ASUS P2B motherboard, what's the best video card I could buy

[WaOnFiRe]

I have a ASUS P2B motherboard, 80GB Western Digital HD, Intel Pentium III 600MHz CPU, 192Mb PC100 SDRAM, 3dfx VOODOO3 3000 16Mb AGP video card, Sound Blaster AWE 64 sound card, 56k modem, 10/100 LAN card, 52x LG CD-ROM drive and 2x LG DVD writer.

I just bought 2x256Mb PC133 CL2 Crucial memory that I should receive shortly. I will probably remove my old memory and put the 2 dimm in instead and try to overclock the FSB a little.

Now I wan't to know what would be the best compatible AGP video card for my motherboard? My motherboard support AGP 1.0 specifications (1x/2x). Does 4x AGP 2.0 video cards would works or not?

What would be some of the best video cards for my old mobo? I will probably buy used anyway since it will be probably old video cards. I'm tired of my old Voodoo 3 3000, it isn't compatible with N64 emulators and other stuff.

Thanks

 

[azn_bballa_]

I HIGHLY recommend a new computer. These days pIII is a verry verry weak CPU. Upgrading you PC is a waste of money considering Its only worth Mayb 60Canadian $'s. You should invest in a new computer. If your a gamer and on a budget i recommend trying to find a computer with a an Athlon 2500CPU with 512Ram or better. If you have money to spend then go for an AMD athlon 3000 + Cpu with at least 1GB of ram. Be sure to get a decent motherboard while your at it for futher upgradeability down the road.

 

[GaNg]

As far as I can see ..asked information was which video card is suitable for his machine, he didn't ask for advice should or should not buy new machine.

I recently installed ATI Radeon 9800 SE into machine with P2B and everything works just fine. It's possible to go for any AGP card. It doesn't matter if card is AGP 4x and motherboard is 2x, AGP 4x is downward compatible with AGP 2x.

 

[Crashman]

AGP4x and some AGP8x cards work in your motherboard. The "key" is the key, if the card is keyed for 3.3v slots it works.

AGP Universal is what you're looking for, but it's usually not listed in a card's features. This refers to a card with two voltage key notches in the data pin area (there's usually a third notch between the data pins and the card latch).

For examples, look at a photo of a 9700 and a 9600, the 9700 has both voltage keys (3.3v and 1.5v) while the 9600 has only the 1.5v key.

From that point, you can buy whatever physically fits your motherboard, ie, has the 3.3v key.

 

[bazza]

yes normally any 3.3V AGP card will work, i personally wouldnt try anything better than a geforce2/3

if you are thinking about making your games faster by getting a decent AGP card, forget it as azn bbilla said, theres not much point

replacing a faulty AGP card, then go for it, get a cheap $10-$20 card

 

[parlee]

id agree and id suggest a 9200... had one in my amd2400 ran fine for years... just make sure it can run at 3.3v, im not sure... but like every1 said, if u can find some spare cash try to build a new rig... theres not much sense in spending more money on a computer that cant run games from 5 years ago :lol: ... but if u just use it for older games, like cs 1.6 or ut then a 9200 would be plenty, i got 100fps with mine (the max 1.6 let u have)...

 

[Crashman]

Ah heck, a 9800 Pro would suffice (most 9800 XT's lack the 3.3v key).

 

[telescsf]

As far as I can see ..asked information was which video card is suitable for his machine, he didn't ask for advice should or should not buy new machine.

I recently installed ATI Radeon 9800 SE into machine with P2B and everything works just fine. It's possible to go for any AGP card. It doesn't matter if card is AGP 4x and motherboard is 2x, AGP 4x is downward compatible with AGP 2x.

Hi, I would like to follow on this thread since I have the same concern. My question is also to Crashman as well. I own a P2B mobo and am now considering putting a right graphics card. If we put a 9800 card, would the motherboard pose a contraint or bottleneck to the performance of the card, since the bus frequency of mobo is much lower than the clock frequency of the graphics card? In other words, can a 9800 utilize its full power or potential on the mobo?
I am also very interested to know what are the 3D games that can run fine on P2B mobo with a 9800. I don't want to end up putting a 9800 into the P2B but recent games could not be run on it.

Thank you and appreciate your reply.

 

[Crashman]

To play 2-year-old games at reasonable quality you'd want to max out the board with a Celeron 1400 Tualatin, using BIOS 14 Beta. I wouldn't bother.

 

[telescsf]

Thanks for the reply Crashman, I appreciate it.
Ahh, another target to go for: Celeron 1400!!

 

[Crashman]

You'd also need a compatible adapter. Tualatin to Slot-1 adapters come in two main varieties, the good simple ones that rely on the motherboard to support VRM 8.4, and the complicated expensive ones with their own VRM, suited to early revision boards. Since the P2B came in both VRM 8.4 and VRM 8.2 varieties, you'd want to find out which you have. While the expensive versions work with both, they're more failure-prone, so you'd want to use the cheaper version if you can.