I have an old P3 800 mhz system with a Matrox G400. I haven't really needed
a proper 3D card and have been happy with the G400. Now I've been playing
Morrowind Elder scrolls III, and would as a result like to upgrade to a
graphics card with better 3D capabilities. I don't need top-of-the-line and
suspect it would be a waste unless I also upgraded the rest of my system.
Can anybody suggest a suitable card with a good 2D image quality and
preferably as little noise as possible? The mainboard is Abit BX-133 (BX440
chipset, AGP 2x).

Many thanks in advance,
Rasmus

"Rasmus Paetau" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:c99rvk$r9e$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have an old P3 800 mhz system with a Matrox G400. I haven't really
needed
> a proper 3D card and have been happy with the G400. Now I've been playing
> Morrowind Elder scrolls III, and would as a result like to upgrade to a
> graphics card with better 3D capabilities. I don't need top-of-the-line
and
> suspect it would be a waste unless I also upgraded the rest of my system.
> Can anybody suggest a suitable card with a good 2D image quality and
> preferably as little noise as possible? The mainboard is Abit BX-133
(BX440
> chipset, AGP 2x).

A Radeon 8500 128Mb or a Geforce4 Ti4200 are good choices. Not available
new, but Ebay has an excellent inexpensive selection. These are both very
fast DX8.1 cards. I would avoid slow bottom feeder new products like the
9000/9200 series Radeons or the FX5200 series.

None considering games ogf June on will recommend 2Ghz+, 512 megs ram and at
least a 128 meg vid card.


"Rasmus Paetau" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:c99rvk$r9e$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have an old P3 800 mhz system with a Matrox G400. I haven't really
needed
> a proper 3D card and have been happy with the G400. Now I've been playing
> Morrowind Elder scrolls III, and would as a result like to upgrade to a
> graphics card with better 3D capabilities. I don't need top-of-the-line
and
> suspect it would be a waste unless I also upgraded the rest of my system.
> Can anybody suggest a suitable card with a good 2D image quality and
> preferably as little noise as possible? The mainboard is Abit BX-133
(BX440
> chipset, AGP 2x).
>
> Many thanks in advance,
> Rasmus
>
>

RipFlex wrote:

> None considering games ogf June on will recommend 2Ghz+, 512 megs ram and
> at least a 128 meg vid card.

You mean that the requirements for the one game that he is playing will
magically change overnight? Do tell.

> "Rasmus Paetau" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:c99rvk$r9e$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I have an old P3 800 mhz system with a Matrox G400. I haven't really
> needed
>> a proper 3D card and have been happy with the G400. Now I've been playing
>> Morrowind Elder scrolls III, and would as a result like to upgrade to a
>> graphics card with better 3D capabilities. I don't need top-of-the-line
> and
>> suspect it would be a waste unless I also upgraded the rest of my system.
>> Can anybody suggest a suitable card with a good 2D image quality and
>> preferably as little noise as possible? The mainboard is Abit BX-133
> (BX440
>> chipset, AGP 2x).
>>
>> Many thanks in advance,
>> Rasmus
>>
>>

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

"RipFlex" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:gX1uc.8671$(E-Mail Removed):

> None considering games ogf June on will recommend 2Ghz+,
> 512 megs ram and at least a 128 meg vid card.
>

Nice gross generalisation there, especially as Gabe Newell was
quoted in PCZone's latest issue as indicating once you get over
1.2 ghz processor you won't see much improvement in Half Life 2
so long as you have 256mb ram & a DX9 card.

That's not to mention the hunderds of other games that will
require less than you reckon.

Morrowind needs a VERY fast graphic card, to be able to play smoothly!
I'd love to recommend "Morrowind fps optimizer" wonderful little tool!:
www.morrowind.nm.ru

REMEMBER: If you choose an ATI card (radeon8500 and higher) you will have
option to enable "TruForm" for Morrowind!! This DRAMATICALLY improves
lightning model indoor and object geometry. So faces, rocks, pottery, clifs
and the whole scenery looks MUCH smoother and lovely! See above link for
pics of Truform in action.

Nvidia based cards don't have TruForm!


Cheapest option is a Geforce3-ti500 (and only ti-500, no less!). IF you find
one CHEAP and used.
Gf4 ti-4200 or Radeon 8500/9000pro, 64mb or 128mb, don't matter much for
that game.

If you don't fancy used cards, then you can buy a Radeon 9600, 128mb, or a
Fx5500 128mb which cost some less and is bit slower.

STAY AWAY from Fx5200/5600XT/ Radeon9200SE/9200/9600SE cards. Fx5200ultra
and Radeon 9200pro are decent, but at that price, radeon9600 is much much
better choise.

"Asestar" <a s e s t a r @ s t a r t . n o> wrote in
news:lw4uc.84201$(E-Mail Removed):


>
> REMEMBER: If you choose an ATI card (radeon8500 and higher)
> you will have option to enable "TruForm" for Morrowind!!
> This DRAMATICALLY improves lightning model indoor and
> object geometry. So faces, rocks, pottery, clifs and the
> whole scenery looks MUCH smoother and lovely! See above
> link for pics of Truform in action.
>
Only recommended if you have one the ATI cards that do it in
hardware, which is a limited number unless they reintroduced it.

My 9700Pro does not do it in hardware & it can be quite a
performance hit.

What? I could enable TruForm on my 8500LE and mobility 9000, with very
little 3-5fps hit im most games. However, depends MUCH on how TruForm is
implemented. My current overclocked 9600SE can do Truform with about 4-8fps
hit in general. Not bad at all, considering only 64bit mem width.


"Lithurge" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns94F8CE3781117ds34543dsffds@130.133.1.4...
> "Asestar" <a s e s t a r @ s t a r t . n o> wrote in
> news:lw4uc.84201$(E-Mail Removed):
>
>
> >
> > REMEMBER: If you choose an ATI card (radeon8500 and higher)
> > you will have option to enable "TruForm" for Morrowind!!
> > This DRAMATICALLY improves lightning model indoor and
> > object geometry. So faces, rocks, pottery, clifs and the
> > whole scenery looks MUCH smoother and lovely! See above
> > link for pics of Truform in action.
> >
> Only recommended if you have one the ATI cards that do it in
> hardware, which is a limited number unless they reintroduced it.
>
> My 9700Pro does not do it in hardware & it can be quite a
> performance hit.

I had an 8500 in my old celeron 900 and it was a dog until I put it in an
xp1700 system, both systems had 512mb ram. So draw conclusions from that.

Mike

"Lithurge" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns94F8BD687BC74ds34543dsffds@130.133.1.4...
> "RipFlex" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> news:gX1uc.8671$(E-Mail Removed):
>
> > None considering games ogf June on will recommend 2Ghz+,
> > 512 megs ram and at least a 128 meg vid card.
> >
>
> Nice gross generalisation there, especially as Gabe Newell was
> quoted in PCZone's latest issue as indicating once you get over
> 1.2 ghz processor you won't see much improvement in Half Life 2
> so long as you have 256mb ram & a DX9 card.
>
> That's not to mention the hunderds of other games that will
> require less than you reckon.

In article <gX1uc.8671$(E-Mail Removed)>, "RipFlex" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>None considering games ogf June on will recommend 2Ghz+, 512 megs ram and at
>least a 128 meg vid card.
>
>

Believe it or not, running UNREAL2004 on a 600mhx P3 with my old radeon AIW
card (Had to try it since i added a new 9800 Pro to my 2.4 system and had the
AIW laying around) . Very playable so yes a 800mhz with a 8500 or so card
would be fine.

>"Rasmus Paetau" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:c99rvk$r9e$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I have an old P3 800 mhz system with a Matrox G400. I haven't really
>needed
>> a proper 3D card and have been happy with the G400. Now I've been playing
>> Morrowind Elder scrolls III, and would as a result like to upgrade to a
>> graphics card with better 3D capabilities. I don't need top-of-the-line
>and
>> suspect it would be a waste unless I also upgraded the rest of my system.
>> Can anybody suggest a suitable card with a good 2D image quality and
>> preferably as little noise as possible? The mainboard is Abit BX-133
>(BX440
>> chipset, AGP 2x).
>>
>> Many thanks in advance,
>> Rasmus
>>
>>
>
>