Radeon 9100 Pro

[kazaaliterock]

i need a new vid card and decided to go w/ ati becuz the card i have now is a nvidia mx440 and its a pile of crap. it cant even run cs right. so i was wondering if the 9100 is ne good. i can get it for $50 which i think is a really good deal. i woulda went w/ the fx5200 but i heard it was crappy and its cause $50 more so do u think this is a good deal? THIS IS THE CARD (http://www.shentech.com/vixt91ra91pr.html)

Oh the reason its a pci is becuz i have no agp.

[3RA1N1AC]

if you had AGP, i would say the Radeon 9100 is a significant improvement over the MX440. but with PCI, it's harder to say what the difference would be. i'm afraid the improvement would not be nearly as big, as it would be with AGP.

in fact, if you had AGP, the MX440 would have no problem with Counter-Strike. that game doesn't require a really good video card. i am sure the real problem is the fact you only have PCI slots. the MX440 is not crap, PCI is crap (for 3D cards at least).

[kazaaliterock]

yes IF i had agp. but like stated above i dont. so would it be worth it to buy the 9100

[3RA1N1AC]

like i stated above, PCI is crap. you need to get a motherboard with an AGP slot, if you want decent game performance. for less than $200, you could get an Nforce motherboard (with integrated video that would kick your PCI card's butt AND an AGP slot for upgrading later), a CPU, and 256MB DDR RAM. each piece should cost about $50-$60. buying another PCI card would just be a waste of money.

[kazaaliterock]

okay mayb my question is not clear. I dont want to go to all the hassle of a new mobo cuz i only play games mayb 2x a week. i only want to know if the 9100 pro is gonna improve my performance from the mx440. i dont need another answer like "PCI is crap. you need to get a motherboard with an AGP slot" i know that pci is crap but that is my only option for upgrade.

[andrew2022]

i had a geforce 4. worked perfect in games, but wasnt compatable wit my comp nd kept crashin it. then got a radion 7000 which played games absolutly shit. they played worse than the onboard graphix

[kazaaliterock]

haha yea i almost bought a 7000 but when i look at review and benchmark for it, it was hte same as my intel 845gl intergrated gfx card

[Wolfmight]

hmm 9100 pro is quite old and wont be anything twice as fast.. i say try to save some more cash and look into a 9500 pro or something if possible. If you got a new mobo that has atleast 4x agp and all. I went from a Nvidia Geforce MX 440 64mb myself and the benchmark difference between it and my new 9500 pro are amazingly different. useing 3Dmark03 the Geforce MX 440 64mb got about 500 in 800x600 res while my Radeon 9500 Pro 128mb got 4879 in 800x600 res.. it was 4400 somethin in 1024x768.. not bad at all ;)
The card does cost about $200 but it runs even the newest games at max graphics with fps of like 60-90.. and 100s when u use normal graphics settings..
Hey atleast it doesnt cost $300-$400 like the Radeon 9800 Pro... I was talkin to some people on the Rage3D forum about that and they said it wasnt really at it hyped to be.. (not twice as fast as 9500 pro)

[kazaaliterock]

nm the 9100 what u recommend for a new mobo that has agp and usb 2.0 w/ a intergrated sound card? no more than $70. cuz of all ur answer "If you got a new mobo that has atleast 4x agp and all" i dicided to invest in a new mobo.


my spce right now so u can recomend the new mobo
intel 1.8 celeron
384mb of pc2100
pci mx440
and wherre can i get one of those cream thingy to put on the celeron b4 installing it to new mobo

[kazaaliterock]

okay how bout this one (http://www.shentech.com/shavviaso478.html)

[3RA1N1AC]

well, it looks like that board is compatible with your current CPU & RAM, so that's good. i'm not too familiar with Intel-compatible boards, but VIA (the company that designed its chip set) is a good company. my older PC has an AMD-compatible motherboard from VIA, and it still works fine after a few years... so i don't imagine the Shuttle AV49N would give you any problems.

re: thermal paste to put on the CPU-- Arctic Silver III is the old stand-by that most people swear by. there are other brands, but Arctic Silver is good. make sure to clean the old thermal gunk off your Celeron with rubbing alcohol (and let the alchohol evaporate) before you put the new stuff on it.

as far as video cards, a Radeon 9000 or better ("PRO" models are preferable) or GeForceFX 5200 or better ("Ultra" models are preferable) would pretty much rock Counter-Strike and be able to run most newer games at decent speeds. i know i already said "don't get a Radeon 9100 PCI" and i'm recommending (at least) a 9000 AGP, but the AGP slot really makes enough of a difference that the slightly slower video chip performs much better because of the faster slot.

i'm not one of those people that would tell you to buy a bunch of expensive computer crap just because it's cool to own the latest stuff-- i honestly believe that spending around $150-$160 on a motherboard + AGP video card is a better idea (and the game performance will be much more satisfying) than spending $50-$100 on another PCI video card. it'll give you more bang for your buck, imho.

[kazaaliterock]

if i get that board no way am i gonna get pci 9100. the agp versoin is faster and cheaper too. :D