Considering "bridging" vid card... advice?

[dave404]

Here's the deal. My current system is antique: Cel500 on a Slot1 board (Soyo SY-6VBA 133), 256MB PC133 SDRAM, Voodoo3 AGP, Aureal Advantage soundcard, blah). Stop laughing at the back there... it was OK for HL and DeusEx!

My chief interest, card-wise, is gaming: I don't plan to be watching DVDs on my PC, video editing, or anything like that. Mostly FPS and RTS gaming, at that.

Some time next year, I will upgrade to a nForce2-based solution, prob. running an Athlon 1800XP or so, depending on pricing sweet-spots at the time. I could wait, and get the IGP version, which would give me better graphics than I have now, at lowish cost.

Or I could get some kind of lowish cost card that currently outclasses my system by a bit, get the SPP (no graphics) version of the nForce2, and wait longer before upgrading the AGP card. Not to mention I could play some more recent games in the meantime. I was considering the Radeon 8500LE, as they seem a great deal right now, and by all accounts Ati have sorted out its drivers, to a large extent.

Is this ridiculous? Would my measly CPU choke the life out of the Radeon altogether? Or is the IGP so sub-Ge4MX that it's not worth hanging on for?

All opinions welcome. Thanks!

 

[Peter]

All you need to do is steer clear of the AGP 8x cards (these don't run in AGP 2x/1x mainboards), and watch the power consumption of the card you choose. Old or new high end stuff is a bad idea (so is the R8500). I'd rather go for ATi's current budget solution, the Radeon 9000: Its power consumption is lower than the 8500's, while you get about the same performance, give and take.

 

[dave404]

Well, I was hoping for some more input on which one I should do, but thanks for the advice. I hadn't thought about power, and my current system is getting close to its limits, I suspect.

Where do you find out about the cards' power requirements? ATI's site?

 

[DT4K]

Hey, that's not bad. Until February of this year, I was playing Quake2 and Rogue Spear on a K6-2 380 with my Voodoo3 PCI card. Damn, that Voodoo kicked ass compared to the 4MB onboard video I had for the first year I had the system. Now, i've got an XP 1700+ @1625 (11x150) and a GF3 Ti200 @ 240/510 (Ti500 speed)

I don't know much about the power requirements. I would look into that though. Find out what kind of PSU you have and what the card requirements are.

If it looks like power wouldn't be a problem, I would say go ahead and get something like a GF4 Ti 4200 or an 8500. They are good prices now. Or wait and see how the new Radeon cards (9500, 9500PRO, 9700(non-pro)) look.

Sure all of these may be overkill for your system, but I still think you would see a lot of improvement. Depends on the game. Some are very CPU dependent, while others make much more use of your graphics chip and don't need as much CPU speed. And if you are going to spend the money on a new card, you might as well get one that will last you awhile so you don't need to buy another one when you replace your mobo/cpu/RAM.

Oh, the sweet spot now is the 2100+. $89 on Pricewatch.com. Depending on how long you wait, if the hammer is out, the budget chip may be the XP 2800 333.

Just my opinion.

 

[bigshooter]

If you just want mediocre graphics performance for right now, get the nforce2 with integrated graphics. It costs more, but you get a built in vid card for now, and then you cna put a new card in later when teh next "next gen" cards come out.

 

[dave404]

Thanks to all.

Does anyone know how I can find out what the power requirements are? I've tried poking around mfr's websites, with no joy yet. Google searches are similarly uninspiring.

Of course, I'm prepared to upgrade the PSU early if I have: it'll have to go sooner or later. But it would be good to know what I'm doing!

 

[Hegemon]

Just another suggestion/option for you...
Your current proposals all sound as if you would have no problem building a PC from scratch. So why, might I ask, are you spending the money to upgrade such an old system piece-by-piece? It honestly costs very little to build a very nice gaming system. I currently have an aluminum tower, GF4 Ti4200, Athlon XP2000+, KT400/USB2.0/8xAGP mobo, 400watt PS system. I reused only my old hard drive and CDRW. I built the system a month ago for only about $500. Limiting your hardware selections because of an old system that you are going to replace anyway just seems a little counter-productive to me. Also, with computer hardware, waiting for the "next best thing" really means never buying anything. There is always something better around the corner, so if you want a gaming system, just build one and don't look back.

 

[dave404]

I *did* build a system from scratch, just a month or so ago. It just wasn't for me.

And it's true that the only part of my current system with a long-term future is the case (and that's not certain).

The only reason I'm not building from scratch right now is that cash is a little short at present. A bargain vid card is a possibility, a complete system, just to play the latest games, not.

 

[dave404]

*bump*

Not to nag, but I'm still hopin' someone can tell me how to find out what the power requirement for a given video card is.

Thanks!

 

[Peter]

There's little information about this. A good indicator is the size of the fan/heatsink solution on the card. Fanless cards are your friend if you own an old mainboard. I'd attempt a fanless Radeon 9000 even on 1st generation AGP 1.0 mainboards, Radeon 9000pro if your board isn't quite THAT old.

 

[dave404]

Thanks Peter!