i am thinking about getting a new vid card but im stuck between getting a prophet 2 MX 32mb PCI or a radeon 32mb sdr PCI. can someone who has a system with a 350mhz p2, 96mb ram and a prophet 2 mx 32mb PCI or a radeon 32mb sdr PCI give me their 3dmark scores (i need at least one for both cards). any help here would be appreciated.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by bdt1300 on 05/02/01 04:24 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
I too have only PCI slots, and im also looking to upgrade to a better video card. U r right the only top choices today are G force MX 32 MB and ATI radeon 32MB. Well I did some research and decided to go with ATI radeon, since it beats the MX in 32 bit benchmarks, which is what we want. Plus the radeon is cheaper. Sorry dont have any benchmarks cause dont have the card myself. Im getting radeon this week though.
I had the same question as u do, so u should check out the post called <please help me decide>.
Just type these words in the search for community forums.
I would also recommend upgrading the cpu because it will bottelneck before ur vid card does. So u wont be getting the most out of ur card.
Easy to find your answer by going to MadOnion database and pluggin in something similar to your system. This is what I found:
<b>3dMark2000 1024x768x16</b>
<b>Radeon SDR 400mhz Pentium 2</b> (no data on a 350mhz system)
. . . <b>3059</b>
<b>GF 2 MX 350mhz Pentium 2</b>
. . . <b>3126</b>
In 32 bit the Radeon will be higher then a MX (Radeon takes a small hit going into 32 bit mode while the GF2s takes a much bigger hit) couldn't get data for a SDR Radeon in 32 bit at MadOnion.
Comparing DDR versions going to 16bit to 32bit shows this characteristic.
In any case you are cpu limited not bandwidth limited of the video cards. I recommend the Radeon because of the better 2d, much better video capability, cheaper cost, hyperZ feature, more DirectX8 able, fully openGL 1.2 compliant. The mx does have better drivers so you have to consider that. Radeon drivers now work pretty good.
If 16 bit is ok with you then go with the mx. The Radeon 16 bit isn't the best but then again going into 32 bit is virtually no loss in performance where the Radeon does shine.
That is what a GPU can do to a lower end cpu when it does the T&L processing on the graphics chip. Main reason why you see such a big jump in performance. Can't you upgrade your cpu to a faster slot pentium III or pentium II like 450mhz? That will also help allot.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by noko on 05/02/01 04:51 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
Unfortinately the MadOnion site database doesn't break it down into PCI and AGP even though the data contains both setups. I would expect pci to be a little bit slower but not as much as on a very fast cpu system. Are you sure about your motherboard? A bios update may fix that at least able to get maybe a faster PentII that is if it is worth it.
It does indicate that you can install a 400mhz pentII. I couldn't find where you can disable your onboard graphics. Do you know how to disable the onboard graphics? If not then you probably won't be able to use a pci graphic card effectively. Also between the mx and the Radeon pci get which ever one is cheaper but make sure you don't get a mx200 board. Also if you want to watch DVD's now or in the future the Radeon would probably be the only card with your processor that will be able to play them back without problems due to the Radeons much better hardware support.
yeah i already have contacted gateway about disabling the video card and they said that when it detects the new video card it will automatically disable the old one.
Thats good, no need to upgrade cpu since you can get a motherboard, fan and a Duron 700 for $105 which would be cheaper then a pentII 400. $145 a board, fan and 850mhz T-Bird. Which also has a AGP slot in which a Radeon LE for $70 could fill. I don't know your budget but a board upgrade with a Duron would make night into day. Well I just been layed off so I know how money can be tight plus if what you have will get the job done then thats all that is needed.
. its compatible with only up to a 350mhz pentium 2 or celeron 
