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dinohog
Dianoga
Joined: 02 Dec 2005
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 Posted: May 01, 2008 09:09 Post subject: Imagine my disappointment ... ... |
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Hi All
Imagine my disappointment when my poor computer will not play the most exciting new game I've heard about in some time.
I have a Nvidia MX440 graphics card that does not support pixel shaders. I would greatly appreciate any recommendations for a replacement card. My PC is Win XP Pro, Athlon XP 1600+ (1.4Ghz), 512 meg RAM. I looked at an ATI Radeon 9800 on EBay for about $90 (in Australia) which could be an option. Is this a good card?
I probably should updgrade the computer but I've recently put in a new power supply and bought a new 22" Widescreen Monitor. Any advice offered will be most appreciated.
Dino 
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The MAZZTer
Death Star
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
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| Posted: May 01, 2008 19:52 Post subject: |
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The GeForce 9200 is supposed to be a surprisingly good card for a bargain price. If not that, if you're at all interested in playing the latest games I would recommend at least a high-end GeForce 6 or 7 series card.
I don't know much about ATI cards so I can't give recommendations for those.
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lucius
DarkXL Developer
Joined: 17 Feb 2008
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| Posted: May 01, 2008 20:00 Post subject: |
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Do you need an AGP card? If so then you can get a much more recent card for about the same price. Here's an example: Here
Just search for "AGP" "NVidia" "7600", these will even run newer games pretty decently  The point is that you can get a very decent card for $100 or less.
If you have PCIe then you have even better options as The_Mega_ZZTer pointed out. But that doesn't seem too likely given your current specs...
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The MAZZTer
Death Star
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
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| Posted: May 02, 2008 03:44 Post subject: |
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My current card is AGP I need a new mobo and CPU...
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dinohog
Dianoga
Joined: 02 Dec 2005
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| Posted: May 02, 2008 10:03 Post subject: Thank you for advice |
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Thank you guys for your advice.
I live in a small country town so choice is a little limited. I picked up a nvidia FX5200 today. Performance issues mean I might have to make an investment in a new PC though. We'll see what happens.
Thank you again.
Dino.
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sweatervest
Ree-Yees
Joined: 22 Apr 2008
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| Posted: May 02, 2008 19:08 Post subject: Re: Thank you for advice |
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dinohog wrote:
Thank you guys for your advice.
I live in a small country town so choice is a little limited. I picked up a nvidia FX5200 today. Performance issues mean I might have to make an investment in a new PC though. We'll see what happens.
Thank you again.
Dino.
Are you familiar with Newegg.com? They have just about any piece of computer electronics you could want for better prices than buying at stores. They also have a 30 day refund policy (I'm pretty sure they'll refund with a restocking fee instead of just store credit) in case you get, say, a new video card and it doesn't work well or at all with your system, or if you buy a new motherboard and processor, bend a pin on the CPU when inserting it into the slot and fry the whole motherboard and CPU after it shorts it as soon as I turned it on  Also, Newegg probably supports Paypal in case you don't have a credit card.
If you plan on doing a major PC upgrade, Newegg is a great place to do it, and you'll most likely save money this way, not only because Newegg is cheaper than retail (generally) but they'll have many more options so you can really find the cheapest thing that does what you need. Also, it usually only takes about a week for stuff to ship to you.
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The MAZZTer
Death Star
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
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Nottheking
Kell Dragon
Joined: 29 Sep 2003
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| Posted: May 20, 2008 05:02 Post subject: Re: Imagine my disappointment ... ... |
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dinohog wrote:
I have a Nvidia MX440 graphics card that does not support pixel shaders. I would greatly appreciate any recommendations for a replacement card. My PC is Win XP Pro, Athlon XP 1600+ (1.4Ghz), 512 meg RAM. I looked at an ATI Radeon 9800 on EBay for about $90 (in Australia) which could be an option. Is this a good card?
I probably should updgrade the computer but I've recently put in a new power supply and bought a new 22" Widescreen Monitor. Any advice offered will be most appreciated.
Dino
Well, I notice that you bought (and presumably installed) a new power supply, which comes across as a good sign to me that you do have a workable degree of computer knowledge... So that would indicate to me that you'd know for certain that you've got an AGP slot available, and aren't stuck with only old PCI slots, which would've been a dire situation indeed.
At any rate, the Radeon 9800pro was, in its time, a VERY solid card, and later on, still held its own as an older card. The plain 9800 was markedly worse, but I suppose still okay.
The FX 5200, though, I'd describe as a "stopgap" measure; power-wise, I think you'll find that it will hardly be better than your old MX 440. The GeForce FX series was widely considered a farce in performance terms, with only mildly better performance than the GeForce 4 series it was meant to replace; the FX 5200 was the absolute weakest of the lineup, meant to replace the MX 440, and provide pixel shader support on the low-end...
I'll admit I don't have expertise in shopping in Australia, though I do know that NewEgg certainly isn't available there.
A more "permanent" (lolz) solution for AGP would've been, if you COULD have found it reasonably in Australia, might have been something like a Radeon X1600pro, which was a bit better than the 9800pro, but also supported pixel shader 3.0, compared to the 2.0 of the 9800pro, and the SUPPOSED shader 2.0 of the FX 5200. (note that it performs so horrifically, though, that TF2 will auto-default to running it at pixel shader 1.1 instead) The X1600pro had the advantage that they didn't stop making them by the end of 2003 or so, and were making them well into 2007.
But yeah, in the end, you're going to eventually have to replace your computer. Sadly, they don't manage to last forever. It's just that if built with good choices, they can last for a number of years before then. If you're running WinXP, 512MB of RAM is not really going to comfortably cut it with more modern games, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if your motherboard wouldn't SUPPORT anything above 512MB. And that 1600+ is going to be straining in most games, too. Won't even technically meet the minimum requested requirements for most new games, either.
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