Advice for PCI-E for Pentium D with 1 GB RAM.

Markopoulos · #1 February 20th, 2007, 09:22 AM

I seriously considered buying a pci express graphic card.
I don’t know what I have to look for so I ask for your advice.
Let me say that when I am playing SWAT my pc pops up the following message
"UNKNOWN UNKNOWN
Playing the game on this hardware is COMPLETELY UNSUPPORTED, UNSTABLE, AND NOT RECOMMENDED. Do you wish to Continue anyway?"
…so I want something to get over this.
As for the cost I would like to spent approximately 80 – 100 euro.
Any ideas?

Jimmy420 · #2 February 20th, 2007, 10:24 AM

As for what to look for, What Shapes A Video Cards Performance

I was looking for a card to buy last week, i found the best one in my price range was a ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 256mb that i found on Newegg for $80 USD. Although i asked around and everyone said to go with the X1650 which costs a bit more (about $20-40 more) but would be worth it.

Hope it helps.

Markopoulos · #3 February 21st, 2007, 01:00 PM

The link was very useful, as for the card its a CrossFire Technology. I don't need such thing and i don't want to pay extra for something i am not going to use.
I agree that it's a wonderful card but its too much for my needs.
I think it's a silent card. Is it? I have heared those cards raise heat.

Anything else anyone?
keep in mind my specs.

Jimmy420 · #4 February 21st, 2007, 06:38 PM

Well, what are you looking to do with it?
Some quiet cards do raise heat, but most modern cards now come with fans to keep them cool and quiet.

Markopoulos · #5 February 21st, 2007, 09:29 PM

I like playing SWAT 4 or equal (and a little bit more sternly games) as I said before. Some friends of mine told me "keep away from 7300"

Jimmy420 · #6 February 21st, 2007, 09:46 PM

Well if thats all your wanting to do with it, you could go with a card like this.
GeForce 6200 - 128mb

Gargamel · #7 February 22nd, 2007, 04:15 AM

how much do you wana spend on this?
all "newer" cards from both ATI and nVidia have either SLI or crossfire (for ATI all the way back to the x800 & x850 series) and its not going to cost you that much more. the only time you really see the price increase is when your looking at the crossfire edition, although because i do not believe nVidia has such a thing all of their cards will have this slight price increase.

i don't know how much cheaper you want to buy a graphics card then $80. less then that your starting to look at relics, grumpy things that go bump in the night.

FYI. passively cooled video cards have under some circumstances been known to cool better then actively cooled units. because of the unknown origins that these companies are sending their business to, big temperature changes without active countermeasures can damage their name, the engineering needs to be immaculate. so you can be sure that if you live in a moderate climate, it should run quite well, and quiet.

Markopoulos · #8 February 22nd, 2007, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gargamel

how much do you wana spend on this?
all "newer" cards from both ATI and nVidia have either SLI or crossfire (for ATI all the way back to the x800 & x850 series) and its not going to cost you that much more. the only time you really see the price increase is when your looking at the crossfire edition, although because i do not believe nVidia has such a thing all of their cards will have this slight price increase.

i don't know how much cheaper you want to buy a graphics card then $80. less then that your starting to look at relics, grumpy things that go bump in the night.

FYI. passively cooled video cards have under some circumstances been known to cool better then actively cooled units. because of the unknown origins that these companies are sending their business to, big temperature changes without active countermeasures can damage their name, the engineering needs to be immaculate. so you can be sure that if you live in a moderate climate, it should run quite well, and quiet.

Ok Goodmorning from Greece

First off all about the cost I want to spend 100 euros (not less) as I already said at my first question.
I don’t need crossfire so we must search for something without this feature.
Oh and something else!
I want to be able to connect my pc with television so to be able to watch DVD’s playing at the pc dvd. I need a video in/out something like that I think

**smurfy** · #9 February 22nd, 2007, 08:38 AM

My advice when getting a video card is get the best one your budget can stretch to, because guaranteed, the day you buy one to suit "the games you want to play today" you'll want a better one to play the game you see in the store tomorrow.

Interestingly I've seen the following comment on your Motherboard -
"Note: PCI-E x 1 and JMicron JMB363 SATA controller can not be used simultaneously"
Whilst that doesn't say it affects the PCI-E x16 slot, I'd be vary wary of it if you are using SATA hard drive(s).

**smurfy** · #10 February 22nd, 2007, 08:50 AM

NewEgg poduct list $100-$200
In that price range (100 Euro = US$130), everything should have either 512MB vram or VIVO but probably not both.
They should all have TV-Out at least.

I wouldn't get too hung up on "crossfire ready" or "SLI capable". These cards will stand alone perfectly well.

Markopoulos · #11 February 22nd, 2007, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smurfy

NewEgg poduct list $100-$200
In that price range (100 Euro = US$130), everything should have either 512MB vram or VIVO but probably not both.
They should all have TV-Out at least.

I wouldn't get too hung up on "crossfire ready" or "SLI capable". These cards will stand alone perfectly well.

Your critical comment about SATA was very useful. Hopefully I don’t have SATA yet..i use a WDC 80 GB disk (small but ok).

So “TV out” is what I need to look for? Be careful I want to play dvd’s at the pc and watch them at TV!!

I’ll see the link u provide me.

oh and i prefer Nvidia.
It is reccomended for SWAT game.
Maybe its a company politic to huckster Nvidia i don't know.

**smurfy** · #12 February 22nd, 2007, 09:47 AM

nVidia = Me too

But that's because they still have better Linux drivers than ATI.
If you want anything on your PC to appear on your TV, then TV-Out is what you need. It doesn't really matter what type of connector it has as you can normally get adapters to convert them but ideally you should get the output that matches your TV-Input. i.e. Composite (like RCA Plugs) or S-Video or HDTV.

Here are a couple I'd recommend for your price range:
512MB 7600GS
256MB 7600GT
The second one has a slightly better GPU (the GT vs the GS) but less VRAM.
On your CURRENT requirements, I'd go for the GS and the extra RAM but...

Markopoulos · #13 February 22nd, 2007, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smurfy

nVidia = Me too

But that's because they still have better Linux drivers than ATI.
If you want anything on your PC to appear on your TV, then TV-Out is what you need. It doesn't really matter what type of connector it has as you can normally get adapters to convert them but ideally you should get the output that matches your TV-Input. i.e. Composite (like RCA Plugs) or S-Video or HDTV.

Here are a couple I'd recommend for your price range:
512MB 7600GS
256MB 7600GT
The second one has a slightly better GPU (the GT vs the GS) but less VRAM.
On your CURRENT requirements, I'd go for the GS and the extra RAM but...

Ok as I see we have an agreement we want Nvidia. The linkhad prices between 100 – 200.
I made a market research at the same site for price : $75 - $100 because I saw prices and are much more higher at Greece from what I thought.
Look this! 256MB 7600GT has 153.28 € euros!!!
I didn’t knew I can use an adapter..

Something else, what's the difference between "PCI Express x 1" and "PCI Express x 16" ?

Gargamel · #14 February 22nd, 2007, 05:11 PM

NOOOO dont go for the one with the 512. dont ever. it has more memory yes. but it has much lower bandwidth (DDR2 vs the DDR3) i can almost garuntee that the 256 will preform better on memory and GPU. Also again both of these are SLI capable.

you are not going to be hard pressed to find a card that does not have sli or Crossfire for over euros 100. DONT GET HUNG UP ON IT, YOUR NOT GUNA PAY MUCH FOR IT. FOR 100 euros the only way it is NOT going to have SLI or Crossfire is if you buy 2 generation old high end video card

Markopoulos · #15 February 22nd, 2007, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gargamel

NOOOO dont go for the one with the 512. dont ever. it has more memory yes. but it has much lower bandwidth (DDR2 vs the DDR3) i can almost garuntee that the 256 will preform better on memory and GPU. Also again both of these are SLI capable.

you are not going to be hard pressed to find a card that does not have sli or Crossfire for over euros 100. DONT GET HUNG UP ON IT, YOUR NOT GUNA PAY MUCH FOR IT. FOR 100 euros the only way it is NOT going to have SLI or Crossfire is if you buy 2 generation old high end video card

I am not goint to bye the one with 512 MB and the reason is just the high cost.
As for the DDR3 maybe is wise to say that my main RAM memory is DDR2 so I don’t know if this has something to do with the graphic card memory. I mean maybe must be the same so to be able to take advantage of the card. (?)
To sum up here is what I want:
1)Nvidia chipset.
2)256 memory DDR2
3)Cooling system: fan
4)The thing I said before for the TV…(see up)

And the cost as I said from the beginning.

I haven’t decide yet but all of your answers guys have helped me to make a plan for what I want.