Graphics card question

[Gavin Bell]

Can I attach a new Graphics Card rated at AGP 8X into my (ageing)
motherboard, which only supports 2X AGP ?

Graphics card under consideration -

GeForceFX 5200 128MB DDR AGP RP DVI VO
Available from DABS @ £40.00 inc VAT (£34.05 ex VAT)
manufacturer code I-5200-F3E3V
quicklinx 2GM9WS


My motherboard is a TMC Socket 7 VIA MVP3 ATX board with an AMD K6-2 500Mhz
cpu and 384Mb RAM.

I also have an ATI Xpert@Play98 graphics card (8Mb) which is not able to run
some recent games which need a 16Mb Graphics card with DirectX 8.1

Also - I'm pretty sure that I have 184 pin DIMMS in my current MB. If I am
upgrading to a new MB, would I be able to re-use them? Can anyone suggest a
MB which supports the AMD Athlon cpu, and will have at least 3 memory slots?

Thanks.

Gavin

 

[scott]

Can I attach a new Graphics Card rated at AGP 8X into my (ageing)
motherboard, which only supports 2X AGP ?

Yes, they are backwards compatible. I have just put an 8x card into my 4x
mobo and it's working fine at 4x. Most people say there isn't any
difference between 4x and 8x, not sure about 2x to 4x though.

Graphics card under consideration -

GeForceFX 5200 128MB DDR AGP RP DVI VO
Available from DABS @ £40.00 inc VAT (£34.05 ex VAT)
manufacturer code I-5200-F3E3V
quicklinx 2GM9WS


My motherboard is a TMC Socket 7 VIA MVP3 ATX board with an AMD K6-2
500Mhz cpu and 384Mb RAM.

I also have an ATI Xpert@Play98 graphics card (8Mb) which is not able
to run some recent games which need a 16Mb Graphics card with DirectX
8.1

Also - I'm pretty sure that I have 184 pin DIMMS in my current MB. If
I am upgrading to a new MB, would I be able to re-use them? Can
anyone suggest a MB which supports the AMD Athlon cpu, and will have
at least 3 memory slots?

Most mobos now have at least 3 slots. If you did get a new one you'd want
to buy new faster ram anyway. Depends how much money you have to spend, if
you do get a new mobo, processor and ram, you'll likely want to get a better
video card than the FX5200.

HTH

Scott

 

[Gavin Bell]

What's wrong with that particular Graphics card?

What one would you recommend, given that I'm on a limited budget?

Thanks!

 

[Gary Tait]

What's wrong with that particular Graphics card?

It is lacking.

What one would you recommend, given that I'm on a limited budget?

Maybe look for a GF3 Ti200, or a GF4 ti4200. Or consider saving for an
FX5600.
You will gain some, but to really appreciate a modern 3D card, you
need at least a 1 Ghz system.

 

[scott]

What's wrong with that particular Graphics card?

What one would you recommend, given that I'm on a limited budget?

How much of a budget? I would say for a new mobo, processor and ram you'd
need about £200, and then it would be worth spending up to £100 on the
graphics card too. You'd have a pretty kick-ass system then that would be
capable of playing most of today's games. Of course you can spend more, or
less, but £300 would be about the minimum to get your machine up to specs
required for the new games, and even the games that are a year or two old.

If you're just after games that aren't that new or graphics intensive and
are on a strict budget, I would recommend buying a GF4 Ti4200 from ebay or
something, I think you could get one for £40-£50 and would be best bang for
buck I think.

Scott

 

[BarryNL]

What's wrong with that particular Graphics card?

What one would you recommend, given that I'm on a limited budget?

I'd recommend an FX5200 - perfectly good choice for a limited budget.
Some people just seem to think that if you can't play games at 1600x1200
with full anti-aliasing then its not worth doing.

Considering that AGP cards will be obsolete in a few months anyway its
hardly worth buying an expensive one now.

 

[Sooky Grumper]

Considering that AGP cards will be obsolete in a few months anyway its
hardly worth buying an expensive one now.

Eh? Wuddideyemiss?

 

[Jay Cousins]

Can I attach a new Graphics Card rated at AGP 8X into my (ageing)
motherboard, which only supports 2X AGP ?

Graphics card under consideration -

GeForceFX 5200 128MB DDR AGP RP DVI VO
Available from DABS @ £40.00 inc VAT (£34.05 ex VAT)
manufacturer code I-5200-F3E3V
quicklinx 2GM9WS


My motherboard is a TMC Socket 7 VIA MVP3 ATX board with an AMD K6-2 500Mhz
cpu and 384Mb RAM.

I also have an ATI Xpert@Play98 graphics card (8Mb) which is not able to run
some recent games which need a 16Mb Graphics card with DirectX 8.1

Also - I'm pretty sure that I have 184 pin DIMMS in my current MB. If I am
upgrading to a new MB, would I be able to re-use them? Can anyone suggest a
MB which supports the AMD Athlon cpu, and will have at least 3 memory slots?

Thanks.

Gavin

You are running a socket 7 MB?! I am suprised that you can run a
500MHz processor. I would be really suprised if you had 184pin DIMMS.
A socket 7 is what Pentium 1's Cyrix and AMD K6-2s run in. If you
have DIMMS at all I would say that they were 168 pinn PC66 at best.
As far as the graphics thing goes. I would have to say no. But it
all depends on the video card manufacturer. I haven't seen any cards
that are 8x that are also 2x compatible. Only 4x and 8x. This is
becuase the older AGP cards(2x) are mostly 3.3V and the newer ones are
1.5V. Of cousre this doesn't mean that they exist.
-Jay

 

[Larc]

| Considering that AGP cards will be obsolete in a few months anyway its
| hardly worth buying an expensive one now.

???

Larc



§§§ - Please change planet to earth to reply by e-mail - §§§

 

[Muttley]

PCI Express......

Eh? Wuddideyemiss?

 

[Muttley]

Look up PCI Express.......

 

[Larc]

| Look up PCI Express.......

| > | Considering that AGP cards will be obsolete in a few months anyway its
| > | hardly worth buying an expensive one now.
| >
| > ???

Oh, that. I thought the reference was to something a little more imminent. PCI
Express isn't exactly going to replace everything overnight. As an article at
AnandTech points out, it took years for PCI to replace ISA completely.

I'll probably build at least a new system or two for myself before PCI Express
becomes standard in the world of Wintel. Longhorn that will support PCI Express
is probably a couple of years away at best.

Larc



§§§ - Please change planet to earth to reply by e-mail - §§§

 

[BarryNL]

| Look up PCI Express.......

| > | Considering that AGP cards will be obsolete in a few months anyway its
| > | hardly worth buying an expensive one now.
| >
| > ???

Oh, that. I thought the reference was to something a little more imminent. PCI
Express isn't exactly going to replace everything overnight. As an article at
AnandTech points out, it took years for PCI to replace ISA completely.

Don't expect the same with PCI Express. Intel are NOT supporting AGP at
all with their next chipsets. It's questionable whether Nvidia and ATI
will bother supporting AGP with their next generation cards. The
industry has clearly decided to make the switch as quickly as possible.
Unless the market clearly demands continued AGP support (which is
unlikely) then AGP will be pretty much dead by the end of this year.

I'll probably build at least a new system or two for myself before PCI Express
becomes standard in the world of Wintel.

Better hurry!

 

[Gavin Bell]

"Gavin Bell" <gavin@@nospam@@[email protected]> wrote in message

You are running a socket 7 MB?! I am suprised that you can run a
500MHz processor. I would be really suprised if you had 184pin DIMMS.
A socket 7 is what Pentium 1's Cyrix and AMD K6-2s run in. If you
have DIMMS at all I would say that they were 168 pinn PC66 at best.
As far as the graphics thing goes. I would have to say no. But it
all depends on the video card manufacturer. I haven't seen any cards
that are 8x that are also 2x compatible. Only 4x and 8x. This is
becuase the older AGP cards(2x) are mostly 3.3V and the newer ones are
1.5V. Of cousre this doesn't mean that they exist.
-Jay

Thanks Jay - it turns out that my memory is 168pin. I have also found from
other sources that it is unlikely that AGP 8x will be compatible with 2x,
but should be OK with 4x - but also remember reading an article which said
something about the notches in the cards and that motherboards would onyl
accept compatible cards because of these notches. If I remember right, it
did say that some mb's would support both voltages, and they would have the
appropriate fittings to accepts both types of cards with different
notches...