Is This A Good Card?

[kazaaliterock]

right now i have a machines w/ only a pci slot and i was wondering if this card (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=596020&Sku=V261-3012%20W&CatId=696) would improve my gaming performance over a current MX-440. my 440 is acting weird lately and during cs i wierd things popin up.

P.S. plz dont tel me to get a new mobo cuz i've consider the mobo option but dont want to spent that much to get mobo plus grafic cuz i only game 1-2x a week.

system spec:
1.8 ghz p4
384 mb ddr rams

[exeus]

EDIT: :)

[Virtualbody1234]

Maybe just an update to your drivers could solve those problems.

[kazaaliterock]

no, i try all the driver out there. the newest one didnt work either

[Virtualbody1234]

What about here: http://download.guru3d.com/detonator/

And one other thing that I can think of. Check the fan on your card. is it working and it the heatsink clean?

[kazaaliterock]

lol i dont even have a fan on my card, only heatsink.

the link u gave me was great but i dont know which one would fit my prob.

btw, my card doesnt have a little power thing to plug the fan in so thats y it still only got a heatsink. if i does i would had a fan on it a long time ago.


but aside from that , would the 9100 pro give me ne boost in gaming performance?

[3RA1N1AC]

if you're dead set on sticking with PCI, the Radeon 9100 Pro is the only PCI gaming card that'll give you "decent" speed in recent games. i'd suggest going for one with 128mb of DDR memory, though, because a lot of games do benefit from it nowadays because it'll minimize the amount of data it has to swap back n forth between the graphics card and the motherboard. i'm guessing that your GF4MX has 64mb, so you may as well make your new card an upgrade in all respects-- you'll just get more mileage out of a 128mb model.

if you're gonna get a PCI card, definitely get a 9100 Pro and rule out any other choices because they're all pretty weak in comparison. and yes, it is a significant step up from your current card (and a better performer in games like Counter-Strike) since it makes better use of the PCI interface and it includes hardware support for DirectX 8.1 graphic effects which are becoming standard issue on a lot of the latest popular games.

if you're using Windows XP, it would be well worth your money to bump your system RAM up to at least 512mb, as well. it's not essential, but it would help.

[Mïcrösöül°V³]

HEY!!! get a new mobo........lol, just kidding.............(im sorry i had to do it) but i have noticed that the pci vid cards are getting hard to come by, everything is agp. i have a radeon 9500 pro 128 agp, and i would like nothing more than to get a new mobo so i could get the 8x feature of my card. but yea, the 9100 would be an improvement (so much for my rediculous input :flowers: )

[cwctv]

My 440 is acting weird lately and during cs i wierd things popin up.

Whats popin up funny square things all over !! Seeing that its onboard it could be your system memory at fault see if you can borrow some more off a mate to test the board out. Yes the upgrade is worth it.

[kazaaliterock]

weird blochy (is taht a word?) color thing. other then tah i have no clue how to descirbe it.

@brainiac

ty for ur reply. exactly what i was looking for. I would buy a 128 but i have no clue where to get one. i try new egg but they only have 7000 and the 7500.


btw, y is it that agp graphic card are so much cheaper then pci. examples would be the fx5200 128 mb. agp=$56 on pricewatch and pci= 82 dollars. pci is slower so y is it more expensive?


EDIT: after reading brainiac post i have place the order for a 9100 pro 64mb and 256 mb of ddr ram. ty brainiac.

[Virtualbody1234]

btw, y is it that agp graphic card are so much cheaper then pci. examples would be the fx5200 128 mb. agp=$56 on pricewatch and pci= 82 dollars. pci is slower so y is it more expensive?

I like the fx5200.

PCI is more expensive because they don't make nearly as many. Mass production reduces costs.

[3RA1N1AC]

since you're switching video card brands, it'd be best to follow a certain procedure to make sure the drivers work correctly on the new card--

1) uninstall the Nvidia drivers (either through control panel -> add/remove programs, or with a program like detonator destroyer)
2) shut the PC down, take out the Nvidia card and install the ATI card
3) start the PC, then install the ATI drivers

i know it sounds overly cautious, to insist on removing one company's drivers before installing another's... but a lot of people experience problems when they have Nvidia & ATI driver packages installed at the same time. so i'm just recommending that procedure as the cleanest way to switch brands.

[kazaaliterock]

ty for the advice. cant wait to get the new card. have it on 3 days shipping

[_John_Lennon_]

Originally posted by kazaaliterock@19 October 2003 - 18:14
ty for the advice. cant wait to get the new card. have it on 3 days shipping
So you got that 9100?

Although It is my belief and idea to save up and get a new mobo, and an AGP graphics card, The 9100 link that you provided looks to be a really good deal.

Hope it works out for u.

[abu_has_the_power]

u can get a pci version of the gforce fx 5200. it's 128mb and it works with all the new games

[kazaaliterock]

thanks john.

@abu i would get teh fx5200 128mb but it cuz 2x as much and i dont have that much to spare right now. ughhhh, damn dsl bill. lol

[adamp2p]

Originally posted by kazaaliterock@20 October 2003 - 05:11
thanks john.

@abu i would get teh fx5200 128mb but it cuz 2x as much and i dont have that much to spare right now. ughhhh, damn dsl bill. lol
yes, save up...but not for the fx 5200...is that not part of the crappy Nvidia line that never could come close to its equivalent ATI price point? For $150 you can get a 9600 pro...why not wait and step up to ATI, not down to fx5200?

[Virtualbody1234]

For $150 you can get a 9600 pro...why not wait and step up to ATI, not down to fx5200?

Is that 9600 pro available in PCI. That's his limiting factor here.

[3RA1N1AC]

Originally posted by abu_has_the_power@19 October 2003 - 17:07
u can get a pci version of the gforce fx 5200. it's 128mb and it works with all the new games
the PCI bus is a limiting factor in the case of just about any modern card. there's only so much pixel-pushing power that can be shoved through a 33mhz interface. the GeForce FX 5200s perform just about on par with the Radeon 9100, and actually worse in some cases. that's on the PCI bus. AGP would be a different story. you need to think outside the box, and realize that the PCI interface affects each card's performance differently.

just because one chipset is a better AGP card, it doesn't mean that it's also a better PCI card. tests of the individual cards show that the Radeon 9100 PCI is often neck-and-neck with the GeForce FX PCI cards, and pulls ahead by a pretty good margin in some games.

not to be mean-spirited-- but if you claim that the GeForce FX PCIs are better than the Radeon 9100 PCI just because the GeForce FX is newer technology, then you prolly haven't read any reviews/tests of these cards.

[kazaaliterock]

so the radeon 9100 pro im getting in 2 days is the same as the fx5200

[kazaaliterock]

hmmm okay i found another deals. should i sent the 9100 back and get this card? (http://www.dvcentury.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=96-230-9205) its a 9200 128mb. its $25 more.

[abu_has_the_power]

Originally posted by kazaaliterock@20 October 2003 - 21:36
so the radeon 9100 pro im getting in 2 days is the same as the fx5200
performance wise, close. gfx 5200 has more memory, but speed is about the same. maybe u should save up for a new mobo and 9500 pro. really good but expensive.

and how much u pay for dsl? if it's over 40, u should get cable.

[kazaaliterock]

45 a month, i got a cable deal taht said 2mb connection for 40 a month. but i heard that if a lot of ppl in ur neighbor got the same cable ur speed is gonna be crawling.


i would do taht but im not gonna spent taht much on the maching im planning to upgrade. if im gonna buy a new mobo and gfx card im just gonna build a new comp. (planning to in the next months or so).

but is teh 9200se 128mb better then the 9100 pro 64mb. i heard that the 9000 and 9100 are faster then the 9200. but its only 25 dollars more and have dx 9.0 support adn twice as much memory. so should i stick w/ 9100 or send it back to get teh 9200 se

[3RA1N1AC]

Originally posted by kazaaliterock@20 October 2003 - 13:45
hmmm okay i found another deals. should i sent the 9100 back and get this card? (http://www.dvcentury.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=96-230-9205) its a 9200 128mb. its $25 more.
nah, the one you already chose should be fine. you're getting a 9100 Pro, right? due to a bit of complicated fiddling with the designs on the part of the video card companies, the model numbers sometimes betray their actual performance. a 9100 Pro should be just as good as (if not better than) a 9200 non-Pro. ;)

Nvidia is guilty of creating the same kind of confusion by making some of their GeForce FX cards "Ultra" models and some of them non-Ultra, though.

DirectX 9 support is a nice thing to have, but to be honest i don't think any PCI card that's out right now is fast enough to use DirectX 9 hardware effects anyway. you could enable them, but it would just ruin your card's performance. even this year's AGP cards are having trouble rendering DirectX 9 effects at an acceptable speed. DirectX 8.1 hardware support is definitely "good enough," for a mid-range video card.

[kazaaliterock]

no just found out it was a reg 9100 :( . so should i switch?

[kazaaliterock]

i dont get teh whole dx 9 thing. my friends got a mx440 agp and he uses dx 9.0 w/ no problem. so just cuz it doenst say it support 9.0 doesnt mean it wont right?


hes play gta vice city which uses dx 9.0 w/ 50-60 fps on med setting at 800x600 fine.

so would the radeon 9100 im getting play the gta vc okay? or should i go 9200

[3RA1N1AC]

Originally posted by kazaaliterock@20 October 2003 - 14:06
i dont get teh whole dx 9 thing. my friends got a mx440 agp and he uses dx 9.0 w/ no problem. so just cuz it doenst say it support 9.0 doesnt mean it wont right?


hes play gta vice city which uses dx 9.0 w/ 50-60 fps on med setting at 800x600 fine.

so would the radeon 9100 im getting play the gta vc okay? or should i go 9200
check this out-- http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=445&pid=1591

i'd stick with the 9100. it generally rules. the only test where it does badly is on the jedi knight test-- but that's due to a glitch in the game, not because there's anything wrong with the card. either ATI or LucasArts will prolly fix that problem eventually.

as for directx 8, directx 9... a gf4mx is compatible with them because nvidia's drivers are written to comply with them. but "hardware support" means that the card accelerates all of the graphic effects that are specific to those directx versions. for example, a gf4mx or radeon 7000 could conceivably display modern pixel-shader effects (most well-known for creating a very nice shimmering effect on large masses of water, in recent games), but it would have to be done through the drivers and it would be incredibly slow. a geforce 3/4Ti/FX or a radeon 8500/9000/9500/9800 is designed to handle that effect through its own microchips, and speed it up to a point where it's actually usable.

Vice City is compatible with DirectX 9, but it contains no effects that are specific to DX9. so you don't need hardware DX9 compliance to see all of its effects. your card would display the exact same thing as your friend's card, but with better frame rates... and it'd prolly give you a bit of headroom to enable driver-based filters like Full Screen Anti Aliasing (to smooth the edges) and still maintain a nice framerate.

in contrast, Halo for example has some DX9 effects that you can only view with certain cards (unfortunately the DX9-specific effects slow the game to a crawl on nearly all cards, though)-- but the game still looks pretty darn good on a DX8 card like a radeon 9100 or 9200.

[kazaaliterock]

i luv u brainiac for posting taht link. i luv u . luv u luv u *give big sloppy kiss* lol.


but ne ways y is teh 9200 128mb slower then the reg 9100 64mb (the one im getting in 2 days woohoo)?


so the games taht need dx 9.0 could still run on a 9100 but w/o the dx9.0 features right? so basically i dont need a card taht support dx9.0 if teh dx 9.0 features dont matter to me.

[ToyotaSupra]

If your going to buy online and you live in the USA go to http://www.newegg.com they have awesome quality and fast shipping.

[3RA1N1AC]

Originally posted by kazaaliterock+20 October 2003 - 14:51--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (kazaaliterock &#064; 20 October 2003 - 14:51)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> so the games taht need dx 9.0 could still run on a 9100 but w/o the dx9.0 features right? so basically i dont need a card taht support dx9.0 if teh dx 9.0 features dont matter to me. [/b]
basically. it will be a year or two at least, before more than a handful of games require support for dx9 features.

<!--QuoteBegin-kazaaliterock@20 October 2003 - 14:51
but ne ways y is teh 9200 128mb slower then the reg 9100 64mb (the one im getting in 2 days woohoo)? [/quote]
like i said, it&#39;s the video card company messing around with the design. regardless of mhz (which is only part of the bigger picture), they&#39;ve cut something out of the 9200 that affects its performance.

[kazaaliterock]

Originally posted by ToyotaSupra@20 October 2003 - 23:58
If your going to buy online and you live in the USA go to http://www.newegg.com they have awesome quality and fast shipping.
i would but they dont have very many selection for pci cards. especially teh radeon 9100

[kazaaliterock]

nm it is a 9100 pro. this is the card (http://www.logicalplus.com/vigemx64agpv.html)