video card purchase help

[telecomguy9]

okay, i want to buy a new(er) video card for my pc. i have a p3 700 w/256mb ram. the only real reason i want to buy a new video card is to be able to play a couple of games that require it. they don't require much more than what i have now, which is a 32mb matrox agp card that's as old as the pc (i built the pc about three years ago). for the sake of saving money, i'm going to probably get a card with 64mb ram instead of 128mb ram.i want to spend as little as possible as this isn't a necessity. i only game a little bit (mostly playing games that are older anyway, like jedi knight 2, alien vs predator 1 and 2, etc.) so i don't need something really high grade. i just want something that will allow me to play these games as well as on another pc i've played them on (it has an intel 82845G graphics controller w/64 mb ram, but also has a p4 2 ghz processor).i have a few web sites that i can use to find the card i want. the problem is that i don't know which name brand to get (ATI, etc.). i also don't know about the agp standards. i don't know what my computer will support by way of agp, agp 4x and agp 8x (or whatever)? i do know my system supports agp as that's the type of card i have right now. if i'm right, will newer agp cards be compatible with older agp slots? are they backward compatible?any help with this will be much appreciated. thx.

[Peachy]

Hello and welcome.Since you have a PIII 700 the AGP slot on your motherboard will only accept 3.3V AGP video cards. Most new AGP cards use the 1.5V standard now and you won't be able to use it in the older boards. You may have to limit yourself to older cards such as a Radeon 7000, 8000 series or GeForce2 MX-400 or GeForce3. But double-check the specifications. Sapphire is a good ATI brand. MSI, ASUS make very good nVidia cards.

[jeffw_00]

ummm - my PIII (733Mhz) uses the lower-voltage cards/j

[Guest genaldar]

My old abit bh6 slot one board supports agp 8x cards fine (I've got a geforce 4 ti4200 in it). I'd suggest going with the low end geforce fx or a radeon 9500. Each are about $100.

[havnblast]

GeForce FX 5200 agp is a nice card - 128 MB DDR and runs great - catch em on sale for $80.00 - $100 -- I would at least go 128MB, only makes sense and it will last a long time, don't buy a card that is going to only last a couple years - try to go long term. I got this card in a PII 400 mhz and kicks my old voodoo card

[Stonegiant]

<shudder> Voodoo <shudder>

[havnblast]

Hey now the Voodoo 3000 is a great card used it up to just this summer when I got the FX 5200 and I could get it to work with almost anything I had. Took some tweaking for Tribes 2, but it would work. I moved the card over to another machine and is still running

[Stonegiant]

I run higher end 3d games. That's why I reacted that way.

[havnblast]

Understandable - that is why I upgraded, it can no longer keep up but was a great card for it's time

[Peachy]

Hello and welcome.Since you have a PIII 700 the AGP slot on your motherboard will only accept 3.3V AGP video cards. Most new AGP cards use the 1.5V standard now and you won't be able to use it in the older boards. You may have to limit yourself to older cards such as a Radeon 7000, 8000 series or GeForce2 MX-400 or GeForce3. But double-check the specifications. Sapphire is a good ATI brand. MSI, ASUS make very good nVidia cards.

Okay,I understand what was wrong with my statement. There is a situation when you have a AGP 1.5V (4x) slot on the motherboard and only AGP 4x keyed video cards or universal AGP keyed video cards will work in it and not 3.3V AGP 2x cards. What I didn't realise was that video cards either have the AGP 2x (3.3v) key or the AGP universal key (2x/4x/8x). This accounts for probably 90% of the market. What you don't want is a board with 1.5V slot because then you can only use the 1.5V cards or one that has a universal key. Hopefully this ATI document should make it clear.