What graphics card for old-arsed machine?

sspeed

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Dec 14, 2009
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I'm retiring an old Compaq Presario 061, actually it's going to the wife. She just wants to use it for Google Earth and stuff like that, something that the onboard graphics card won't even do for some reason.

The specs are:
2.1Ghz AMD Athlon XP 2600+
ASUS A7N8X-LA motherboard
1 gb memory
Windows XP

I opened up the case and of course there is not a PCI-E slot. I'm not sure if there is an AGP slot either, I've been away from it all too long.... What video card deal at the moment is cheap, yet good enough to get by for 3D stuff like Google Earth?
 
Solution
Looks like one of $28-35 GF6200 AGP cards is your cheapest solution. Your MB is probably a 4x board. An 8x card should be compatible with your board. The GF5200 is very weak, don't get that. The 6200 is better even for Google Earth.
So, apparently that system is built by HP and has an integrated graphics chip. Installing an AGP graphics card in the available AGP slot will be an improvement from what you have. The system is too old to spend a lot of money IMO. Although it will work in an open PCI slot, that 8400GS linked is a PCI card, not AGP.
 
Looks like one of $28-35 GF6200 AGP cards is your cheapest solution. Your MB is probably a 4x board. An 8x card should be compatible with your board. The GF5200 is very weak, don't get that. The 6200 is better even for Google Earth.
 
Solution
Well, that looks good considering the Athlon XP 2600 you will have driving it. I had an Athlon XP 2600 for a long while. I had an GF MX440 and that machine did just fine. Anyway, that card should run Go0ogle earth. The card is equipped with DDR, not DDR2 or DDR3. I have several DDR video cards running and they do fine while interbet surfing, streaming video, etc. So $28 is looking good for the older machine IMO.