PCI graphics card

[Guest]

one of my computers has one of the cheap intel motherboards which doesnt have an agp slot (integrated 3d). so i need to get a pci graphics card and have narrowed it down to: voodoo5 64mb pci, geforce2mx400 64mb pci, or the radeon SDR PCI. which will give me the best 3d?

 

[noko]

Image Quality Radeon, best Performer with the best FSAA Voodoo5 (I recommend the Voodoo5) for PCI followed by the Radeon, Last MX. Voodoo5 performs well in PCI. Just beware that driver updates may not happen with the Voodoo card due to 3dfx being out of business.

Well to eat your <b>C kie</b> and have it too, gotta get <b>Rade n II</b>

 

[Crashman]

None, because of the limitations of the PCI interface, even the good PCI cards will not perform adequately. Get a new motherboard, even a cheap TNT2 AGP will outperform an expensive Radeon PCI do to the advantages of AGP. You can find a cheap AGP motherboard for around $50, choose one with the BX chipset. Or you can get a CUSL2-M for around $100 if you want to be state of the art. Or a CUSL2-C if your case has 7 slots.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[Guest]

kyro 2 pci are very close...
wait and buy a kyro 2 pci you will not regret that

 

[noko]

I forgot about the Kyro2 pci, thats maybe a interesting possibility.

Well to eat your <b>C kie</b> and have it too, gotta get <b>Rade n II</b>

 

[Guest]

im only gonna be playing cs, quake 3, and possibly mechwarrior 4 on that comp so i dont need geforce 3 quality but something that will be very playable with so which is better for me the voodoo5 or the kyro 2. oh yeah im not getting a whole fricken new motherboard for only a slot for $100-150 dollars then a 200 dollar card

 

[polaris]

oh yeah im not getting a whole fricken new motherboard for only a slot for $100-150 dollars then a 200 dollar card
----

I think Crashman's point is that you'd pay $50 (say $100) for a bx board then another $100-150 on a reasonable card.
Total $150-250 to suit budget
This will still out perform any pci to $200 as they experience a 45%+ decrease in performance due to pci bus limitations.
ie PCI card has to be least 2x performance as an AGP and for that you'll pay proportionally more. cheap agp kyro/mx cards + bx agp board are what i'd consider.
I borrowed a innovision pci GF2mx and it was way slow compared to my TNT2/16 AGP - low fps in QII/UT in all res.
Anyway det drivers have come out since that, so performance could be alot better - but i'd still recommend agp option.
($200 for a card?? = GF2 / GF2GTS range = very playable )

Polaris

 

[phsstpok]

I installed a Radeon PCI SDR in a friend's computer, a Dell e-series, P3 at 800 mhz. I'd say it performed about the same as my Geforce256 SDR, when not overclocked, up to 800x600x32. At 1024x768x32 the Radeon PCI was a lot slower. It also had problems and would not complete 3DMark2001 and it only scored about 3500 on 3dMark2000. Might be better with newer drivers and some tweaking. The only games I had a chance to try were NFS5, Grand Prix 3, and the Quake III Arena Test. None of them were playable beyond 800x600x32 with default graphics options.

By the way, My system is Duron based running at 1007 mhz.