Question about video cards

[Jello]

Howdy all, I'm looking for a decent PCI video card for my computer. I got one from Dell back in 2005, it was pretty cheap and a decent computer, but lo and behold it didn't have an AGP slot, although the Dell I got in 2000 did. This rendered my ATI Radeon 9800 useless. I tried putting in a new motherboard with AGP slots, but this didn't work, so it looks like I'm stuck with the PCI untill next March, when I plan to get one that's not a Dell. Anyways, I was wondering if you folks had a suggestion on a good, but inexpensive PCI card, probably under 100 dollars. It'd be nice if it could run doom 3 decently, but I doubt that would happen, maybe just half-life 2. I'd like at least 128 MB on it, basically I just want to run Call of Cthulhu and Day of Defeat without tremendous slowdown... integrated graphics sucks. I've been rather out of the loop on video cards for a few years, so I can't really track down what's new or decent. I found a review of the Nvidia 5200 plus I believe, it has 128MB, but all the benchmarks were for Quake 3 and Jedi Knight 2, so it might be incredibly outdated at this point, but I found one on amazon for 30 bucks. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Steeveeo]

No AGP? Weird...

Just get a comp custom built with a PCI-E slot and card if you're willing to fork over the cash. Or, if you have the skills, build your own (like I did) and spend only half the money.

I overhauled my entire comp with: 256 MB Geforce 6600 PCI-E vid card, new FoxConn mobo with jumperless OC abilities, new Pentium D Dual core 2.8 ghz, and new Transcend Jetram 1 gb (2x512) DDR2 667 RAM. All for about 166 bucks USD (yay Newegg!)

[Plonker]

my old PC has a geforce 5200 and runs Doom3 ok buts thats the AGP version

[Bucket]

Good luck finding stores that sell PCI cards.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-GeForce-FX5500-256MB-PCI-Video-Card-256-MB-TV-DVI_W0QQitemZ250142999632QQihZ015QQcategoryZ40161QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Here is a listing on eBay for a GeForce FX 5500, which I believe is the minimum requirement for Doom 3. It supports DX9, so it should look great, but you'll probably have to turn some effects off.

[Stealthy Ivan]

PCI? Hmm, try AGP, you will have alot more fun... GeForce/NVIDIA,thats the way to go, nuff said! Depending on your motherboard.
BTW Dell sux if you want a really good gaming box...

[Bucket]

Reading is fundamental.

[SyntherAugustus]

IF you can grab a 5900 I'd rather go for that. The game ran like ass on my 5700 AGP.

[doom2day]

My computer is 'suppposedly' better than my parents. I open up both. My motherboard is a newer version than my parents, but to my anger/suprise, theirs is the only one with anything fancier than pci. They get an .... agp slot while my mother board has a suspicious blank spot and a AGP label and holes, but no AGP slot.

[myk]

Hmm, doom2day, what brand are your parents? Are they running out of processing power and memory?

[Erp]

low end computers often have no video card slots, as they were never meant for gaming or graphics apps. A PCI card probably isn't going to play Doom3 very well, if at all. I'd upgrade the mobo/buy a new pc altogether, or give up on Doom3. Next time make sure it has a PCIE-x16 slot. Sorry, I know that doesn't help.

[david_a]

You could get two Voodoo2s :) They'll even run Doom3!

Anyway, these guys seem to think that a Radeon 9250 is the best PCI card.

[Steeveeo]

Plonker said:

my old PC has a geforce 5200 and runs Doom3 ok buts thats the AGP version

lol, exactly what I had...but for some reason it ran Doom3 at 4 FPS...strange. Oh well! Now I can play it at much higher speeds!

[Jello]

I rather figured that running doom 3 on a PCI card would be close to impossible, but not running doom 3 isn't really a problem, I just wanted one in that area. The next computer I get I am thinking about just building one, I've replaced virtually everything in computers before, so it would just take some time and concentration. I probably will look into that GeForce 5500 though, never thought I'd see a PCI card in 256mb variety. Thank for all your suggestions, gave me a good course to follow!

[redmage125]

Satan makes video cards in his factory in HELL.

[Jello]

redmage125 said:

Satan makes video cards in his factory in HELL.

Well then I must say all hail Satan! I loves me my polygons and mipmapping and whatnot.

[redmage125]

Jello said:

Well then I must say all hail Satan! I loves me my polygons and mipmapping and whatnot.

Yeah, they kick ass, but finding the right card is annoying.

[doom2day]

myk said:

Hmm, doom2day, what brand are your parents? Are they running out of processing power and memory?

I don't think that my parents are branded. But:
''My computer'' (my father bought it):
Compaq Presario SR1123WM
--CELERON D == BAH
Some intel integrated graphics that barely runs doom3 - SUCKS LIKE HELL WITH PARTICLES -- Lags like hell on opengl in skulltag looking at the telporter particle pit in D2ST2 - ON 640 x 480!
Their computer:
Compaq Presario S4020WM
Those were decent 500$ computers back in the day, I hope.

[Jello]

doom2day said:

I don't think that my parents are branded. But:
''My computer'' (my father bought it):
Compaq Presario SR1123WM
--CELERON D == BAH
Some intel integrated graphics that barely runs doom3 - SUCKS LIKE HELL WITH PARTICLES -- Lags like hell on opengl in skulltag looking at the telporter particle pit in D2ST2 - ON 640 x 480!
Their computer:
Compaq Presario S4020WM
Those were decent 500$ computers back in the day, I hope.

Anything with a Celeron is not decent, my mother got a laptop with one after I warned her numerous times not to get one. It ended up taking about 20 minutes to start up and load windows after about a year. I've also noticed that intel integrated graphics has a really hard time with particle effects. Mine runs soldier of fortune 2 great at 1280x1024, but as soon as I throw an incendiary grenade the framerate drops to around 2fps. They really need to fix it, because it's not a terrible default graphics chip, but anytime there's flames on screen it pretty much dies.

Anyways, I ended up ordering a Radeon 9250 256mb card today, 50 bucks. I'll let you all know how it works. The last Radeon I had was great, never failed me, so I hope this one is decent. I really hate PCI.

[myk]

Jello said:
Anything with a Celeron is not decent, my mother got a laptop with one after I warned her numerous times not to get one. It ended up taking about 20 minutes to start up and load windows after about a year.

Maybe some Celerons are bad, but mine never gave me any problems (on the contrary). It's an older "coppermine" model, though.

[Jello]

To be fair I've only known 3 people with Celerons, but they all had problems with them from day one. Basically they were advertised as being a normal processor, but they were just a cheaper Pentium, hence they didn't preform as well. The main problem was just that they were underpowered, but my mother's especially just became a hunk of crap. It took a good 4 minutes to open IE in it, but she might've just installed so many pointless programs and gotten a fair amount of viruses. I'm pretty sure she had bonzai buddy at some point. I'm also wondering, is Athlon still around? I heard good things about them a few years ago, but last I heard they were having some problems.

[Jodwin]

Jello said:

The main problem was just that they were underpowered, but my mother's especially just became a hunk of crap. It took a good 4 minutes to open IE in it, but she might've just installed so many pointless programs and gotten a fair amount of viruses.

Yeah, check the amount of ram first before taking the blame on processors when trying to open programs...