Good vid card for ss7 board?(fic 503+)

[4thman]

Gonna build a box for the kids(first time),whats a decent vid card for this board(fic 503+)?I've heard some horror stories getting an agp card to work on this m/b.Thanks.

 

[PuppettMaster001]

What are they going to be using th epc for? I would say a regular radeon 32mb or a geforce 2 mx. What kind of proc are you thrwing in it?

 

[lobadobadingdong]

If your looking at something super cheap, that will only be running simple Disney games, an old rage 2000 pro will only run about $25, if you need more power for them to play stuff like homeworld, go with something like a Radeon 8500 Le or Gf3-ti200.

 

[AnAndAustin]

You are right to be VERY concerned about running modern gfx cards on a S/Skt7 mobo. They tend to be AGP1.0 compliant and all cards from GeForce up are AGP2.0. You'd be much safer going for a PCI solution, Rad9000 when it goes PCI (should be soon) is an excellent choice, but even a GF4MX or Rad7500 will give excellent 3D perf for what the PC is likely to be used for. If you go AGP bear in mind your slot was almost certainly never designed to accomodate the voltage reqs of any relatively modern gfx card and are also notorious for problems with gfx card RAM bigger than 16MB. IMHO get a 64MB PCI version of the Rad9000 or at least GF4MX or Rad7500. Have you considered upgrading the mobo and CPU, 1.2ghz Durons and SktA mobos come in together for less than $100 and are a world apart from the best S.Skt7 PCs. Also look at how cheap AthlonXP1800+ CPUs are, worth considering although you may need a new case, PSU, PCI cards and ideally RAM ... although you should be fine they are worth bearing in mind.

 

[4thman]

The m/b comes with a k6-2 266,which I'll upgrade to 500 or whatever I can find.I want keep things as cheap as possible.I will be starting out with a pci 8 meg rage pro turbo,but want to beef it up abit.Would a pci tnt2 m64 be ok?Just has to do some low res gaming (800x600)was thinking of a V3 2000,but no 32 bit colour,and no official drivers anymore.Would I notice any difference between a pci card and an agp card on this board?Is it safe to use a pci card with more than 16 megs ram?I heard an agp gf2 mx would be ok because of low current draw.Is there anywhere I can find out what vid card draws xx amount of current?Thanks.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Some poeple have had luck running AGP2.0 gfx cards on AGP1.0/S.Skt7 mobos, but it is risky and full of potential probs and headaches. A 266mhz is VERY under-powered, a K6-III is what you ideally want in there, a K6-III 450mhz would be preferable to a K6-2 550mhz. I take it you are sure that your mobo can accomodate both the K6-2/III and 100FSB. You may very well find a S.Skt7 CPU comes at quite a price and a Duron 1.2ghz would be more than twice as fast as the best S/Skt7 CPU and prob cheaper too, all you would need to go with it would be a SktA mobo using SDR so you can utilise your current PC100 SDRam. This doesn't need much cooling or voltage so you are pretty much guaranteed success providing your PSU is ATX of course. Anyway a 450-500mhz S.Skt7 CPU would enhance your perf greatly but there would be little point going for much more than the entry level gfx cards. I'd suggest Radeon over GF2MX, Rad7500 are very fast and very good all-round cards and they are among the best in terms of compatability and voltage reqs etc.

If you go PCI you are fine to have up to 64MB RAM, RAM size is very important for a PCI card as AGP handles RAM breaches FAR better than PCI possibly can. Expect to be hit a good 20% by using a PCI version of a card, do explore Voodoo cards as these keep more perf going to PCI although you are right about the obvious poor support/drivers PLUS even a Voodoo5 is behind GF2GTS or Rad7500 perf to begin with anyway.

See what price you could get a new S.Skt7 CPU for, then check how much a Duron and cheap SktA mobo would cost you, so long as you have an ATX PSU you are very likely to get plain sailing. If you stick with S.Skt7 then you should find a Rad7500 AGP gfx card will do the trick otherwise a GF2 or Radeon in PCI form will do you no harm and will me a whole world better than a TNT2 M64 or Rage Pro even if you are severely limited by your CPU power.

 

[4thman]

Very helpful,thanks AnAnandAustin.

 

[Dunjon]

I would go for a Voodoo3 3000 if you can still find one. If not that then maybe the cheapest GF2 mx you can get.

 

[Dunjon]

I think Tigerdirect.com still sells the K6-2+ 450 and those have been known overclock to 550. First thing I would do is go to FIC and get the latest bios and then try a K6-2/3+.

 

[spanky]

voodoo3 3000 or 3500

ok i just noticed u didn't like the voodoo series. how about a rage128 based card. i think the radeon or gf2 series of cards are overkill for ur system.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Voodoo3 cards will give decent perf, but obviously when you upgrade to a 400mhz+ CPU you will really gain significant benefit from Rad7500, IIRC check out ATI's website for info about AGP1.0 compliance and possibly info on the low current draw of these cards.