GeForce for an old computer and Vista requirements?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BarMan
  • Start date Start date
B

BarMan

I've got a question,

Let's say I've got a 5yo PC with an old motherboard. I need a new AGP
graphic card, but I don't want to buy a new motherboard, it'd be more
expensive than buying a new PC. The fault is Vista, which will dominate
worldwide PCs. I heard about the new Aero interface and it needs really
fast hardware. I don't need to change the PC, cause I use it only for
Internet and office using, sometimes I play old games. I have a 16MB
(sic!) graphic card, which was added to the PC when I bought it. I have
really poor abilities to improve the PC, it has an 800MHx processor, 256
MB of SDRAM (I need to buy more), an ATA disk (at least this is new and
has 160 GB), a DVD player and a DVD recorder. The newest thing is the
power supply adapter. The graphic card can have a D-sub and TV-out port.
WHICH GeForce can suit my needs?

Sorry if I wrote some unimportant things, I'm new in this group,
BaMan
 
BarMan said:
I've got a question,

Let's say I've got a 5yo PC with an old motherboard. I need a new AGP
graphic card, but I don't want to buy a new motherboard, it'd be more
expensive than buying a new PC. The fault is Vista, which will dominate
worldwide PCs. I heard about the new Aero interface and it needs really
fast hardware. I don't need to change the PC, cause I use it only for
Internet and office using, sometimes I play old games. I have a 16MB
(sic!) graphic card, which was added to the PC when I bought it. I have
really poor abilities to improve the PC, it has an 800MHx processor, 256
MB of SDRAM (I need to buy more), an ATA disk (at least this is new and
has 160 GB), a DVD player and a DVD recorder. The newest thing is the
power supply adapter. The graphic card can have a D-sub and TV-out port.
WHICH GeForce can suit my needs?

Sorry if I wrote some unimportant things, I'm new in this group,
BaMan
Click to expand...

Don't spend money in upgrading a 5 years old PC. You' ll waste your money.
You' ll have to find an (obsolete) VGA card, obsolete memory modules, aso,
and it will still be a slow PC, especially for running Vista (which is not
yet a must).
I' d buy (or build) a new PC and keep the new HD as a backup device which I
should mount into an external USB or Firewire enclosure. Finally, Ebay could
help to get some $ for your old hardware.
 
BarMan said:
I've got a question,

Let's say I've got a 5yo PC with an old motherboard. I need a new AGP
graphic card, but I don't want to buy a new motherboard, it'd be more
expensive than buying a new PC. The fault is Vista, which will dominate
worldwide PCs. I heard about the new Aero interface and it needs really
fast hardware. I don't need to change the PC, cause I use it only for
Internet and office using, sometimes I play old games. I have a 16MB
(sic!) graphic card, which was added to the PC when I bought it. I have
really poor abilities to improve the PC, it has an 800MHx processor, 256
MB of SDRAM (I need to buy more), an ATA disk (at least this is new and
has 160 GB), a DVD player and a DVD recorder. The newest thing is the
power supply adapter. The graphic card can have a D-sub and TV-out port.
WHICH GeForce can suit my needs?
Click to expand...


For what you use the machine for...
there would be no need to upgrade anything...I'd just leave it as is.

As far as Vista goes...don't even think about it.
Win2k and XP will be around for many more years
 
philo napisa³(a):
For what you use the machine for...
there would be no need to upgrade anything...I'd just leave it as is.
Click to expand...
I must upgrade it cause I told you that sometimes I play old games. And
the 16 MB RAM on my graphic card totally rejects me from playing games
from 2004 and later seasons. All the games require minimum 32 MB. And if
I want to upgrade it, I'd want to have a fast one...
As far as Vista goes...don't even think about it.
Win2k and XP will be around for many more years
Click to expand...

Yeah yeah... 6 years and it'll be over. In fact, Micro$oft stopped
supporting XPs with SP1. I'm having a problem with Windows Live
Messenger. It's good that XP worked on my platform, cause I've been
using W98SE for several years... At first it worked smoothly, but later
I had so many problems, that I had to format the hard drive 3 times a
week. Now it's working nice, except some more requiring games. And I
need a TV-out to make slideshows in the living room :PBesides, I'm considering buying a laptop and the PC would be used as a
router, gamefield and a storage unit for the photos...
 
BarMan said:
philo napisa³(a):

I must upgrade it cause I told you that sometimes I play old games. And
the 16 MB RAM on my graphic card totally rejects me from playing games
from 2004 and later seasons. All the games require minimum 32 MB. And if
I want to upgrade it, I'd want to have a fast one...


Yeah yeah... 6 years and it'll be over. In fact, Micro$oft stopped
supporting XPs with SP1. I'm having a problem with Windows Live
Messenger. It's good that XP worked on my platform, cause I've been
using W98SE for several years... At first it worked smoothly, but later
I had so many problems, that I had to format the hard drive 3 times a
week. Now it's working nice, except some more requiring games. And I
need a TV-out to make slideshows in the living room :P
Besides, I'm considering buying a laptop and the PC would be used as a
router, gamefield and a storage unit for the photos...
Click to expand...

This chart benchmarks a whole bunch of video cards, versus two different
CPUs. One CPU is faster than the other. In this example, the owner of
the Athlon 1000 processor gets poor value for money, for anything
more powerful than a TI4200.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2003/01/20/vga_charts_ii/page5.html

You can buy a card, which has the latest DirectX hardware support,
and which has more RAM than your current card. You'd want a card
with Universal AGP or Universal AGP 3.0, as your video slot is
likely 3.3V only. All that compatibility stuff is explained here:

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

Playtool does not have all the latest video cards listed, simply
because for the author of the web page, AGP is a dead technology.

So, you crossreference the info in the playtool web page, against
this (incomplete) card database:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/

The problem with the modern cards, is they are keyed for 1.5V
only motherboards. If the cards had two slots cut in them, it
would be more reasonable to assume they would fit in a 3.3V only
motherboard. So everything I see pictured here, doesn't look
suitable for something like a 440BX based system.

http://www.ixbt.com/video2/agp-2k6.shtml

That leaves things like FX5200 and FX5500. They have DirectX 9
hardware support (minus a couple commands actually), and would
be the best compromise with respect to being Universal AGP 3.0.
The ATI cards that support 1.5V and 3.3V, tend to stop at
DirectX 8.1.

This card is a regular profile card, keeping the output signals
on the PCB (uses no ribbon cable, to mess up the VGA signals).
It has a 128bit interface to the memory. Has two slots cut in
the edge card, which means it will work at 1.5V or 3.3V, for an
old motherboard.

eVGA 256-A8-N313-LX GeForce FX5500 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130197

In the customer reviews, they mention that the fan is not very
good on it. If you need an after market one, there is one
here. It comes with a little bit of thermal paste, for the
GPU. You do not need to install the RAM sinks, as the RAM on
the board will not be getting very hot. Pick up one of these
and save it for a rainy day.

VF700 cooler - check compatibility list - FX5500 is listed as OK.
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=150&code=013

ZALMAN VF700-ALCU 2 Ball VGA COOLER - Retail $27
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118116

HTH,
Paul
 
Get a secondhand geforce4 ti4200/4600/4800 card. Anything above
that is a waste of money since your system is otherwise too slow to
take advantage of the cards performance. As far as Vista is concerned
it makes no sense at all to try to install it on your system, you would need
to upgrade it a lot more and it still would run slow.

TH
 
Zz napisa³(a):
As far as Vista is concerned
it makes no sense at all to try to install it on your system, you would need
to upgrade it a lot more and it still would run slow.
Click to expand...

Are the cards mentioned by you compatible with DirectX 9? The minimum
requirements for Vista are: A minimum 800 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM and
a DX9 compatible graphics driver. This type of hardware lets Vista work
nice and fast, but the graphic gadgets (i.e. Aero Glass) are turned off.
For my needs I don't need that junk, cause I want my PC to work smooth,
not to be an art gallery. And if I bought more RAM (for example upgraded
to 768 MB), I think Vista would work there. What do you think?
 
Zz napisa³(a):
As far as Vista is concerned
it makes no sense at all to try to install it on your system, you would need
to upgrade it a lot more and it still would run slow.
Click to expand...

Are the cards mentioned by you compatible with DirectX 9? The minimum
requirements for Vista are: A minimum 800 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM and
a DX9 compatible graphics driver. This type of hardware lets Vista work
nice and fast, but the graphic gadgets (i.e. Aero Glass) are turned off.
For my needs I don't need that junk, cause I want my PC to work smooth,
not to be an art gallery. And if I bought more RAM (for example upgraded
to 768 MB), I think Vista would work there. What do you think?

PS: I just found out that my maximum AGP speed is 4X, so is it possible
that 8X graphic cards will work on it?
 
BarMan said:
philo napisa³(a):

I must upgrade it cause I told you that sometimes I play old games. And
the 16 MB RAM on my graphic card totally rejects me from playing games
from 2004 and later seasons. All the games require minimum 32 MB. And if
I want to upgrade it, I'd want to have a fast one...
Click to expand...

Oh...
then by all means get a better graphics card

by old games I thought you meant stuff from 10 years ago
which would not need a better graphics card...

about the only game I play is the Tetris version that works on win3.1 !!!!!
 
You will need at least 1 GB of RAM to run Vista to run it at a reasonable
speed. And if your motherboad does not use DDR RAM, Vista may still run a
little slow.
 
You will need at least 1 GB of RAM to run Vista to run it at a reasonable
speed. And if your motherboad does not use DDR RAM, Vista may still run a
little slow.
Click to expand...


Vista will run a little slow either way, hundreds of MB of
code running just for the OS isn't a light load in itself.
 
philo napisa³(a):
by old games I thought you meant stuff from 10 years ago
which would not need a better graphics card...
Click to expand...

Well, I play those too! I have a nice DOS version of Pong (the bad thing
is that the ball is served only from the left side), but I mentioned
usually games from 5-4 years ago. Since these years were the worst to
buy a PC (there was the standard change, the new slots for processors,
memmories etc.) now we either have to hunt for expensive obsoleted parts
on EBay, or invest in a new PC. I prefer the first mode, cause I don't
need a hyperfast machine just for typing and searching the Net. The
worst thing is that Microsoft treats us badly and stops supporting all
older versions of their "only justifiable system" and forces us o buy a
new one and - in many cases - buy a new PC.
 
DaveW napisa³(a):
You will need at least 1 GB of RAM to run Vista to run it at a reasonable
speed. And if your motherboad does not use DDR RAM, Vista may still run a
little slow.
Click to expand...
IF my mobo would ever support 1 GB RAM, not to mention finding 2 modules
of 512 MB of SDRAM, it's almost impossible, or they'd be really expensive.
 
BarMan said:
philo napisa³(a):


Well, I play those too! I have a nice DOS version of Pong (the bad thing
is that the ball is served only from the left side), but I mentioned
usually games from 5-4 years ago. Since these years were the worst to
buy a PC (there was the standard change, the new slots for processors,
memmories etc.) now we either have to hunt for expensive obsoleted parts
on EBay, or invest in a new PC. I prefer the first mode, cause I don't
need a hyperfast machine just for typing and searching the Net. The
worst thing is that Microsoft treats us badly and stops supporting all
older versions of their "only justifiable system" and forces us o buy a
new one and - in many cases - buy a new PC.
Click to expand...

Did you ever hear of Linux, or even W98? Just say no.
 
CBFalconer napisa?(a):
Did you ever hear of Linux, or even W98? Just say no.
Click to expand...
I even use it, but linux has got problems with drivers. For example - it
takes time to install my ADSL modem, not to mention that I don't have
drivers to my scanner and printer, or even my webcam. Secondly - the
programs are sometimes less functional (Kopete, which I used for MSNing
doesn't have a videochat feature, Skype doesn't work properly, I can't
run windows programs on it).
I used W98 for years, but I had to change it. Imagine formatting your HD
3 times a week...
Happy?
 
BarMan said:
philo napisa³(a):


Well, I play those too! I have a nice DOS version of Pong (the bad thing
is that the ball is served only from the left side), but I mentioned
usually games from 5-4 years ago. Since these years were the worst to
buy a PC (there was the standard change, the new slots for processors,
memmories etc.) now we either have to hunt for expensive obsoleted parts
Click to expand...


Well about the only game I play is the tetris version that works on win3x
!!!!
 
Back
Top