Cranking up a crapheap

Quigs Snr

Have been given the task of making an old heap o' ****e play a few games.

Its a P2 400mhz with 64MB RAM, it has an AGP slot. The don't want to upgrade mobo etc..... (I paid 1500 for that 3 years ago blah blah, people like Gerry will have encountered these types many times.......)

Anyway, I'm going to stick another 128 RAM in there because I have one lying around. Now the graphics card is the thing. I always say that you can't polish a turd, there is no point in putting some super duper card into a P2 cos the processor will end up being a bottleneck and that is just money wasted.

Anyone have any idea's, I do notice a Kyro and a Voodoo 4 on the for sale board, these would probably be a reasonable match for the machine I reckon, the guy would at least be able to play quake 3 and serious sam (the reason he wants this). Even a GF2,

I think the GF3 or 4 (with the possible exception of the GF4 MX) would be overkill. Plus if I could pick a cheapo card up for 30 Euro or about that, it would be ideal for the guy.

tribble

I (my family) run an Athlon 700
with an Abit GF 256 32MB SD @ 166mHz

and it runs ALL current games in 16bit 800*600 PERFECTLY.

Ok at 32bit the GF256 croaks and i wouldn't run GTA3 at 1024*768 but at 16bit, 800*600 it's fine.

b

Kali

dont bother with a Geforce 3 or 4 MX.. both will be cpu limited (the lesser cards would be limited up to about ~800Mhz)

A geforce2 gts would probably be the top card I'd put into it.
The kyro will do grand, however probably wont be that hot on q3 in particular.

tribble

dont bother with a Geforce 3 or 4 MX.. both will be cpu limited (the lesser cards would be limited up to about ~800Mhz)

Agreed.

A geforce2 gts would probably be the top card I'd put into it.

The GF2 GTS is a BEAST.
It out preforms most GF3's and all MX versions of GF3 or 4 (except some of the latest). You probably won't find it new too many places now.

The kyro will do grand, however probably wont be that hot on q3 in particular.

The Kryo is CRAP. One of the worst cards i have come accross. The Kryo 2 however, is fantastic value for money.

b

Quigs Snr

The GF2 GTS is a BEAST.
It out preforms most GF3's and all MX versions of GF3 or 4

---

Well the GF3 never came in an MX format and I think that the GF4 MX440 certainley the 460 run the GTS quite close. Yeah I think a GF2 GTS might do the job, even the MX400 is ok.

The Kyro seems like a pile of poo from what I read.

Anyone got a GF2 GTS/PRO/Ultra/Ti for sale ? Dammit, I sold a GF2 Ti for 40 Euro there a few weeks ago.

Zab

Originally posted by Quigs Snr

Well the GF3 never came in an MX format and I think that the GF4 MX440 certainley the 460 run the GTS quite close.

Yeah. Actually, as far as I am aware, all the GF3's outperform the GF2 GTS. And so do the MX440's and 460's. Of course, that won't necessarily be so on a P2 400Mhz....

Zab.

leeroybrown

All the GF3's should outperform the GF2 GTS.

Of te GF2's only the Ultra (probably pretty hard to find these days) would equal the performance of the GF3's.

Kali

Oops I did mean the Kyro2 in my post.. I've never used an original Kyro.

As far as the GF2 GTS outperforming a GF 4MX? not in my experience... I've had both a GTS 32mb and an MX440 in my current machine and the MX440 is a good deal better (this is only a P3-600).. the GTS had degrading performance at higher resolutions where the MX440s fps remained solid from 640x480->1280x1024 (i.e. not limited by the graphics card).

astrofool

grab a cheap gef4 mx, and lash the 128 ram in, is all you can do with it.

Other area you can improve is the hard drive, makes a big difference speed wise moving from an old to new drive.

The prices of the gef4mx are so cheap u might as well grab it, then u can say that unless they upgrade the chip/motherboard they can't get any better.

Gerry

Yeah the gts + ram + new hdd looks like a good bet to me. An option on the cpu is that the board will be able to take any 100 fsb chip, it will probably need an adapter if you are putting a coppermine in, but I'd check on the boards webpage first. Some old bx boards do support slot1 coppermines, and you should be able to pick these up dirt cheap second hand now.