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Buying a GPU

1 by CIH
Elite SG Guardian
Yup it's another ever-present (what's the word ?) g/fx card thread.

Rather than suggestions, I need to know what I need to look for specifically regarding compatability.

I know my motherboard is AGP but I'm currently unsure which speed (ie x4 x8 etc) and I understand bus speed is a factor ? Any thing else i should look for ? I'll probably get some more system ram too so could do with pointers there too.

The plan is for a 512mb 7600GT (about £60 IIRC) and total 2gb system memory (SDRAM) to complement the 2gz P4. Been ages since I looked into this, but I reckon this should allow good performance for current generation games and maybe future proof (haven't used that phrase in a long time!) for a little while. I'll get it back in the next week so I can answer any questions you guys might have.

Don't worry, I won't be going ape if it turns out not to be the GPU that's confuzzled my PC and all this is for nought :D

Incidentally, it's a bit s### when random internet buddies are(hopefully!) more reliabale than you're own lazy-ass brother

2 by aldo
The Blessed One
I don't think you need 512mb ram on the graphics card unless you want to run very high resolutions; I'm using a 8800GTS 320 and everything (Bioshock, Call of Duty 2, World In Conflict*), looks gorgeous at the 'old' standard of 1024 or 1200 on full.

*demo

4 by aldo
The Blessed One
vyper wrote:More memory, more textures available without the need for caching. Faster load times, less lag.
Benchmarks indicate that there's very little benefit from more GPU RAM unless you run at high resolution.

6 by CIH
Elite SG Guardian
update!

Got my pc back home today. Attempted to "roll back" the GPU drivers then realised they've probably never been updated (couldn't be arsed, sue me).

Then I got all brave and deleted the GPU drivers. I now have a semi-working PC!! Windows runs ok-ish in, well, I'm not sure what it's doing as it looks too good to be VGA but then I haven't used VGA in years. Pretty sure the GPU isn't being employed anyway. Tried UT2004 and it doesn't appear to be running software mode but it's plainly not full 3d accelerated (remember that term ? :D).

So now I could try and hunt down some GeForce4MX drivers on th' net and spend hours D/L them (dial up) or just sod it and drop £80 on a 7600GT and add a little system ram.

edit: what do we think of a Geforce 7800GS 256Mb @ $134.99 (about £70) ? As seen at http://www.nvidia.com/object/buy_now_re ... ?id=7800GS

7 by CIH
Elite SG Guardian
okay, settled on a 7600GT @ £60. Now, as for system memory what's the deal with speed ? My current 512 sticks say 512M-133A which I assume is poor but if I grab 2x 1gb sticks do they have to be 133hmz ?

Sorry for the nooby questions. Ask me something about Mantas and fear the knowledge!

8 by CIH
Elite SG Guardian
Well I've gone ahead and got a 7600GT 512mbRAM (AGP), 2x 1ghz system SDRAM. Oh and a 1gzhz Pen Drive.

Hopefully all this will be compatable and I should see some red-hot MAX action soon.

9 by CIH
Elite SG Guardian
Well, got my 7600gt plugged in last night. Lol it's about twice as big as my old G4MX. Glad I didn't get a more advanced card as the fit is quite tight.

Cleaned out the old drivers and installed the supplied software. The NVIdia "sentinel" software complained about not getting enough power so I plugged in one of the red/black/yellow grouped cables into the only port on the card that wasn't a display and it seems happy. Haven't really tested it yet.

My hardware manager states it's working properly but is there a way to see if it's getting enough power, other than just waiting with fingers crossed ?

10 by Taristin
Ascended SG Initiate
If you were trying to run it without the PCIe power plug, then it would definitely complain. Surprised you even did that, really. It should run fine though, with it plugged in fully. My X1950XT says it needs a 500w PSU, but I only have a 430 and it works just fine.

14 by CIH
Elite SG Guardian
Taristin wrote:AGP. :O A DINOSAUR!




Anyways, yea if its a power hungry gpu, it'll need that.
all this pc spending is coming out of my car fund!! =( =( =(
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