Upgrading My Video Card

[Miyake]

i have a microstar 6385 motherboard and a Nivia Geforce 2 mx 400 65mb

i want to upgrade my card to a DDR based card and i want to know if my SD ram bord will be compatible with a DDR based card.

wil ther be a problem with compatibility?

i asked in a pc shop and the assistant said it said somthing to do with AGP v8 or somthing along thoes lines :blink:

[Miyake]

No Takers Yet?
cummon lamsy dont let me down now :rolleyes:

[CornerPocket]

I see no reason why you would have issues. If you are going for the AGP slot card just make sure you get the suitable agp speed your mobo can use. In other words if you have a motherboard that is up to 4x speed agp compatible, don't go buy a video card that only runs at 8x. Some video cards out there can run 2x, 4x or 8x. May be your better bet in case you should decide to up your mobo with 8x AGP. DDR video cards are available in PCI form as well. Any idea what card you are considering?

[Miyake]

im looking for a 3D Blaster 4 Titanium 4200 - AGP for 119 pounds UK
my mobo is agp x4 compatible and the 3D Blaster 4 Titanium 4200 - AGP is agp 4 too

is the short brown pci slot the agp port?
http://www.msi.com.tw/images/product_img/mbd_img/6385.jpg

[Miyake]

if i up my MOBO then will have to buy DDR ram, a graphics card, a processor and a new case cuz mine was built by a idiot at TINY and thers no way of removing the MOBO because the drives are in the way and ther is no way of removing the braket

[CornerPocket]

Originally posted by Miyake@5 August 2003 - 14:09
is the short brown pci slot the agp port?

AGP B) and you should be fine as the card is 2-4-8x compatible. :)



The 3D Blaster® 4 Titanium 4200 gives gamers Titanium power and tremendous value for money. Built on the nfiniteFX™ II engine for almost unlimited special effects, it has 64MB of DDR RAM at 500MHz plus pixel and vertex shaders that give incredible animations and surface textures. It processes up to 113 million triangles/second at fill rates up to 4 billion samples/second. Its new graphics core, with dual 350MHz RAMDACs and bandwidth up to 8 GB/second, optimises nView™ display technology, Lightspeed Memory Architecture™ II and Accuview Antialiasing™. It is highly compatible and connectable, supporting AGP 2x/4x/8x, VGA, DVI and TV-out to work the way any gamer wants..


Based on NVIDIA® GeForce4™ Ti4200 chipset, with 64MB DDR RAM at 500MHz.
Dual programmable Vertex Shaders and advanced programmable Pixel Shaders for ultimate realism in 3D imaging and effects, animations, surfaces and textures, with the nfiniteFX™ II Engine.
Integrated graphics processor and dual 350MHz RAMDACs for smoothness and power at up to 1.03 trillion operations/second.
8GB/second memory bandwidth optimised via Lightspeed Memory Architecture™ II.
Unbeatable visual quality, 113 million triangles/second and 4 billion samples/second fill rates, with Accuview Antialiasing™.
Stunning full-screen DVD performance, with integrated TV encoder and nView™ for maximum flexibility in display options and control.

You meet the system requiremnts right?

System Requirements

IBM® PC 100% compatible
Intel® Pentium® II and later processors,
AMD K6® and K7® processor families
64MB system memory or higher
50MB available disk space
AGP 2.0 compliant slot or better
CD-ROM Drive
Supports standard VGA and multi-frequency monitors
Operating Systems
Windows® 98
Windows® NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5
Windows® 2000
Windows® Millennium Edition
Windows® XP

[CornerPocket]

Originally posted by Miyake@5 August 2003 - 14:16
if i up my MOBO then will have to buy DDR ram, a graphics card, a processor and a new case cuz mine was built by a idiot at TINY and thers no way of removing the MOBO because the drives are in the way and ther is no way of removing the braket
I don't see a need for upgrading the board since the card is compatible with your mobo. Bottom line, if you are satisified with it's performance, then stick with it. You can expect better performance with the new video card. B)

[Miyake]

yep tahts the one.

if i feed you some web pages of waht im gonna buy will u give it the thumbs up?

have i made a good choice?

MotherBoard (http://www.thecomputerworld.co.uk/products.php?prodid=3841)
DDR x2 (http://www.thecomputerworld.co.uk/products.php?prodid=441)
Processor (http://www.thecomputerworld.co.uk/products.php?prodid=4874)
Graphics Card (http://shop.game.net/ViewProduct.aspx?cat=10420&mid=321552)
Case (http://www.savastore.com/products/product.asp?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10262171&pid=45&tid=3)

[Miyake]

i have a:
P4 1.4g clocked at 1.28 <_<
512mb sd ram
geforce 2 mx 400 64mb
60g hd

ive been looking at mac laptops or a new machine for along time so i might aswell build my own. it cant be that hard just a box with the same spec im gonna build will be 700 quid

[_John_Lennon_]

Okay, as for the RAM compatability, the RAM for your motherboard and grahpics card do not have to match.......

I was using a SD Ram board with my radeon 7500 DDR card for awhile and it went off fine.

So, now, all u need now, is just a grahpics card, preferably a 2x/4x one, no need to get a Radeon 9800 or anything that was desinged for 8X support, seeing as how you wont be able to take full advantage of it.

[Miyake]

So, now, all u need now, is just a grahpics card, preferably a 2x/4x one, no need to get a Radeon 9800 or anything that was desinged for 8X support, seeing as how you wont be able to take full advantage of it


how come? the mother board is x8 and the graphics card is too

[Lamsey]

If you are going to buy a new video card then I&#39;d strongly recommend a GeForce FX 5200 - only about £50 in the UK.

It&#39;s very slightly slower than a GeForce4 Ti Series, but it offers DirectX9/OpenGL1.4 support, thich will be important in the future.

[Shiranai_Baka]

So Lamsey what your implying is that the FX5200 is the most affordable best video card out on the market now?

[Lamsey]

Originally posted by Shiranai_Baka@6 August 2003 - 01:54
So Lamsey what your implying is that the FX5200 is the most affordable best video card out on the market now?
It&#39;s the best budget card, due to its up-to-date DX9/OGL1.4 support.

Users of the GeForce4 series will start to suffer once games start becoming optimised for DX9 or OGL1.4, so it&#39;s a good idea to get an up-to-date card. The GeForce FX 5200 does that affordably. (I speak from experience... I have one and it&#39;s lovely). :)

If you feel flush, go for a higher-spec GeForce FX... you won&#39;t be disappointed.

[Shiranai_Baka]

But.. is a 74 dollar price gap between FX5200 and FX5600 really worth it? <_< coz i really dont know about that.. Any advice from you professionals out there? O.o

[Miyake]

good reply lamsy&#33; :lol:

i use GAME (uk Game Store) alot and i was on the website and they have the GeForce FX 5200 for 150 notes <_< so i went looking and thers a place near me which has it for 65 notes :blink:

ive got a good idea of what im gonna build now. cheers.

another question tho :unsure: . whers the best place to start building?

i was going to get the case first followed by the MOBO then the CPU then Ram and finaly the GFX card and fans and stuff :lol:

good or baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad?

[Lamsey]

Try the pinned topic at the top of hardwareworld with links to an online tutorial for building your own PC. that should tell you all you need to know.

[Shiranai_Baka]

How about my question on page 1 lamsey? =D

[Wolfmight]

I suggest looking into Geforce FX 5200 128mb because it has 4x/8x agp support and sells for as low as &#036;60 online (normally sold &#036;100+ in stores)