video card suggestions?

[Guest]

Hi,
I have been using the visiontek nvidia Geforce 256 card and have had mixed results with the configuration stated below. Has anyone else run into any compadibility issues with the Geforce 256 card? I've been wanting to upgrade my video card (along with many other of my components!) and I was wondering if anyone has had success with a Geforce 2 card that could work with my current configuration.

Thanks a lot!

Pingle

----------
CPU: AMD K6-2 400MHz
MB: ASUS P5A
GC Geforce 256 AGP
HD: Quantum Bigfoot 8.4GB
MEM: 128 MB
OS: Win98 and Win2K

 

[bront]

Wow, you have a Quantum Bigfoot that's still running? I remember when Compaq had those in their systems. The had a bunch go bad, and replaced them with standard UltraDMA HDs.

Anyway, on the video card, a new video card will speed up your computer in games, but in games only. I would recomend a new motherboard and CPU first, which will increase performance in all aspects. Doesn't need to be a high end system too. AMD XP 1600+, 1.33 GB T-bird, P4 1.4 are all decient processors that will get the job done (This was done on price more than performance, and to leave you open to choose). Any of those, with a decient MB and 256 MB of DDR/RD ram will run you 200-300, or as much as a high end video card. You won't get the huge 3D performance boost, but your whole system will get much faster.

Also, if you couldn't guess, I'm not the biggest fan of your HD. Might not be a bad idea to replace that when you can.

As for a Geforce 2 Card, any should work with your current computer, but it depends on what you expect the life of the computer to be, and if you'll keep the new card in your new computer. If it's a temp card, get a MX400 or perhaps the GTS-V from visiontek. If it's a perminent card, I'd recomend thinking about the Geforce 3 ti-200 or ATI Radeon 8500, something that won't bottleneck your next computer.

Chesnuts roasting on an open CPU
Bill Gates nipping at your wallet

 

[phsstpok]

When I added my Visiontek Geforce256 (mine is an SDR model) to my K6-2/400 it didn't increase my frame rates one bit over my old Voodoo card. The Geforce was capable of higher resolution and more colors but I was stuck at the same 22 fps in all resolutions (The voodoo was 640x480x16 only). This is because the K6-2 was the limiting factor. I ended up upgrading the cpu and motherboard (to a Duron/KT7 combination at 1007mhz) and continued using the Geforce256 (highly overclocked) for almost a year.

A few weeks ago, for fun, I put the old system back together using new drivers, video and chipset, and got my framerates up to 30 (1024x768x32). I have a Geforce2 GTS-V which I could try but I just don't think it would improve things beyond 30 fps. I'll give it a go so you can have some numbers to help your decision.

My point is, upgrade the system before the video card. If you happen to have a DDR version of the Geforce256 it still has some life in it. If overclocked it will easily match the performance of MX cards, at least for games that don't need 64mb of video RAM. (My overclocked SDR G256 with the Duron scored 2700 in 3DMark2001 and 74 fps in Quake3 Arena (1024x767x32) with the latest drivers before I finally retired it).

<b>We are all beta testers!</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 11/13/01 03:38 PM.</EM></FONT></P>