PCI gfx cards

[FirstDelta]

Hi, just wondering what is the best PCI card for around £100-150. I know AGP are faster, but i dont have agp port on my mobo (and im not buying a new mobo at moment)
I have seen the voodo 4500 pci, that looks quite good, but i need a really good card thats gona make a difference. I currently have a V3, 2000 on a 300Mhz Celeron with 160MB RAM and on CS i get around 10-20 FPS, TFC about 15-30. Also i understand that the processor is gona be part of this... but if i buy a new processor i will have to buy a new mobo, new case + power supplies etc.. and it will cost the earth.

i dont want to waste money on a new gfx card if it wont improve my frame rate, so please tell me if it will or wont :)

thanks

[HangTime]

on a relatively weak cpu like a celeron 300, u will see very little benefit by upgrading from a v3-2000. certainly not to a v4 anyway, although a pci geforce2 MX may make a diff due its onboard T&L. a v3-2000 is well balanced on all p2 class systems, only when u hit 500mhz+ will a better pci gfx card make a significant difference to framerate. personally i would be inclined to save your money until u can upgrade your mobo/cpu - durons are v. cheap atm (£72.73 for a guarenteed 950mhz from OcUK) altho the mobos are quite pricey. spending £250 on a new cpu/mobo/ram will make way way more difference to your framerate than blowing say £130 on a v4. if you cant afford that right now i would save the pennies until u can :)

on a side note i have a v3-2000 (AGP) and upgrading from a celeron @450 -> p3 @910 still made a huge difference to my fps, so the v3 has plenty of excess power on a lowly 300mhz machine. albeit my v3-2000 is overclocked faster than the 3000 version, but it will scale ok.

[deejaycee]

If you just wanna get a new card neway, then I will take the V3 2000 PCI off yer hands.

Email me a price you want for it

:E

[Davvo]

Stick with the V3-2000 it's class for the money. If youve got £150 then save it for new mb, proccy and ram.You know it makes sense:laugh:According to Tom's hardware guide the pci version can be overclocked more than the agp. I wouldn't know what to do though as it seems like a black art to me:(
Davvo

[FirstDelta]

ok,thanks for the advice. I think ill get a new mobo and a duron. Luckily i have 1 x 128MB RAM at 100Mhz, so i dont have to buy new ram :)

One other thing.. with buying a new mobo will i have to buy a new tower case? My current one is a packard Bell Pulsar C300 case....or are casing universal to fit any (standard) mobo. Erm, my current mobo has a form factor of uATX 8.8 x 9.9 inches, so i guess that means any mobo with the same form factor will fit my case, yeh?

thanks

[Davvo]

you will need an atx case and a decent power supply coz urs sounds like it's baby atx or micro atx. Check scan.co.uk for thier daily offers as you can get some very good mb,proccy, ram deals. I think you may also need pc133 ram. Sorry for the bad news:(
Davvo

[kingfaz]

wots a mobo anyone?

[kingfaz]

wots a mobo anyone?

faz, webmaster @ http://www.dreamcastsource.co.uk

[FirstDelta]

mobo = motherboard, you know the thing everything is connected to in your PC tower/flatbed case.

[kingfaz]

cheers for that mate
thanks

.. and yes i know what a motherboard...

i also know the answer to all these questions: come on, lets see u guys have a go:

1. How many, exactly, bytes in a megabyte?

2. Modem is an abbreviation for...

3. the difference between AGP and PCI graphics cards is:

4. a ZIF socket is...

5. HTML stands for..

6. HTTP stands for..

7. ASCII = ?

8. Who invented javscript?

9. you must be f____ sad to be reading this...

10. Sega p___ all over sony



a candy bar for every 10/10! :)

http://www.dreamcastsource.co.uk

[Randell]

BTW you do not need PC133 memory to run a Duron/Athlon system. PC100 runs fine.

Desirable - Yes
Necesary - No

Cheers

And overclocking a V3 is simple, but be careful. Go to http://www.techextreme.com/3dXtreme/index.shtml for articles/advice.

[Edited by Randell on 23-11-2000 at 12:22 AM]

[FirstDelta]

ok here goes

Answers are....

1) 10000 bytes in a megabyte

2) lol - dont have a clue.. erm.. modulation something?

3)AGP is more advanced, hence Advanced Graphics port, so its prolly faster/ can handel data transfere a lot faster?
and good old PCI is slower :D

4)ZIF WTF? , lol from an old console?...maybe something in a dreamcast? lol, dunno.

5)never have thought actually, HTML hmmm, dunno.

6)HTTP, nope, lol

7)ASCII, dodgy text aint it, dont have a clue though.

8)i invented javascript :D

9)frog? :)

10) Pays sony for large group orgy's? :D

hehe wow look 10/10, thats 1 candy bar you owe meh :)

[Davvo]

1) 1000
2)modulator demodulator
7) American Standardised Code for Information Interchange
10) Sinclair ownz em all

Am I sad?

Davvo

[Boycee]

1) everyone who said 1000 is wrong i believe....

2)MODulator DEModulator

3)AGP higher bandwidth etc....

4) Zero Insertation Force...

5) HyperText Markup Language

6) HyperText Transmission Protocal?????????

7) American Standardised Code for Information Interchange

dunno 8 and lol@the rest....

NOW THAT IS SAD OF ME>>>>>:E

[[MAD]Shadowen]

Hmm...
1.1024
2.Modulator/Demodulator
3.AGP higher bandwidth
4.ZIF=zero insertion force (CPU socket)
5.Hyper Text Markup Language (?)
6.Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
7.American Standard Code for Information Interchange
8.dont have a damn clue :P
9.Yup
10.Except when it comes to actually supporting the hardware they release :D

[kingfaz]

Well done to the last 2 entries, Boycee, and [MAD]Shadowen for getting 6/10 and 8/10 respectively.

sorry.. i guess i have to eat the candy bars all alone now :)

Faz

http://www.dreamcastsource.co.uk <---- Kick ass DC site!