VIDEO CARDS

[Unwanted Guest]

Hi,

 

Am looking to get a new computer, not the newest as I can only afford so much, but am wanting a computer that will be able to run the darkmod, which means it needs to run Doom3 I guess.

 

One of the computers I'm looking at has this as video

NVIDIA GeForce 6100 and nForce 430 MCP

I'm kinda ignorant about this stuff and did not see this geoforce on the side of the Doom3 box. OS is Vista Home Premium

 

Others are:

 

Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

 

 

Graphics Card PNY Geforce FX 5500 (PCI)

 

 

Hate to bother you about this, but sure could help me. Hate to put out any money and not have it work the game!

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Unstoppable]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce

 

I would say save up then head on over to www.newegg.com and buy parts. Right now you can build a good computer for 550$ including the operating system. Talking dual core, big hard drive, 2 gigs ram etc.

 

The computers you are talking about are probably pre built and not good for gaming. Those video cards are old and you are way better off having a geforce 8 GT card.

[jdude]

I'd look into getting an ATI. Shop around and you can find a REALLY good one for cheap cheap cheap! It wont be as good as a geforce, but for the price you can get them at, who cares!

[Crispy]

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

Avoid. Like the plague. If you intend to use your computer for ANY gaming AT ALL, do not get an Intel card. If you do, you will regret it.

 

Those two NVidia cards are probably more or less acceptable. Check out some reviews to make sure before spending the cash, though.

 

Having said that, if you're looking to get a proper gaming machine, it's well worth spending $100-200 on a good, standalone graphics card. I'm not up to date with the latest models, but NVidia GeForce cards are IMO the best. ATi Radeons are fine too, provided you're not planning on running Linux. Laptop and integrated video cards tend to be worse than desktop ones, though they're better than they used to be (except for the Intel ones). Bear in mind that there is huge variation in the range available from each vendor, so don't just judge by the brand name. The model number is important.

 

I have a GeForce 6600GT from a few video card generations ago, and it's a sweet little card. Runs TDM very well. You can get faster ones on a budget these days though.

 

Best thing to do is check out reviews (you can find tons of them online), and buy from an online store (which typically have better ranges and cheaper prices than retail shops). The reviews will have performance benchmarks and recommendations; use them to pick the best card in your price range.

 

Note that if you buy a video card by itself then you'll have to install it yourself. In desktops this is not hard (just plug it in somewhere that it fits and insert a screw to keep it in place, being careful not to break anything. Firm, careful pressure is fine and often necessary; it's not made of glass. Also, touch your hand to some metal first so that you don't give it a static shock), but if you'd prefer to get it built by a professional then you can order entire systems from stores like NewEgg, with the parts of your choice.

[Komag]

NVIDIA GeForce 6100 and nForce 430 MCP

Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

Graphics Card PNY Geforce FX 5500 (PCI)

 

These are all crap. The 5500 is the least crap of them, but it is still crap

 

You just want to make sure that however cheap a computer you buy that it has at LEAST an AGP slot, but preferably a PCI-Express (not just PCI) slot. Some new computers are such utter crap that they don't have any sort of fast graphics card slot (and only use lame onboard graphics), although most do, so just be sure that it does.

 

Then shop for a good older graphics card. Something like a Geforce 6600 GT or 6800 (vanilla) will cost you only about $50. You could even get something older like a Radeon 9700 Pro or a Geforce 4 Ti4600 (or Ti4400) for around $30 (used of course, on eBay or elsewhere).

[Tels]

Avoid. Like the plague. If you intend to use your computer for ANY gaming AT ALL, do not get an Intel card. If you do, you will regret it.

 

I can underwrite this. My laptop is not able to run Doom3 at all, because it can't handle compressed textures. (This means basically 90% of the levelis black and you get about 1..2 FPS)

 

And thats a 800-euro, one-year old machine

 

I have a GeForce 6600GT from a few video card generations ago, and it's a sweet little card. Runs TDM very well. You can get faster ones on a budget these days though.

 

Yeah, if you make a dedicated gaming machine, then:

 

* make sure it has PCI Express as the bus (don't think you get anything else these days, but you never know what old stuff they might try to sell you)

* get a low-power, fan-less Nvidia card (runs well on windows and linux, if you ever want to try it)

 

I'd recommend a GT 8500 (or if you want to drop a few euros more, the GT 8600) and make sure you get at least 256 Mbyte memory on the card (avoid 128 or even less!)

 

They are reasonable priced, available as fan-less models (less noise!) and don't eat up power (and thus produce heat and a big bill for power).

 

You might try to buy a card for 50 € instead of 80 (as the two models above come between 75 to 90 €), but you will regret it. The performance difference is really big.

 

If you get a laptop, you choice of card is limited to what the laptop has to offer, but in this case make absolutely sure you get an Nvidia card - avoid Intel.

[SneaksieDave]

Further testimonial (in case the point isn't established yet): I have both an Intel on a fast (3GHz, possibly dual; it's never been made clear, nor opened by me) work machine and a GF6800 ($70 on ebay a year ago) on a much slower (1.4GHz) game machine. The slow game system runs the mod well, and massively outperforms the Intel work system. Additionally the Intel experiences some video glitches, doesn't support the light gem, and often crashes the editor. Never buy Intel video.

[Unwanted Guest]

Thanks so much guys,

 

I'm pointed in the right direction now,

 

- will avoid INTEL!

 

 

Thanks again

 

U

[Unwanted Guest]

So sorry to bother you about this but was wondering about this card

ATI Radeon X850XT

 

 

From what I read it seems as if the card takes a AGP slot, but I thought the same name card can apply to different type slots.

 

 

THe computer I'm looking at is a used dell 9100, 2.8 GHz Intel4 processor;

Bus speed 800MHz, RAM 1 GB ( 4GB max),above card -

 

and here is what I think you are saying is most important:

 

 

as said..

 

"Expansion slots: 4 Memory, 3 PCI, 1 PCI Express x1, 1 PCI Express x 16,1"

 

- though I am not sure what the "x16, 1" means.

 

I'm a biologist, what can I say! : )

 

My 15 year old daughter is wanting to do a project this summer while out of school; she loves Theif, and has been fooling around with Dromed, but just begining. I was thinking with the development of the DarkMod, it may be good for her to start trying to learn that, with the tutoring available online. Got the Doom3 game, so just need to get an extra computer. Dont want to put some money out for one, where it cant work the game.

 

Thanks again

Edited June 20, 2008 by Unwanted Guest

[Baddcog]

late to reply but DO make sure you get PCI-E. It will allow future upgrades and for gamers the vid card is usually first upgrade. AGP is on the way out very fast and PCI is dead.

[Komag]

The PCI-Express slot is a 1x speed for PCI-Express, but that equates to 16x on the old AGP scale, so during the transition they will sometimes say crap like "16x,1x" or whatever.

 

The fastest AGP cards are 8x, so the basic PCI-Express is twice as fast.

 

If you get that computer you'll just have to be SURE that whatever card you buy has a PCI-Express connection, not AGP.

[Tels]

The PCI-Express slot is a 1x speed for PCI-Express, but that equates to 16x on the old AGP scale, so during the transition they will sometimes say crap like "16x,1x" or whatever.

 

The fastest AGP cards are 8x, so the basic PCI-Express is twice as fast.

 

If you get that computer you'll just have to be SURE that whatever card you buy has a PCI-Express connection, not AGP.

 

Also, with PCI Express, the bus is set out in lanes (or slots). Each slot can have a width of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. Graphic cards usually need a 16 lane wide slot. (They need all the bandwidth they can get

 

Your entry above looks like the board has a 16x and a 1x PCI Express slot. The 1x is quite useless, unless you get a soundcard or network card for PCI Express with a 1x wide slot - but usually these things would just be fine as a normal PCI card so that slot won't be used by you. But it can't hurt to have.

 

The 16x slot is for the graphic card and this is what you will use. Note that with that slot, you cannot use AGB cards. (So don't buy one - it won't fit

 

For all the gory details about PCI Express:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

 

As for your computer, looks like this one:

 

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-dime...7-31403779.html

 

The review is a blast from the past, it says:

 

Our $2,499 review unit is a versatile Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 system that's also a killer game machine.

 

Ouch. Well, it certainly was true in 2005 when they reviewed it

 

The machine specs are fine (PCI Express, baby albeit the memory is DDR SDRAM only, That's about 3 generations behind and you are limited to 4Gbyte.

 

Probably just fine for playing Doom3, tho, as the full 4Gbyte would cost you about 90€ (140 US $?).

 

You don't need 4, but 2 would be better for Windows. Make sure that you get two identical modules (although I think that Intel board doesn't use them in dual-channel, anyway). (When you get two different sized or speed rated memory modules, the computer cannot use them both at the same time, so it is a bit slower)

 

In any event, given what some people use as their main machines, I think that computer is fine - even with just 1Gbyte memory. Just don't pay too much for it. (Whats the price they want?)

[Tels]

Also, with PCI Express, the bus is set out in lanes (or slots). Each slot can have a width of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. Graphic cards usually need a 16 lane wide slot. (They need all the bandwidth they can get

 

Just read more in the wikipedia article:

 

he number of lanes actually connected to a slot may also be less than the number supported by the physical slot size. An example is a x8 slot that actually only runs at x1; these slots will allow any x1, x2, x4 or x8 card to be used, though only running at the x1 speed. This type of socket is described as a 'x8 (x1 mode)' slot, meaning it physically accepts up to x8 cards but only runs at x1 speed. The advantage gained is that a larger range of PCIe cards can still be used without requiring the motherboard hardware to support the full transfer rate - in so doing keeping design and implementation costs down.

 

Looks like your board has a 16x, 1x slot, which means it would be a very slow slot. Probably fine for D3, tho, plus you can always take the card out and plug it later in a faster computer.

 

But don't expect your machine to be as fast as a modern one - they usually come with a full 16 lanes slot and as I just checked on a few samples, they have PCI Express 2x (which doubles the bandwith).

 

In anyway, PCI Express is faster than AGB so don't worry about the details too much

[Unwanted Guest]

Also, with PCI Express, the bus is set out in lanes (or slots). Each slot can have a width of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. Graphic cards usually need a 16 lane wide slot. (They need all the bandwidth they can get

 

Your entry above looks like the board has a 16x and a 1x PCI Express slot. The 1x is quite useless, unless you get a soundcard or network card for PCI Express with a 1x wide slot - but usually these things would just be fine as a normal PCI card so that slot won't be used by you. But it can't hurt to have.

 

The 16x slot is for the graphic card and this is what you will use. Note that with that slot, you cannot use AGB cards. (So don't buy one - it won't fit

 

For all the gory details about PCI Express:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

 

As for your computer, looks like this one:

 

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-dime...7-31403779.html

 

In any event, given what some people use as their main machines, I think that computer is fine - even with just 1Gbyte memory. Just don't pay too much for it. (Whats the price they want?)

 

 

Thanks, I am definetely learning a lot. THere are so many computers out there, it is almost overwhelming. Cant afford too much for a computer, this one is at my limit at $200.00. But now that I know this is suitable, I can search for a cheaper one. Plus with what was said above, I can make even a better descision.

 

Everyone, thanks for your patience with this!

 

If anyone wants to add anymore, I'll be watching this thread

 

 

U

 

 

and here is one WITHOUT an OS,

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Dimension-9100-De...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

 

though it does have a OS key - I dont get that.

I guess if I were to get this, I would have to pay ~ $50.00 for and OS....

Edited June 21, 2008 by Unwanted Guest

[Komag]

$200 budget?! yikes. You might be best off getting a whole used PC on craigslist or eBay or something, an older one with an AGP slot, then get an old good AGP card for $30 or so.