PCI card kicking an AGPs @ss

[Titanion]

I talked my father-in-law into buying a pci card for my brother-in-law so he could play IWD2 on a crappy PCChips motherboard with an SIS onboard video that freezes every 5 minites. He ordered it at Xmas, but could not get it to work. A few months later he visited me and brought his computer. I could not get the card to post either. I also tried it in another crappy PCChips board, an ASUS board from 96--the famous one that works with the K6-2+--and another board from 1997, and the card would not post in any of them either. Ya, all updated motherboard bios. So I am stuck with this doa Chaintech GF2 MX 400 64 MB card from newegg that I likely cannot return because of the time that has passed... and it would not likely be worth it with the shipping and 15% restocking fee. I did not try the card in either of my newer computers... until last night.

I put it in the pci slot next to the agp slot in my 2nd rig (Soyo 5ema+ motherboard) and the computer found the card; within minutes I had an extended desktop with my two cards.

eVGA GF2 MX 400 64 MB AGP
Chaintech GF2 MX 64 MB PCI

So now I change the PCI card to my primary display, and at stock settings of 200/333 I run 3DMarck2001SE and I get the highest mark I have yet with this computer! I am not running the test with lowest settings--but I have been consistent--and with the eVGA AGP card overclocked to 225/340 my highest score was 1369--and I have only seen that once--but on my first run with the pci card, I got 1383, and I have not even tried to overclock it yet! I have read that Chaintech overclocks quite well.

So is a quality PCI card better than a crappy AGP card running at 2x? Does the pci card take less of a toll on the cpu? I am tempted to stick with the pci card and give the agp card to a friend who is still playing games with his Voodoo 3 2000 16 MB card.

W2K
Soyo 5ema+
K6-2+ 550 overclocked to 600 MHz
256 MB PC133 Ram


<font color=red><b>To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, II 262-263

 

[cleeve]

On a slower box like that, AGP vs PCI won't make much of a difference at all. There are too many other bottlenecks in that system... the CPU and memory... for even the PCI bus to saturate fully.

You stick both of those cards in a 2 Ghz box at high resolution and you'd probably see more of a help from the AGP bus.

As it is, it looks like the Chaintech is just a better card for you with this system. There is always a small variance in how manufacturers reproduce reference boards. No big difference, it's not like your 3dmark scores were wildly out of sync.

My advice to you is to keep the chaintech unless you plan to upgrade in the forseeable future; if you get a newer mobo and a faster processor, you'll probably want the AGP card...

- Cleeve

 

[Titanion]

If I score higher in 3DMard2001SE with the pci card, does that mean the card will play games better... is it a fait test, or will some game play better with the agp, even if it scores lower on 3DMark?

I got home, and overclocked my way up to 233/190 and got 1397 (a new high mark) ... but at that setting, I think 3DMark heated up the chip a bit, for my next test was at 1383. So I tuned it down to 222/185... I then went onto Dungeon Siege, and it played like crap...

I have turned off the computer for a while to let it cool (if the chip was warm)... and I will see if this current setting works...

How much does 3DMark push your card... is it common to get a lower score if you run it twice in a row without letting your card cool a bit?

Hitting 1360 was a rare thing with the overclocked eVGA... so this PCI card seems to work better... and I pushed the V-Data ram up to 185 with no artifacts... at 190 there was some... and this is way better than the ram on the eVGA card...

But I am still torn and testing the pci card...

<font color=red><b>To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, II 262-263

 

[GeneticWeapon]

Whats happening here is a good read for anybody interested in video cards, and I think Cleeve is right. My father had a Celeron 633mhz system a while back with an MX420 SD ram pci card in it. He upgraded(if you can call it that) to an AGP MX440 with DDR ram. Both cards were 64mb, and to my shock at the time, there was NO performance gain, no higher fps. I didnt run 3Dmark but it was pretty obvious. Alot of people have posted the question on this forum of whether or not a better card would fair well on their older pentium 3 class system. Usually they get mixed answers. Sometimes explaining bottlenecks to people isnt easy. Trying to explain to my dad that having a 66mhz fsb with pc100 memory, and a small amount of L2 cache was killing his gaming, wasnt easy.... This was a good post.

Man who sleeps with sex on mind, wakes with solution in hand.

 

[Twitch]

Your dad's a gamer? That's Dutch!



<font color=green>The Netherlands is where you go when you're too good for heaven.</font color=green> :tongue:


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Twitch on 04/24/03 08:59 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

Yea...he's 56, and is playing Morrowwind right now. I cant get him to use magick though, he just runs around hitting people with his sword...he also makes me put in cheat codes for him, and if I'm unable to, he kinda pitches a fit......I'm not real sure if that was sharing a little too much information with you guy's.

Man who sleeps with sex on mind, wakes with solution in hand.

 

[Titanion]

This computer with the pci card is now playing like it did before I upgraded to the K6-2+ and still had the K6-2 in it--well maybe not that bad, but it seems a lot slower, despite what 3DMark was telling me...

Could 222/185 be too high... or is it just this damn card

<font color=red><b>To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, II 262-263

 

[Twitch]

Sounds like my Dad RHS. He loved computers, but they sure didn't love him. I think you have to grow up playing video games to have any knack for it. My Dad eventually reverted to do doing crossword puzzles. Seriously.


<font color=green>The Netherlands is where you go when you're too good for heaven.</font color=green> :tongue:

 

[Titanion]

I am back with the AGP card, and it scors 30+ points lower--1360s if I am lucky--but runs Dungeon Siege a lot better... perhaps 3DMark2001 is not set up to provide a good test for these older systems...

I wish there was a science to knowing when to stop overclocking the core... currently at 226/170... damn... I got the ram up to 185 on that pci card...

<font color=red><b>To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n.</b></font color=red>
John Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i>, II 262-263

 

[GeneticWeapon]

Does anyone want to explain what all the Dutchness is about....

Man who sleeps with sex on mind, wakes with solution in hand.

 

[dhlucke]

My Dutch friend, you will find the answers in the Other section.

<font color=green>Everyone should be like the Dutch. They're perfect.</font color=green>

 

[GeneticWeapon]

err....ok..

Man who sleeps with sex on mind, wakes with solution in hand.