Help with a Upgradeing a PCI only Computer

[Avron]

Hi, I've got a computer here that I want to upgrade but it only has PCI 2.0 slots , It has 512 MB DDR RAM, Plenty of HD space, Pentium 4 2.66, Now I'm just looking for any cheap solution that will upgrade WoW Performance. Looking to spend in the $40-60 range as I'm upgrading my computer hopefully within 6 months.

 

[Avron]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130188, would that be a good solution for, as an upgrade to Intel Extreme Graphics.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

As per your link, the Intel IGPs are extra slow, so even a plain PCI bus interface is enough to outrun those. If you had a better IGP, such as ATI's Xpress200, the improvement with an add-in card would be only incremental, no matter what the card might be. Plain PCI is just so very slow that all of the various Plain PCI solutions of the past couple of years, with the exception of the 9200/ 9250 Radeons, and the FX 5200 you selected, are all close to the same low level performance.

One of the ratings/ replies on Newegg includes mention of Dx9. But he is in error. Or still is being taken in by nVidia propaganda. The FXes do not have the real Microsoft Direct3D version of the Shader Two functions at all. They have a unique nVidia alternative that is a great deal slower, such that the fastest FX, the 5950, was slower than ATI's 9600 Pro, a Low End card, when running Oblivion. You can get Pixel Shader Three by moving to a more recent generation of Plain PCI, but with such a restrictive bus, you get rather small speed improvements.

 

[daveybrat]

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Do NOT go with the card you linked. It only has 64-bit memory bus which is simply dreadful.

The PNY version i linked you has a 128-bit bus. That one should be fine for playing wow and in your budget.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Sorry, but your alternate simply isn't enough better than his, to have made your time looking it up worth anything. Truly, the wholesale value of an FX 5200, any kind at all, is no more than about $25 - $30. You can find them in lots of ten on eBay for auction bids as low as $200, on a regular basis, there are still so many left in the Overstocks and Surplus market. As alreadt pointed out, the PCI bus is agonizingly slow. a 256 bit memory system would be no better than 64 bit in that situation.

Of the rest of the plain PCI cards, such as the 6200, X1300, 7300, and X1550 (just a renamed X1300), their performance is all constrained by that bus, such that while they are going to be measurably better than an FX, or than a Radeon 9200, they will hardly be differentiated from one another with regard to performance.

This Geforce 6200 is about as good as there is, but it has a cost ($92): http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814139010

 

[aka1nas]

You can get 6200s and X1300 in PCI, either are a major step-up from a 5200, regardless of the PCI bus limitations.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

That 6200 I linked to is as cheap as I think Newegg had, that would actually be an improvement over the onboard, but it will cost $32 more than he wants to spend.