Graphics Card Help

Ghost

Warlord
Joined
Dec 31, 2001
Messages
171
I don't understand anything about graphics cards exept that I need a new one. I have a Geforce 4 mx440 125mb and this card won't run any new games because it dosn't have pixel shader. I figured out that I need a new graphics card with pixel shader of at least 2.0.(1.1 if 2.0 are too expencive)

I have about $200
Can someone recomend a good card.

PS: I have Windoes XP home edition and a good computer(if any of this matters)

Thank you
 
You need to state what kind of motherboard you have. For $200 you could get a pretty dang nice graphics card, but your mobo might not support it..
 
I'm guessing that since he has a geforce 4, his mobo hasn't got PCI-Express yet, so it would just have to be a regular AGP-Card (though the performance differences are minimal, anyway)

for that money you'll easily get a card with ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro chip, which even though it's not of the latest generation offers great performance
 
Does the Radeon 9800 or the geforce 6600 have 2.0 pixel shader
because that's the main reson I'm buying a new card.

Also I have no Idea what motherboard I have and what PCI is.
 
# Full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware
# 2.0 Vertex Shaders support vertex programs up to 65,280 instructions with flow control
# 2.0 Pixel Shaders support up to 16 textures per rendering pass
# New F-buffer technology supports pixel shader programs with unlimited instructions
# 128-bit, 64-bit & 32-bit per pixel floating point color formats
# Multiple Render Target (MRT) support
# Shadow volume rendering acceleration
# Complete feature set also supported in OpenGL® via extensions
from here

before I forget it: you should make sure that the power supply of your computer is powerfull enough (at least 300W). Most current cards are real power-hungry.
 
oh yeah, the card zelig mentioned is a mid-range card of the latest generation, so it may have some newer features.. (it also sports pixel shader 3.0, though I have no idea what they're good for ;) )
 
thanx guys
I found this card:
MSI Geforce PCX 6600 125mb for $130

Is this a good deal?
Will it have pixel shader 2.0?

also on a different note what does OC mean at the end of a card name?
DOes anyone know how I can find what my motherboard is?
and what my power supply is?
 
I think most of the modern generation cards have pixel shader 2.0.

Oh and (just to be picky, sorry) it should be 124mb (goes in 8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024 etc).

I don't know how to find out the others.
 
Lozzy_Ozzy said:
Oh and (just to be picky, sorry) it should be 124mb (goes in 8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024 etc).

I think you mean 128mb :p

To find these numbers start at 2. Multiply by 2 you get 4 do the same you get 8 then 16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048 etc... So it's basically 2 rasied to the nth power.
 
Ghost said:
thanx guys
I found this card:
MSI Geforce PCX 6600 125mb for $130

Is this a good deal?
Will it have pixel shader 2.0?

Post a link and someone will tell you - it's kind of hard to know exactly what card you are talking about without a link.

Ghost said:
also on a different note what does OC mean at the end of a card name?

Usually it means overclock friendly - can be driven a little harder with some tweaking. It's not a huge advantage, typically 5% over normal speeds for a given card. And it consumes more power and makes more heat, so a lot of people just don't bother.

Ghost said:
DOes anyone know how I can find what my motherboard is?

Usually when you first turn on, a little screen displays showing make and model of motherboard (abbreviated to mobo). If you hold down Del while booting you go into the BIOS - system wide changes. A powerful tool, so just move about with the arrows and hit Enter to go into the submenus - hit ESC to come back out of them. If you do change something by mistake, just type N when it asks you if you want to save the changes or not.

Ghost said:
and what my power supply is?

Usually written on the side. Make is usually displayed (for instance, Antec, Enermax, QTec) and the rating is given in W (watts).

So have a little delve around, find out what you've got, and come back to us.
 
Ghost said:
Here is the one I was talking about before:
http://store.digital-orange.com/dhnx6600td128e.html

That has a PCI-Express connector. Unlikely your machine has a PCI-Express port to put it in. :(

Ghost said:

Pretty much identical - it's also a PCI-E 6600 with 128Mb of graphics memory.

Ghost said:

I regret that zipzoomfly won't let me access the page - probably because I'm outside the USA.

Ghost said:
Can someone Please tell me the difference between them?

If that 3rd card is also a 128Mb 6600 with a PCI-Express connector, then pretty much no difference between them (except perhaps the games etc bundled with them).

The 6600 is not nearly as good as a 6600GT, by the way. You can get AGP (rather than PCI-E) versions of either of those.
 
No difference between any of those cards as far as memory and Graphics Processor Unit goes - they DO have different heatsinks though, which means in theory they have different overclock potential (to keep them cool while running them faster than normal). So no, not a huge difference - again, check the bundled games.

You don't have a PCI-Express slot. Guaranteed. Because you're current graphics card never ever came in a PCI-E version.

Unfortunately, it did come in a PCI version as well as the AGP version.

So the question really is - do you have an AGP slot? Which your current card may (or may not) be plugged into?

If the answer is no, you'll have to get another PCI graphics card or upgrade the motherboard. :(

If the answer is yes, then you can have an AGP one. They're just as fast as current PCI-Express ones anyway. Won't be true in the future (PCI-E can go a lot faster) but current cards don't really stress PCI-E so you're not missing anything.

Now, how to check if you have an AGP slot - have a look inside. There should be a few white connectors lined up - these are your PCI slots (pretty much all PCs have them these days).

If there's a brown slot, in line but set back a bit from them, that's an AGP slot. Yay.

Of course, it might be an old fashioned X1 or X2, rather than X4 or X8 (either of later 2 are what you need)...

...please just tell us what mobo you have. Look, here's everest to tell you;-

http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en

Or CPU-Z is an alternative;-

http://www.cpuid.org/
 
They're pretty much identical. And I'm jealous. :)

What resolution do you normally run games in? If it's bigger than 1024 X 768, a 256Mb 6600GT will give slightly better performance. It's not a major deal... but if you're budget will stretch, get a 256Mb.

To be honest, I wouldn't buy new from eBay - the card will probably be fine, but if it develops a problem in 6 months, the Newegg vendors will probably still be in business. Wheras a lot of eBay traders just fold their tents and melt into the desert, so to speak. ;)

EDIT: Don't forget to check your PSU is up to the job! 350W or more should do the trick - depends what you've got. This can help work it out;

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/Power_Supply_Calculator.php?cmd=AMD

If you're really interested in comparing different 6600GTs, there's a huge article on it here - you have to scroll to the bottom of each page to go to the next one. Tom's Hardware is like that - thorough but DEEEEP...

http://www7.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050404/geforce_6600-02.html
 
Also Cruddy,
you sayd something about heatskins
Do they matter and which are better?
Also Can you explain overclock?
 
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