What Graphics Card?

Stephen P · 14-07-2006 1:30pm #1

I have a spare PCI slot so I'm thinking about getting a cheap enough but relatively good graphics card. I don't want anything to expensive. I was looking at this on Komplett http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=304713, is it any good? I don't play many games online so it'll be mainly for watching DVD's. What spec. does my system have to have in order to run this card?
There only seems to be 2 graphics cards under PCI on Komplett. Can anyone recommend any other card that would suit my needs?

Cheers!

8T8 · 14-07-2006 4:25pm

I presume you only have a PCI slot and integrated graphics with no AGP or even a PCI-E slot yes ?

If that is the case then you don't have much in the way of choice when it comes to PCI graphics cards but for basic usage the FX5200 should be okay.

Just so you know the FX5200 is a very weak graphics card when it comes to 3D and you cant really get powerful graphics in that form factor but like I said for basic usage it is okay and for DVD's should be fine. There isn't a minimum spec either for it as long as you have an expansion port to accommodate it and a driver for the operating system.

There are some PCI 6200 cards out there, no idea were to buy one though but those would possibly be a better choice if you could get one as they may support NVIDIA's Purevideo DVD decoder which enhances the image quality of DVDs when playing them on a computer. Plus it would be ever so slightly better in 3D.

Stephen P · 14-07-2006 4:33pm

8T8 wrote:

I presume you only have a PCI slot and integrated graphics with no AGP or even a PCI-E slot yes ?

If that is the case then you don't have much in the way of choice when it comes to PCI graphics cards but for basic usage the FX2000 should be okay.

Just so you know the FX2000 is a very weak graphics card when it comes to 3D and you cant really get powerful graphics in that form factor but like I said for basic usage it is okay and for DVD's should be fine. There isn't a minimum spec either for it as long as you have an expansion port to accommodate it and a driver for the operating system.

I have 2 PCI slots altogether, 1 is currently being used for my sound card and then the other is spare.

I'm thinking about building my own PC, would I be better off waiting till then and get a great graphics card?

8T8 · 14-07-2006 5:14pm

stephen p wrote:

I have 2 PCI slots altogether, 1 is currently being used for my sound card and then the other is spare.

I'm thinking about building my own PC, would I be better off waiting till then and get a great graphics card?

Well a self build will definitely net you more current and powerful graphic cards so if you are saving towards that then I wouldn't spend €100 on the FX5200 for what it will give you in return (unless you really need it for something).

What kind of system you do you currently have to begin with CPU/motherboard wise ?

K.O.Kiki · 14-07-2006 9:36pm

For 2D work I wouldn't spend more than €50; something like a Radeon 9250 would do you, or try second-hand.
Or save the money & wait til you build a new PC.

Stephen P · 15-07-2006 1:38pm

8T8 wrote:

Well a self build will definitely net you more current and powerful graphic cards so if you are saving towards that then I wouldn't spend €100 on the FX5200 for what it will give you in return (unless you really need it for something).

What kind of system you do you currently have to begin with CPU/motherboard wise ?

The system I have at the moment isn't too bad but I'm going to do a self build mainly as a hobby. I'll probably buy everything from scratch for the self build. I'm not too up on the in's and out's of hardware so I'm going to have to a book or something first to read.
Can you get motherboards that would have an AGP slot & PCI slot?
What's the best to get an AGP card or PCI card? Or is there a differernt one that I should go for?

K.O.Kiki - that link isn't working mate. I must likely will hang on now till I build my own.

PogMoThoin · 15-07-2006 1:54pm

If you gonna build yourself, forget about Agp. Choices for Agp are deminishing quickly.
Pci-express is the latest. Some new mobo's have 2 pci-e slots allowing you to share the load between 2 pci-e gfx cards. These are either Sli (nVidia) or XFire (Ati).
My advise is to source as much information as possible before you even consider building

Stephen P · 15-07-2006 2:00pm

PogMoThoin wrote:

If you gonna build yourself, forget about Agp. Choices for Agp are deminishing quickly.
Pci-express is the latest. Some new mobo's have 2 pci-e slots allowing you to share the load between 2 pci-e gfx cards. These are either Sli (nVidia) or XFire (Ati).
My advise is to source as much information as possible before you even consider building

Thanks for that. I'll be an awful lot of research first before I even buy the case.

8T8 · 15-07-2006 2:15pm

First off there have been some changes in the types of expansion slots used, a new interconnect called PCI-Express has replaced the old PCI & AGP connectors.

AGP was only ever used for graphics and created as the demands of graphics cards began to be constrained by the PCI bus.

PCI Express or PCI-E for shorthand was design to replace both PCI & AGP it is a scalable interface with 1x, 4x, 8x & x16 slots that increase in bandwidth (see example picture).

The x16 slots are used for graphics cards though technically any PCI-E slot can accommodate a graphics card.

Any new PC you build will have a PCI-E slots and some legacy PCI slots for those expansion cards. All current Intel & AMD CPU's use motherboards that support PCI-E Express, as for cases all midi tower cases use the ATX form factor so any motherboard you buy you will want a ATX one for it.

Edit:PogMoThoin answered while I was detained typing this : )

PogMoThoin · 15-07-2006 2:18pm

Start with these:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=59513
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=122893
http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_learn.html
http://www.ati.com/technology/crossfire/howitworks.html
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=181125

Loads more info out there if you search.

Edit: I've got quicker fingers 8T8.

Stephen P · 15-07-2006 2:26pm

Thanks for the replies lads. I will read those links when I get a chance.

Stephen P · 15-07-2006 3:20pm

Would books on Building Your Own PC published in the past year mention anything about PCI-E in them?
Is PCI-E relatively new on the market?

Cheers!

PogMoThoin · 15-07-2006 4:01pm

Got book here 1 yo that mentions Pci-e but it doesnt mention Sli or Xfire (it does but doesn't go in2 2 much detail).
Pci-e has been round for a few yrs. My advise is to do your research on net. Dont buy books as stuff outdates so quickly.
There are new phys-x cards available but they havent prooved themselves to be succesful yet, but will in the future. They take the physics load away from the cpu and onto a seperate card. These will definitely not be mentioned in any book.
Google is your friend.

Look
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2006-26,GGLR:en&q=build+your+own+pc
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2006-26,GGLR:en&q=build+your+own+gaming+pc

Other good forums:
http://forums.guru3d.com/
http://www.futuremark.com/forum/index.php
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/index.php
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/

can find good advise and tutorials on these forums

What Graphics Card?

Comments