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Thread: best graphics card for P4 PC

  1. #1
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    best graphics card for P4 PC

    hi, i'm looking for a good card for my PC. my son will use it to play flight sim x. at the moment its running pretty slow with fsx, but its usable. the specs are;

    P4 3.2ghz socket 478- foxconn m/b 865A01 with 8x agp- DDR400 ram 512 mb- XP home- old graphics card.

    i'm going tp upgrade the ram to 2 or 3 gb, but i'm not sure which card to go for.

    thanks for any help...

  2. #2
    Senior Member Lgbpop's Avatar
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    It depends a bit on your power supply. If it doesn't provide enough power to the 12V supply, it will rule out certain video cards. An nVidia 6800 or 7600, 8x AGP video card will work OK with a 450W PSU or better and most versions don't need an auxiliary power connector. Other members who prefer ATi can offer suggestions for that route. Make sure the video card you get has active cooling (fan); passive (heatsink) cooling won't cut it with that CPU in the same case.

    2GB of RAM for XP Home is more than enough to handle your needs. The other thing to consider is CPU cooling. Socket 478 Pentiums run hot, and if you're doing any gaming you may need something better than a stock Intel cooling unit.
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    thanks for your reply.

    i have a coolmaster 550w ps and a very good cpu fan.

    what do you think s the best card for that setup is?

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    Senior Member Lgbpop's Avatar
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    There's no BEST card as such, but several very good cards. If I were choosing a card for that hardware, I'd go with an nVidia 7600GT. I don't know enough about the ATi cards to suggest one, but the 3000 series with DX10 are overkill for the price and the 2000 series run hot and are a lot of $$ to tie up on an older system. Maybe an X1650?
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    thanks again Lgbpop.

    what do you think of this one? Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP DVI Retail.(i know you said that you dont know much about ATi, but its alot more than i know!). i've read that its very good. or is it too powerful for my cpu and might be wasted on my system?

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    Quite a difference.
    http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=716&chart=275

    That 3850 draws a max of 65 watts by itself.

    7600 GT __ 36Watts

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    Senior Member Lgbpop's Avatar
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    Would you want to drop almost $200 on a video card you can't use in a potential future system? AGP is kind of a dead end, PCI-e is the reigning standard now for newer hardware. Also, DX10 capability is wasted - it's not compatible with XP, only Vista - so unless you put Vista on your system, you're paying for a feature you can't even use. Lastly, if you DO put Vista on your system, it'll never run properly. It'll be a slug.

    If your goal is to prolong updating for a year or two, you can do it for $100 or less. It's your call, though.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Train
    Quite a difference.
    http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=716&chart=275

    That 3850 draws a max of 65 watts by itself.

    7600 GT __ 36Watts
    While that may be true, the 3850 is a MUCH better card than the 7600GT

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    hi again.

    i've ordered a card and some ram, but i'm not sure how to install the card.

    could someone explain step by step please, or post a link?

    cheers

  10. #10
    Hooya! Rabbitrunner51's Avatar
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    ?? not sure which card your talking about. Any video card installs just about the same. AGP slots are usually a bit different then PCI express card slots, but either one you choose, they are not difficult to install.

    Always, make sure your computer and power are off when installing first off. Then just take the card and put it into the slot, and press down firmly, making sure it is seated all along the card. PCI Express cards have a two slot thing. One is usually longer then the other,so just look at the PCIE slot on the motherboard, and put the card in as you see it align up.
    If your card requires a power plugin, then you will have to have a PSU that has the PCIE plug included. Use that. I gather the higher end cards have the six pin plugin.

    For cards like i have now, ( 7600GT ) or similar models for Nvidia or ATI, then they might not need any power hookup at all.

    If its a PCIE card, then when you bootup, make sure in bios, you selct the PCIE option and not the PCI or AGP option. Thats it. now just boot the computer and it should recognize the card with no porblems. nothing else to do other then download the latest drivers for the card. LOL
    Phenom 2 X4 B35 :ASRock N68C-S UCC: G Skill DDR1333 ( 4GB ): ATI Radeon HD6770 1GB : Logitech X504 5.1 SS speakers.:WD 500GB,&300GB Sata2 HD's ; Liteon Lightscribe 24X DVD/combo Drive : Antec 620C neo PSU: CTL 22"WS

  11. #11
    Hooya! Rabbitrunner51's Avatar
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    Added personel note: obviously i have that card. ( 7600GT ) , and while we all can comment on what is a bit better or waht have you, i have to give this card a complete five star rating. I play evey single game out today, and even Crysis plays like top dog with vry good FPS and any game looks gorgeous. Only drawback is.., it is not DX110 and only has the 3.0 shader modeling, but that is good enough for most any game, and when i got it, any game old and new looked ten times better. No comparison at all, to anything earlier.
    For those who want to spend very little and get alot, then this is the best performer in that price range.
    If one can find any about, then get ahoold of a 7900 series card. For PCIE the best bang for medium dollars in PCIE would be wht i'm getting next. The 9600GT. A whole lot more power needed and its a very long card. The 7600GT needs no power hookup and is very short in length. Those are definite pluses.
    Phenom 2 X4 B35 :ASRock N68C-S UCC: G Skill DDR1333 ( 4GB ): ATI Radeon HD6770 1GB : Logitech X504 5.1 SS speakers.:WD 500GB,&300GB Sata2 HD's ; Liteon Lightscribe 24X DVD/combo Drive : Antec 620C neo PSU: CTL 22"WS

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    I have a 7600GT in a machine, and in no way do I consider Crysis playable on that card.

  13. #13
    Hooya! Rabbitrunner51's Avatar
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    Well, once again Ramone you seem to be the only one.

    I'd invite ya over to my apt. to see for yourself, but then again... from all your unbelievable negativity in anything i post..well?

    Just what are your machine specs anyway? I put the settings in advanced to medium for all but a couple of aspects, not related to importance and play the game fine.. with little or not slowdowns at all. it looks and plays gorgeous. I'm too honest a person to lie about anything. I had it running at 1280 X 920 and it still plays fine.

    Now,,if your the type who thinks that 100 FPS is the norm for a game of this caliber, then thats a little odd. I just know it plays fluidly in all but one level, and thats the winter frozen part. Even in that its very playable.
    Phenom 2 X4 B35 :ASRock N68C-S UCC: G Skill DDR1333 ( 4GB ): ATI Radeon HD6770 1GB : Logitech X504 5.1 SS speakers.:WD 500GB,&300GB Sata2 HD's ; Liteon Lightscribe 24X DVD/combo Drive : Antec 620C neo PSU: CTL 22"WS

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    Senior Member Lgbpop's Avatar
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    Thank God we're not getting all of the government we're paying for!

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    My specs are 8800GT Q6600@3.1GHz 8GB of ram. And even with those specs, I'm not thrilled about how Crysis runs.

    Trust me, i'm not the only one. Few enthusiest will find Crysis plays like "top dog" with a 7600GT. It simply does not have the power. I don't think you're lieing, I just think your expectations and standards are a bit low. I have your card, I don't need to go to your place to see how it runs. You're entitled to your opinion of course, but so am I, and mine is that the 7600GT is not a powerful enough card for games like Crysis. Sure you can turn the settings way down, but that defeats the purpose of a game like Crysis.

    We simply have a difference of opinion on the defination of "Plays beautifully" and accceptable frame rates are and I don't want someone spending their money on a card only to unexpectedly have to turn all the settings down to medium and low, not be able to use any form of AA or AF and still experience slowdowns on certain levels. By your own admission, these are the performance characteristics of the game on that card and I don't see how these results equate to "top dog" performance.

    My negativity towrads your posts stems from a simple reason, what you post doesn't make complete sense and contradicts itself. I won't bring up past examples but I'm sure you know what I'm refferring to, and here once again, we have a similar (though not qute as extreme) situation.

    It plays like top dog... in DX9, with all settings turned down, some to low and still have slowdowns in some levels

    You may not see anything wrong with the above statement, but I do.

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