video cards

[GP]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Hi
I am confused. I am getting information from PC shops that these below cards
dont play games well. They are only entry level cards I am told and if you
want to play games a lot you shouldnt use these. (buy much more expensive
ones)

I only want to play games sometimes (not every day and not hours on end)
I want to be able to run latest directX at least.

The games I want to run from shops dont require 128mb cards only 8-64cards
at most.

I am looking at getting
Gigabyte Radeon 9250 128Mb / 9200SE 128Mb
GIGABYTE ATI Radeon 9550 128Mb
GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128Mb
PowerColor 9250 128Mb

q)Are these cards good enough for that
q) what dont they do compared to more expensive cards.
q) whats does 64bit and 128 bit mean with cards

 

[sleepy]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

use this utility from ATI http://www2.ati.com/drivers/cat-uninstaller.exe

"gp" <grum@invalid> wrote in message
news:4265d85b$0$8119$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
> Hi
> I am confused. I am getting information from PC shops that these below
> cards dont play games well. They are only entry level cards I am told and
> if you want to play games a lot you shouldnt use these. (buy much more
> expensive ones)
>
> I only want to play games sometimes (not every day and not hours on end)
> I want to be able to run latest directX at least.
>
> The games I want to run from shops dont require 128mb cards only 8-64cards
> at most.
>
> I am looking at getting
> Gigabyte Radeon 9250 128Mb / 9200SE 128Mb
> GIGABYTE ATI Radeon 9550 128Mb
> GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128Mb
> PowerColor 9250 128Mb
>
> q)Are these cards good enough for that
> q) what dont they do compared to more expensive cards.
> q) whats does 64bit and 128 bit mean with cards
>
>
>
>

 

[sleepy]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"gp" <grum@invalid> wrote in message
news:4265d85b$0$8119$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
> Hi
> I am confused. I am getting information from PC shops that these below
> cards dont play games well. They are only entry level cards I am told and
> if you want to play games a lot you shouldnt use these. (buy much more
> expensive ones)
>
> I only want to play games sometimes (not every day and not hours on end)
> I want to be able to run latest directX at least.
>
> The games I want to run from shops dont require 128mb cards only 8-64cards
> at most.
>
> I am looking at getting
> Gigabyte Radeon 9250 128Mb / 9200SE 128Mb
> GIGABYTE ATI Radeon 9550 128Mb
> GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128Mb
> PowerColor 9250 128Mb
>
> q)Are these cards good enough for that
> q) what dont they do compared to more expensive cards.
> q) whats does 64bit and 128 bit mean with cards

since I stuffed up your post I may as well answer it

the specs on the games' box are always minimum/required - ie
to run it at 640x480 at low detail settings. HL2 for example
will run on a 1.2ghz CPU, 256mb RAM and a Geforce2
according to the box but it'll be Low Res. Low Detail and still slow.
(double the specs to run at 1024 med/high settings)

the 9200 cards run directx 8 shaders NOT directx 9 but thats not a huge
worry as all current games that use shaders run fine in directx8 mode -
nothing yet demands only a directx 9 card.

64bit and 128bit refers to the bandwidth that data can be sent to the card
and does make a significant differance. avoid 64bit like the plague

rather than buy any of those cards you'd do better to look for a secondhand
geforce 4ti 4200 - 4600 on Ebay or a 9500/9700 if you want a Radeon
again on Ebay. Either option would balance nicely with 1.5 - 2ghz CPU and
512mb RAM

 

[sleepy]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

sorry - slip of the mouse and replied to wrong post


> "gp" <grum@invalid> wrote in message
> news:4265d85b$0$8119$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
>> Hi
>> I am confused. I am getting information from PC shops that these below
>> cards dont play games well. They are only entry level cards I am told
>> and if you want to play games a lot you shouldnt use these. (buy much
>> more expensive ones)
>>
>> I only want to play games sometimes (not every day and not hours on end)
>> I want to be able to run latest directX at least.
>>
>> The games I want to run from shops dont require 128mb cards only
>> 8-64cards at most.
>>
>> I am looking at getting
>> Gigabyte Radeon 9250 128Mb / 9200SE 128Mb
>> GIGABYTE ATI Radeon 9550 128Mb
>> GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128Mb
>> PowerColor 9250 128Mb
>>
>> q)Are these cards good enough for that
>> q) what dont they do compared to more expensive cards.
>> q) whats does 64bit and 128 bit mean with cards
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

 

[GP]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

how can I find out what Ram is on my PC, sdram or ddr
I have p4,2.0gz, 512ram

I hit <del> key on boot up and get bios info but I cant find ram anywhere
ecept dram setting of 100hz.

If I want a video card installed ati 9550 256mb dont I need ddr ram?

 

[sleepy]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"gp" <grum@invalid> wrote in message
news:42662a36$0$5178$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
> how can I find out what Ram is on my PC, sdram or ddr
> I have p4,2.0gz, 512ram
>
> I hit <del> key on boot up and get bios info but I cant find ram anywhere
> ecept dram setting of 100hz.
>
> If I want a video card installed ati 9550 256mb dont I need ddr ram?
>
You could download a diagnosis utility like SiSoft Sandra (Google for it)
and that will tell you if you have sdr or ddr but no it isnt required for
that
card or any card for that matter. More important is to make sure you have
a AGP slot in that motherboard if you buy a AGP graphics card. Im guessing
you have a pre-built system you bought from some retailer since you dont
know
what RAM you have in - so open the case and have a good look inside and
check the layout of your motherboard - you may find your RAM has a little
sticker
on it with the specs printed etc. And I repeat was I said before - a 2nd
hand Geforce4ti
(Not MX) would go nicely in that PC and shouldnt cost the earth - I would
expect to £20
- £40 depending on the model on Ebay.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Hi gp,
Go here and download CPU-Z (it's free) http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php. It
will identify memory type and more.
--
Tally Ho!
Ed
"Sleepy" <nospam@here.com> wrote in message
news:zyq9e.68728$mV1.46105@fe3.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
>
> "gp" <grum@invalid> wrote in message
> news:42662a36$0$5178$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
>> how can I find out what Ram is on my PC, sdram or ddr
>> I have p4,2.0gz, 512ram
>>
>> I hit <del> key on boot up and get bios info but I cant find ram anywhere
>> ecept dram setting of 100hz.
>>
>> If I want a video card installed ati 9550 256mb dont I need ddr ram?
>>
> You could download a diagnosis utility like SiSoft Sandra (Google for it)
> and that will tell you if you have sdr or ddr but no it isnt required for
> that
> card or any card for that matter. More important is to make sure you have
> a AGP slot in that motherboard if you buy a AGP graphics card. Im guessing
> you have a pre-built system you bought from some retailer since you dont
> know
> what RAM you have in - so open the case and have a good look inside and
> check the layout of your motherboard - you may find your RAM has a little
> sticker
> on it with the specs printed etc. And I repeat was I said before - a 2nd
> hand Geforce4ti
> (Not MX) would go nicely in that PC and shouldnt cost the earth - I would
> expect to £20
> - £40 depending on the model on Ebay.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

gp wrote:
> Hi
> I am confused. I am getting information from PC shops that these below cards
> dont play games well. They are only entry level cards I am told and if you
> want to play games a lot you shouldnt use these. (buy much more expensive
> ones)
>
> I only want to play games sometimes (not every day and not hours on end)
> I want to be able to run latest directX at least.

Well it doesn;t matter about how often or for how long you want to play
the games, it depends on the game, and how much detail and waht
resolution you want to run at.

> The games I want to run from shops dont require 128mb cards only 8-64cards
> at most.
>
> I am looking at getting
> Gigabyte Radeon 9250 128Mb / 9200SE 128Mb
> GIGABYTE ATI Radeon 9550 128Mb
> GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128Mb
> PowerColor 9250 128Mb

I think the 9550 is the only card worth considering.

> q)Are these cards good enough for that

You haven't really said what "that" is, so we can't tell.

> q) what dont they do compared to more expensive cards.

Various effects won't be possible, and they just run slower. Basically
that means you will have to down down the amount of effects you see,
turn down the resolution, and expect that sometimes the games will get
jerky.

> q) whats does 64bit and 128 bit mean with cards

It's usually the width of the data bus to the memory on the card. The
wider it is, the faster data can transfer, and the faster the card
(everything else remaining the same). 128bit is really a miminum for
many games.

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

Hi gp.

Just been where you want to go. Have a read of my earlier post in this forum
today, and follow the thread/s. Then read Tom's hardware.

128bit 9550 should meet all of your needs at an amenable price. You don't
need to pay more unless your want high res super frame rates in Doom 3 et al
or bragging rights at your LAN meet are a primary 'concern' for you.

> I want to be able to run latest directX at least.

ATI offers the advantage here, with 9550 THE DirectX 9 entry card. FX and
less than 9550 won't fulfill this requirement.

IMO you do want 128bit. For recent FPS you generally won't be able to use a
res making of use of the 256MB at anything like an acceptable frame rate, so
don't bother with more than 128MB if you're paying a premium for it. Over
here, the jump from 64bit to128bit was significant, but the increase from
128MB to 256MB wasn't.

> I am looking at getting
> Gigabyte Radeon 9250 128Mb / 9200SE 128Mb

Forget it.

> GIGABYTE ATI Radeon 9550 128Mb

Best choice you've offfered, but be careful. Both 128MB, you want the
suffix -D not the -T. The T is 64bit, the D is 128bit. That's why the T is
so much cheaper. It's an SE without the "SE" suffix. A trap for the unwary.

> GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128Mb
> PowerColor 9250 128Mb

Forget them.

> q)Are these cards good enough for that

Too subjctive with insufficient info. You don't specifically mention what
games you want them for which you need to to answer this meaniingfully. But
if you want DirectX 9 support which you DO spec as a criteria, then you
need/want an 9550 minimum, which is a less expensive solution than any of
nVidia's DirectX 9 supportive offerings.

> q) what dont they do compared to more expensive cards.

The answer to that is self-explanatory. Just look at the individual chipsets
and in particular the clock specs. That should provide you with the gist.

> q) whats does 64bit and 128 bit mean with cards

Slow vs fast. The 64bit and 128 bit refer to the memory bus or pathway over
which the data travels. The 128bit pathway is twice as wide as the 64bit
one. The memory bus is a bottleneck. When traffic on the pathway is
maxed/heavy, you can figure out for yourself what a difference having twice
the bandwidth available means.

Good luck. Good hunting. Just go with the cheapest 128bit 9550 you can
source.Whether it's 128 or 256MB won't matter with the 9550 for many games,
especially contemporary FPS.