Best video card for an old hand-me-down...

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Luxatos

About a year ago I received a gift computer when a friend got a better
one. I've been upgrading it slowly... and now I've run into a bit of a
problem. It's nigh-impossible to find a good video card to put into
it. I've tried a couple that "should have worked" but didn't.

Okay, first of all... the motherboard is a PCChips M810L revision 7.1c

Before you say anything along these lines, I'm not interested in
changing motherboards, even though I know it's a really cheap/crappy
board. I'm only interested in knowing what the best video card is,
which is compatible with it. Like an idiot I tried a GeForce 6800
first without actually doing any research into my motherboard. I just
knew it had an AGP4X slot.

So... there ya have it. Any help would be appreciated, and any
suggestions to scrap the whole computer, while perhaps helpful for the
general community, aren't what I'm interested in right now, nor do I
have the budget for it.

Lux
 
Luxatos said:
About a year ago I received a gift computer when a friend got a better
one. I've been upgrading it slowly... and now I've run into a bit of a
problem. It's nigh-impossible to find a good video card to put into
it. I've tried a couple that "should have worked" but didn't.

Okay, first of all... the motherboard is a PCChips M810L revision 7.1c

Before you say anything along these lines, I'm not interested in
changing motherboards, even though I know it's a really cheap/crappy
board. I'm only interested in knowing what the best video card is,
which is compatible with it. Like an idiot I tried a GeForce 6800
first without actually doing any research into my motherboard. I just
knew it had an AGP4X slot.

So... there ya have it. Any help would be appreciated, and any
suggestions to scrap the whole computer, while perhaps helpful for the
general community, aren't what I'm interested in right now, nor do I
have the budget for it.

Lux
Click to expand...


I would take a look at the manual for this mb. This is what it listed on the
second page, and then go to the PC Chips site to see if they tested anymore
cards for it. I'd be interested to know what happened when you put in that
GeForce 6800.
Notice for AGP4X Slot:

This mainboard provides an optional AGP4x slot. We recommend the user should
use one of the AGP VGA cards that we have tested. We will test more AGP VGA
cards in the future. Users may get this information from our World Wide Web
at www.pcchips.com.tw.

Model Chipset
Memory
Manufacture

3D BLASTER GeForce
32M
Creative CT6940

ATI PERMEDIA 2
8M
WinFast 3D L2300

GeForce 256
32M
ASUS V6600

GeForce 2 MX
32M
ASUS AGP-V7100

GeForce 2 GTS DDR
32M
ASUS AGP-7700D

GeForce 2 GTS DDR
32M
ELSA GLADIAC

GeForce 2 GTS
32M
WinFast

GeForce 2 MX
32M
WinFast

Matrox Productiva G100
8M
Matrox

Matrox Millennium G200
8M
TAGRAM

NVIDIA GeForce 256 DDR
32M
ASUS V6800

NVIDIA GeForce 256
32M
Creative CT6970

NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Vanta
32M
Top solution

RIVA TNT2 M64
16M
PixelView

RIVA TNT
16M
WinFast 3D S320

RIVA TNT2
32M
ASUS AGP-V3800

RIVA TNT2
32M
Creative CT6810
 
Luxatos said:
About a year ago I received a gift computer when a friend got a better
one. I've been upgrading it slowly... and now I've run into a bit of a
problem. It's nigh-impossible to find a good video card to put into
it. I've tried a couple that "should have worked" but didn't.

Okay, first of all... the motherboard is a PCChips M810L revision 7.1c

Before you say anything along these lines, I'm not interested in
changing motherboards, even though I know it's a really cheap/crappy
board. I'm only interested in knowing what the best video card is,
which is compatible with it. Like an idiot I tried a GeForce 6800
first without actually doing any research into my motherboard. I just
knew it had an AGP4X slot.

So... there ya have it. Any help would be appreciated, and any
suggestions to scrap the whole computer, while perhaps helpful for the
general community, aren't what I'm interested in right now, nor do I
have the budget for it.

Lux
Click to expand...

The guy here, had to use Powerstrip (entechtaiwan.com) to get
the slot to run at 4X rate. But at least his card worked
when he plugged it in. He was using an ATI 9000 Pro.

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/archive/index.php/t-27105.html

The news blurb here says the board uses SiS730S Northbridge:

http://www.pcchipsusa.com/pcchips-newsa.asp

According to the following page, many things should work with
that slot. The question I cannot answer for you, is
which subset of cards ("Universal AGP Card" or "Universal
AGP 3.0 Card") is the best one to choose from. The
reason I suggest those two subsets, is they can operate
from 3.3V, if for any reason the motherboard decides to
run that way. Your 6800 is a "Universal 1.5V AGP 3.0 Card",
and maybe you should just stay away from that subset when
buying another card ? Maybe an FX5900 would be a high end
choice, if a 1.5V only card is not going to work. According
to the tables here, the 6800 should have worked, and all
I can suggest, is move to a subset of cards (either
"Universal AGP Card" or "Universal AGP 3.0 Card"), to
try and get something working.

http://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp.html

Considering the price of experimenting by buying video cards,
I'd be tempted to replace the motherboard (yes, I know you
didn't want to hear that). The problem is finding a board
that uses SDRAM. If you could afford to pick up some DDR
unbuffered RAM plus a more recent S462 socket motherboard,
you might be able to use the 6800. You might want to make
sure the power supply is strong enough as well.

One thing that is curious, is if I go here:

http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/index.html

and search via Chipset = 730S, not all the motherboards
listed use the AGP slot. For example, the Asus has only
four PCI slots. I don't know why all the boards did
not populate or have an AGP connector with that chipset.
Only some did.

Paul
 
Luxatos said:
About a year ago I received a gift computer when a friend got a better
one. I've been upgrading it slowly... and now I've run into a bit of a
problem. It's nigh-impossible to find a good video card to put into
it. I've tried a couple that "should have worked" but didn't.

Okay, first of all... the motherboard is a PCChips M810L revision 7.1c

Before you say anything along these lines, I'm not interested in
changing motherboards, even though I know it's a really cheap/crappy
board. I'm only interested in knowing what the best video card is,
which is compatible with it. Like an idiot I tried a GeForce 6800
first without actually doing any research into my motherboard. I just
knew it had an AGP4X slot.
Click to expand...

Unless you're trying to play resource-intensive games, a plain vanilla
Matrox may be a good choice. The G450 can be had for $40 or so, and the
G550 for $110. Do a bit
of research to see what you need.
 
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