Graphics card bottleneck

[deadfuse]

I've been planning on upgrading my machine soon, but after a couple of weeks of reading reviews and reports, I decided to wait on the Hammer or Prescott.

I currently run a measly 1.1Ghz Athlon with 1024MB DDR266 ram. For my graphics card, I have a GeForce 2 MX 400, and its really holding me back. What graphics should I buy to get the most out of this system without over-investing in features I wouldn't be able to use? I figure I'll get a top-of-the-line card along with the new computer core.

 

[daddywags214]

Maybe an nVidia GF4 Ti4200 4x AGP. Those are a good deal, if you don't want to upgrade the proc. If you're going the whole 9 yards (proc and vidcard) and you don't want to spend TOO much, perhaps, an Athlon XP 2500+ and an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128 mb.

Tit for tat, butter for fat, ATi's dog kicks nVidia's cat

(Maximum PC)

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Agree with you

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[cleeve]

I agree with spitfire, who agrees with daddywags.

We are in agreement.

 

[Arsenic]

Sorry to hijack this post, but yesterday I bought a 9700 pro for an upgrade.

I currently am running:
1.2 ghz athlon t-bird @ 1.6 ghz
256mb 2100 ddr
266 mhz fsb - havn't found a program to oc this yet.

My question is, would this setup severly bottleneck the performance of my overall graphics processing? I know I need to add more ram but I can only add 2100 ddr to this mobo. But besides the ram, I'm quite sure that my oc of the proc is sufficient, just the fsb needs to be worked on...

 

[Rubberbband]

Why not get a "top of the line card" now? Sure you won't utilize it at its fullest but it will be one less thing to buy down the road.

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[cleeve]

Hmmm. Well, two schools of thought on that Rubberband:

The first is, get the best card you can afford and it will deliver more performance when you upgrade. Which is of course a valid point.

The second is, save some cash and get the best price/performance card for your setup because prices drop so quickly in the video card business, you'd be better off spending your money later when you actually have that new rig. Which is also a valid point.

I don't think there's a right and a wrong here, just different philosophies. I lean more toward the second one, myself.

 

[deadfuse]

There is no point to me getting a top-of-the-line card right now. It would be expensive, and I wouldn't be able to use it to its full potential due to the rest of my crappy rig. Also, by the time I upgrade, what's top-of-the-line now will be mid-ranged crap in 6 months. I rather get all the best stuff then and use this old one as a server/backup.

 

[Croaker]

How about a PNY GeForce4 MX440se 64MB DDR AGP4X Video Card OEM for $19.99 after $30.00 rebate.
Its at tigerdirect.com

 

[Spitfire_x86]

It's only little faster than GeForce2 MX400

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[Croaker]

I have read many of your posts Spitfire_x86. I respect your opinion. I was only saying for a net cost of $19.99 according to tom's own VGA charts he could improve his in 3dmark from about 2953 to 7542 that is worth $19.99 also he would get a fps in unreal 2003 from 16.1 to 49.5 that would be a good improvement. I am not saying it would be like a 9700pro.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

There's difference between MX440 and MX440SE. Your benchmarks are for high-end systems with MX440.

Official spec. of MX440 and MX440SE is 128 bit DDR and 6.4 GB/s for MX440 and 5.4 GB/s for MX440SE. According to official spec, MX440SE isn't that slower than MX440. But almost 100% MX440SE comes with 64 bit DDR memory that results in 2.7 GB/s memory bandwidth, which seriously hurts performance. Then it's identical to MX420, which is not much faster than GF2 MX400.

And GF4-MX cards don't perform equally good in high-end and low-end systems. Reason:- it's a DX7 card and relies more on CPU than DX8/DX9 cards

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[Croaker]

Go to the web page and look your self. Its a MX440SE at 128 bit DDR @ 333mhz.

GPU nVidia GeForce4 MX440se
Memory 64MB DDR SDRAM
Core Clock 250 MHz
Memory Clock 333 MHz
Memory Bandwidth 5.3GB/sec.
RAMDAC Dual 350 MHz
Fill Rate 1 Billion texels/sec.
Triangles per Second 31 Million
Bus Type AGP 2x/4x
OS Support Windows® 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP or LINUX
Ports VGA & TV-Out
Maximum 3D Resolution 2048 x 1536 @ 75Hz

Take the award winning GeForce4 MX technology to the next level and you've got the exhilarating VERTO GeForce4 MX 440-SE.

It's the latest NVIDIA 256-bit core graphics chip, utilizing a dual two-pipe rendering pipeline which delivers a whopping 31 million triangles per second.

That means smoother, quicker incredible 3D graphics. With the pure power of dual 350MHz RAMDAC's, a 128-bit wide memory interface, and 64MB of DDR frame buffer memory, the VERTO MX440-SE delivers the power and performance required by today's PC gamer and multi-media enthusiast.

Features like second generation transform and lighting, per pixel shading and advanced video processing create graphics that come to life with amazing color, realistic effects and breathtaking detail. VERTO GeForce4 MX440-SE blazes through games and applications, giving you an unprecedented visual experience.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

If it has 128 bit DDR memory, then not bad for $20

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