PCI video card help?

yeafro · #1 (**permalink**) 02-25-2007, 09:29 PM

I have been wanting to buy a video card so that i can run my guild wars game and run other games more enhanced but any ways I have a normal PCI slot and i was wondering what a good card would be for under $90 or $80 would be. If you could reply with a link that would be great thanks
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I was looking at this Newegg.com - PNY GeForce FX5500 VCGFX55PPB Video Card - Retail
and it looks pretty good for what i need. people commented that it worked great for dual monitor which i would like to do and its good for its price. if you have a better one you think would be better plz give me a link thanks

onekid · #2 (**permalink**) 02-25-2007, 10:09 PM

For your budget and needs i would sugest you got a 256mb video card, unlike the 128 mb one you are curently looking at.

eWiz.com XFX nVidia GeForce FX5200 256MB DVI/TV-out PCI Video Card
heres one that sahould meet your needs and budget.

guyladouche · #3 (**permalink**) 02-25-2007, 11:38 PM

Hi. That card should play Guild Wars--which states recommended requirements as 64MB video card (among others). However, other than that game, that card probably won't do a whole lot for you as far as newer games go (within the last two and a half years or so). It's an older card and only supports 64-bit memory--which by current standards is very very slow--to illustrate, current cards (within the last two years or so) operate with 256-bit memory.

Do you have an AGP slot? I think if you do, it would be much easier and cheaper to get an AGP card--there are tons out there with much better specs that are only about twenty bucks more. PCI graphics cards were not really produced a lot after AGP became the standard--it honestly might be more worthwhile to get a motherboard that has at least an APG slot (if not PCI-E x16...). Because the AGP cards are quite cheap and very easy to find--and there are very very good AGP cards out now--unlike older PCI cards, which are poor and few and far between. Likely you won't find a regular PCI video card that will do what you want.

yeafro · #4 (**permalink**) 02-26-2007, 12:41 AM

Well i do have a AGP slot this is a link to my mother board HP and Compaq Desktop PCs*-* Motherboard Specifications, K8S-LA (Salmon)*
i dont no much about AGP and if its that much better then do you think you could help me pick one out for a decent price? thanks

guyladouche · #5 (**permalink**) 02-26-2007, 02:19 AM

Okay--that's good. Thanks for the link--it helped. I'd go AGP instead. I had an ATI Radeon 9550 before I got my x1950pro, and the 9550 was an exceptional card, in my opinion, given it's release date and what it can still play. It's a 256MB card, which is good, and has a decent chipset--it plays Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 just fine (though it doesn't like advanced shadows/lighting). On newer, more taxing games (like FEAR and PREY) it does lag quite a bit, but that's to be expected--I wouldn't bother trying to play them with the 9550. I think you can find the ATI Radeon 9550 at WalMart still--but it is available on newegg too (as I do not like shopping at WalMart): Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR Radeon 9550 R96-LD3 Video Card - Retail

This is not the ATI brand, but rather Powercolor--not sure if they're any good. I have never used them.

If you're interested in playing newer games but don't want to get a new computer with PCI-E x16 graphics, then there is the more expensive option of getting an AGP version of an ATI Radeon x1950pro or an Nvidia Geforce 7600GT. They're both 256MB cards, but have the same chipset as the PCI-Express x16 versions of the cards. Granted, AGP is a slower interface than PCI-E x16, but they'll still give good performance--way better than a 9550 but not as good as the PCI-E x16 versions of the cards. The downside is the price--the 7600 is ~$180 and the x1950pro is ~$230. If it matters that much to have a good video card, one might as well build a new computer with a new motherboard with a PCI-E x16 interface.

So there you have it. That's my recommendation. Perhaps someone has better recommendations for Nvidia cards--I've pretty much used ATI in the recent past, so that's what I know about.

yeafro · #6 (**permalink**) 02-26-2007, 02:59 AM

The link you gave me thanks from all the comments every one says its a good card. Do you think that this will function well with dual monitor settings cause thats another reason i wanna get a video card. Also another reason i didn't look into AGP before is because when i searched them on newegg I could search 2X/4X or 4X/8X (as this card is) and i was wondering Is that like PCI and PCI express where they are different formats or is it different models. like i said before i don't no much about AGP's. Lastly many of my friends have told me before that ATI's sucked and that i should go with GeForce. Do you believe in this or what?

guyladouche · #7 (**permalink**) 02-26-2007, 05:32 PM

Hi. It will do fine with dual monitors--just realize that one output is a DVI output (digital), and the other is a VGA (analog) output--but you can get adapters for either at your local electronics store. To clarify though, I don't think you'll be able to use it for gaming on dual monitors simultaneously--I don't think the card can handle that.

The number after AGP (4x/8x) is regarding the speed at which the card operates in reference to the AGP bus speed. AGP operates in speeds from 2x to 8x I believe. 8x is the fastest it can operate, and is just a relative mulitplier--I don't remember what the actual throughput of the AGP bus is in terms of MB/s or something like that. Anyway, 8x is the fastest the bus and card can operate. In terms of the card I linked, the 4x/8x means that it can operate with an AGP slot that transfers at 4x or 8x--not lower than that (I have yet to run into a computer that is less than 7 years old that doesn't have at least 4x AGP, but most have 8x AGP--you don't have to worry about that). So basically an 8x card can transfer data twice as fast as a 4x card. That's about all you need to know about it in terms of what card to buy. Also, you need to check the AGP settings in your computer's BIOS and make sure it is set to 8x for an 8x card if you want to get the best performance--I've noticed that some motherboards have 4x as the default setting.

The battle between Nvidia and ATI has been a long one. Here's the deal. That 9550 card is an exceptional card given when it was made and how much it costs right now. But it's not better than a 7600GS or even an ATI Radeon x1300, for example (which is one of Nvidia's newer cards, and one of ATI's older cards from their newest line of cards), but it's probably better than the 7100 you were originally going to get. I don't think that you can say Nvidia is always better than ATI or ATI is always better than Nvidia, or ATI sucks or Nvidia sucks, because different applications and different conditions will apply and always give different outcomes--just like how one cannot always say that Intel is better than AMD or vice versa. It depends on what you're comparing it to, and what you want out of the product. The 9550 is a fine card given what you were talking about wanting to play. But nothing will beat a newer card.

Generally with newer cards, people like to get Nvidia because they are about the same price, but you can overclock Nvidia cards much more than ATI cards if you invest in a new heatsink/fan for the card. But out of the box, similar classes of ATI cards perform better than Nvidia cards--but the possibilities for the Nvidia cards are much greater if you want to overclock your card. So that's the story. I really don't care much for overclocking a video card--I'd rather have a good product out of the box rather than one I have to tweak and troubleshoot. But generally a comparable card from each distributor (like an ATI Radeon x1900xt and an Nvidia Geforce 7900gt) will perform pretty much the same in a gaming application. Performance varies from game to game, and sometimes the ATI card is ahead, but in other games the Nvidia card is ahead.

yeafro · #8 (**permalink**) 02-27-2007, 12:12 AM

Thanks again for all the information. Last night i downloaded counterstrike source demo version and i didn't think it would run that great any ways but figuring that I run Halo combat evolved just fine i figured that counterstrike would run decently but it came in with horrible graphics and every thing. So do you think that the card you linked me to would support that game at high graphics qualities or basic.

Oh and i was a little confused when you said "I don't think you'll be able to use it for gaming on dual monitors simultaneously--I don't think the card can handle that." If i'm thinking correctly your saying it wont be able to handle dual monitors and gaming at the same time so that is why i would like to get a better card with a little more money.

Also with the card you linked me to its only around $60 with shipping and all and if their is any thing out there that you would think would be worth more my money than that i can afford around $80, $90. I just wanna get a good cheep card that will last me a couple years with basic games (Halo, CSS, Guild Wars, ext.). I have owned this computer for I think 5yrs now and its been running off a SIM chip i don't completely understand that but I just need a basic upgrade

Lastly what does it mean from my motherboard where it says "AGP 1.5" Cause thats what i was confused with compatibility of 2X-8X. And seriously thank you for all this help I just wanna make sure I get my money's worth of this card.

guyladouche · #9 (**permalink**) 02-27-2007, 04:42 AM

Hi again. I don't know if the 9550 will play that game or not--I never tried. I know it plays Battlefield 2 and 2141 just fine, along with Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefront 2. I can't remember what else it plays. I'm pretty sure it played Half Life 2 okay--the game worked better with some detail settings disabled, but it played just fine.

If you want to spend around $100, I can't really recommend anything because there are much better cards out for around $150 or so which completely blow the $100 cards out of the water. But they're all PCI-express x16 cards. This is by far the best AGP card, but it's quite pricey given your budget: Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR Radeon X1950PRO X1950PRO256AGP Video Card - Retail

I really don't know what I'd recommend. I'd say that the ATI Radeon x1300 and x1600 series cards are likely better than the 9550, but I wouldn't call them good for new games. Here's a x1600pro for $100, but I can't vouch for it's performance. In comparison to newer cards, it's not that great. In comparison to the 9550, it's probably better. Newegg.com - Open Box: DIAMOND Radeon X1600PRO X1600AGP256SB Video Card - OEM

If you see AGP 1.5, that means that you have an AGP slot that operates off of 1.5volts--so anything other than a 1.5 volt AGP card won't work (and might damage your motherboard). The 1.5 does not have anything to do with the speed of the AGP slot. The way to find out the AGP slot is by going into the BIOS and check the AGP settings.

Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll try to help.
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What I meant regarding the dual monitors was that if you some how wanted to hook up two panel monitors and make them into one big monitor, that won't work for gaming--that's all I meant. It'll work just fine for dual-monitors--I had no problems.

yeafro · #10 (**permalink**) 02-28-2007, 12:14 AM

Thanks for all the help. I'm just going to go with the original link you gave me because it sounds like that is really good for the price and i can defiantly afford it
Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR Radeon 9550 R96-LD3 Video Card - Retail plus since i just lost my flash drive ill just throw that on the my shipping list. I'm going to add you to my friends list cause you've been great help but once i buy the card do you think that it could over clock decently (I've never done it before) With out major over heating? If so I think you have to like hit F1 or what ever it is on start up and change the voltage settings of the card? ill look it up online or something

guyladouche · #11 (**permalink**) 02-28-2007, 01:16 AM

I'm really not sure if that card overclocks well--or if it's unlocked for overclocking. I didn't even consider it because my card had passive cooling--this one has a fan, so maybe it can handle overclocking well (if it overclocks at all, that is). With the ATI software, if the card doesn't have the appropriate heat sensor(s), it will not unlock the overclocking ability in the ATI software--perhaps you could use a 3rd party software, but I've never tried that--and it would be at your own risk. I think the biggest 3rd party drivers for ATI cards is Omega--just google Omega Drivers. Some people do volt mod's on their cards--which is actually a physical alteration of the circuitboard to deliver more juice to the GPU core--but this can be risky. And I'm not even sure how to go about it. I'd google overclocking the 9550 if you're interested, and see what comes up.

I'd say that while there are better cards out, the 9550 is probably the best bang for your buck--I wouldn't bother spending more than what this card costs (unless you want to get the x1950pro AGP card, but that's pricey). As I said before, while it's a bit older, the 9550 still plays relatively recent games, which is impressive. I just read a review yesterday that said that it does play CS Source very well. The only reason I upgraded my graphics card was (well there are two reasons)--I got a new motherboard that supported PCI-E graphics, and also to play games like FEAR and Prey. Other than that, the 9550 served me well.

Thanks for the friends add. If you have any other questions just ask. Hope you're happy with the card--I was!

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