Video Card Question

[Cypres0099]

I looked in the BIOS and on their website and couldn't find it. But in the manual I did find a page that has recomended cards.

Voodoo3
Nvidia tnt/tnt2 Ultra
Matrox g400
s3 savage4

Do you know what kind of agp these are?

[Hamster Huey]

So checking the stats of that specific motherboard on Biostar's homepage, it looks like you have an AGP 1.0 slot, which means that it's compatible with AGP 1x and 2x transfers.

That being said, you can ignore the AGP transfer rate specs entirely, because AGP standards are fully backward and forward compatible. So you can use your old vid card in a newer motherboard with an AGP 2.0 slot, or you can use a new vid card with 4x capabilities in your current system that only supports 2x transfers. So in a nutshell, any AGP card you buy will work fine in your current motherboard, but you may not get full mileage out of the card.

You know, depending on what you want to do with your new video card, you may want to consider saving and getting a new system instead. Since it looks your processor is pre-Thunderbird, you may be flogging a dead horse if you're just trying to get a few more FPS out of JK2.

[Potatoboy]

I have a Geforce 2 MX that might suit you, it doesn't have TV out.

As long as you don't have the KT133 chipset that is.
I had to replace the card because it's incompatable with my motherboard chipset and it's been laying around since.

PM me for details, I think it's a 32 MB card.

[ThePatriot]

I have a geforce2 MX right now, with a 555mhz p3, and on Jedi Knight i get about 20-65 fps in Jedi Knight 2(depending on the scenes.) Just some numbers i thought you would find interesting if you took up Potato Boy's offer.

[Cypres0099]

Thanks for the offer Potatoboy, but I have friend who is really into computers and has everything latest and greatest so I think I'll see what he has.

I'm just releived that my choices aren't limited by my mother board.

Tell me what you think, I have a 750 AMD Athalon right now. Would it be worth it to just get a new graphics card or am I just "flogging a dead horse" ? Couldn't I upgrade my entire mother board and also get like a... 1.6 ghz duron or athalon? (Not to bad at $140)

I could get this all installed by my friend so knowledge of installation isn't a problem. I think this route would be a lot cheaper than a new system.

Say I wanted to build a decent computer with the stuff I have now.

The stuff I would keep

32x CDR-W
DVD rom
Sound Card...
Hauppage TV Tuner
56k Modem...
128 ram

The stuff I would need

Hard Drive (since mine is only 16 gig and breaking down)
Mother Board/Processor (assume it would be AMD price)
Video Card
more ram?


What should I get for the stuff I need and how much do you think it would cost to updrade?

Computers can be addicting.

[Potatoboy]

If I had the cash to throw around (and I don't) and were in your shoes, Here's what I'd do.

Pick up these things:

A nice Socket A DDR Motherboard. 100ish
A nice speedy Duron or Athlon. 1.3 Duron 60ish, 1800+ (1.53GHZ) Athlon XP 100ish
About 512MB DDR Ram. 130ish
Some Sort of Geforce Video card. 50 - 400 depending
At least a 60 gig hard drive. 80ish for 60 Gigs

Or you can go with a 200 dollar dual athlon board, and go dualie athlons.

[Hamster Huey]

You need to figure out just how much computing power you need. If you're going to be running JK2, SOF2, and all the other new 3D games, then it's probably time to upgrade. But if you just want to run Counterstrike a little more smoothly, you don't have to go out and upgrade your entire system.

That being said...

A good KT333 mobo and an Athlon XP 1800+ will run you around $200.

You can get 256 megs of ram if you don't want to spend the extra money for 512 right now. Just make sure to get a single 256 MB DIMM if you go this route to give you room for future expansion.

Again, for video card I've gotta give a plug for the $99 Radeon 8500 LE. It's tops for DVD playback, and your friend can flash the card BIOS to give you a full-fledged Radeon 8500 for no extra cost.

The new Maxtor and Western Digital hard drives are very nice. I'd stick to one of these two brands.
All total, it'll take about $500 to get you up and running in a very nice rig. Again, you need to decide just how much power you need before you choose which way to go.

Good luck!

[Cypres0099]

Thanks for your help Potatoboy and Huey.

I'm not really wanting it high powered 3D gaming, although I do a little. It's mostly running many programs at the same time, music, dvd, music editors, cdr, internet. I have also noticed that in some of the newer dvd player programs it will skip when there is a lot of action, ie Matrix Fight scenes. A lot of times I just pop in a dvd and just go back to what I was doing while it's playing at the top of my screen.

To sum it up, the main purpose for my computer isn't gaming but if I do pick up a new game I'd like to be able to run it smoothly.

[paintbattler]

ive never heard of one like that, i have a NIVIDA