I can find. (not alot of shops in my area and I would like to get my hands on this ASAP)

@3ra1n1ac - great table there, I had looked for something like that, just great.

@smurfette - Thanks for letting me know that, I am sure that I would not have realized when the time came, and tryed to force the connector in and broke everything.

Will I guess I am gonna go see what i can get, I have a pretty good comp place that usually gives me some good deals, I 'll see what I can pull off. I will probably get upsold anyway.

[3RA1N1AC]

Originally posted by toddiscool@1 November 2003 - 09:55
Being that the SE is at 62bit (I am not sure what that means but for about ten bucks to double it seems good.

re: 64 bit vs 128 bit. this refers to the amount of bandwidth available to the onboard RAM. wider is better, because it can handle larger chunks of data simultaneously and it has a major effect on the RAM's performance. if given the choice, go with 128 bit rather than 64.

the same theory sort of applies to the new 64 bit CPUs vs the old 32 bit CPUs. more bits in & of itself doesn't directly translate to high performance, there are a lot of other factors involved-- but in general it is a good thing for the memory bus or the CPU bus (aka "front side bus") to grow wider.