Old AGP videocard comparison requested

[Borg20001]

I always get confused when trying to compare video cards.

I saw a deal for an EVGA GeForce 5200 FX AGP and my old Dell Dimension 8200 has a GeForce 3 TI 200 video card in it right now.

Can anyone tell me if the 5200 will:

A) fit in my old Dimension 8200?

B) be an upgrade to the GF3 TI200?

Appreciate any feedback you can render.

Borg

 

[Foxery]

I think the TI200 was a GeForce4 generation product - but while it's technically one year newer, the 5200 is one of the lowest-end, stripped down budget cards nVidia has created in years, so you'll hardly see a performance increase. If you're looking to play games, spend a few extra bucks on a higher model; otherwise, keep your money.

It's up to you how much money & performance you're after. $50-60 gets you up to GF6800 / Radeon X1550 territory. $90 gets you all the way to a GF7600 / Radeon 2600. (And yes, still in the AGP slot.)

 

[Skunkwourk]

The FX5200 isn't good for much. I bought one to replace a Geforce 2 Pro and didn't notice huge improvements. If you just want a replacement, it'll be fine, if you want to game or anything else, you'll want more. The Dimension looks like it will accept any single slot card since I saw specs for one with a Geforce 4 Ti4200. Im assuming you have a P4 2.0+ in there. What do you plan on doing?

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: Foxery
I think the TI200 was a GeForce4 generation product - but while it's technically one year newer, the 5200 is one of the lowest-end, stripped down budget cards nVidia has created in years, so you'll hardly see a performance increase. If you're looking to play games, spend a few extra bucks on a higher model; otherwise, keep your money.

It's up to you how much money & performance you're after. $50-60 gets you up to GF6800 / Radeon X1550 territory. $90 gets you all the way to a GF7600 / Radeon 2600. (And yes, still in the AGP slot.)

Thanks Foxery, I was trying to see if I could get some marginal improvement for little to no extra $$.

The 5200 FX is on sale for Free after rebate so you basically would just have to pay shipping which is under $10.

At one point I was looking at either the 6200 (or more likely the 6600) card but I wasn't sure if my old Dell could even run it.

FYI, the pc has a P4 1.8 GHz cpu and only 512 Meg of RDRAM (the crucial bottleneck for this system).

But thanks for the info. maybe I'll wait another year or so and if I haven't replaced the Dell by then, look for a 6800 or so.

 

[Borg20001]

Originally posted by: m0mentary
The FX5200 isn't good for much. I bought one to replace a Geforce 2 Pro and didn't notice huge improvements. If you just want a replacement, it'll be fine, if you want to game or anything else, you'll want more. The Dimension looks like it will accept any single slot card since I saw specs for one with a Geforce 4 Ti4200. Im assuming you have a P4 2.0+ in there. What do you plan on doing?

Thanks Momentary,

I just wanted to see if I could get any improvements in the systems speed by fixing / upgrading the cheapest things first. Since I have RDRAM in this, upgrading the RAM will never be cheap so I was looking at the video card next.

It plays some of the older games fine for me (Halo, MOH etc.) but I was looking for a little boost where I could if it was cheap and in this case it would have only cost about $6 after rebate.

Oh well, eventually it will probably be better to just put together another rig or buy one of these sub $500 dual core systems and upgrade the video and RAM...

 

[Skunkwourk]

Originally posted by: Borg20001

Originally posted by: m0mentary
The FX5200 isn't good for much. I bought one to replace a Geforce 2 Pro and didn't notice huge improvements. If you just want a replacement, it'll be fine, if you want to game or anything else, you'll want more. The Dimension looks like it will accept any single slot card since I saw specs for one with a Geforce 4 Ti4200. Im assuming you have a P4 2.0+ in there. What do you plan on doing?

Thanks Momentary,

I just wanted to see if I could get any improvements in the systems speed by fixing / upgrading the cheapest things first. Since I have RDRAM in this, upgrading the RAM will never be cheap so I was looking at the video card next.

It plays some of the older games fine for me (Halo, MOH etc.) but I was looking for a little boost where I could if it was cheap and in this case it would have only cost about $6 after rebate.

Oh well, eventually it will probably be better to just put together another rig or buy one of these sub $500 dual core systems and upgrade the video and RAM...

If the 6600GT is cheap enough I'd get it or you can look for a Radeon 9700 pro. I had a friend who played Halo and WoW with a P4 and 6600GT for quite a while and one friend who is still using the 9700. Spending more than 35 bucks on your current machine wouldn't be worth it. Considering you only have 512, the money put to upgrade the card and ram to reach your machine's full potential would be better spent on the sub $500 dual core rig you're talking about.

 

[aka1nas]

The ti200 is likely faster, but it's only a Dx8 card so it's not going to play anything remotely modern.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I just bought a Ti4400 (for a retro rig) with 128MB of memory and an upgraded cooler (compared to the reference cooler) from Ebay for about $15 shipped. Used, but cheap.

 

[RanDum72]

Originally posted by: Foxery
I think the TI200 was a GeForce4 generation product - but while it's technically one year newer, the 5200 is one of the lowest-end, stripped down budget cards nVidia has created in years, so you'll hardly see a performance increase. If you're looking to play games, spend a few extra bucks on a higher model; otherwise, keep your money.

It's up to you how much money & performance you're after. $50-60 gets you up to GF6800 / Radeon X1550 territory. $90 gets you all the way to a GF7600 / Radeon 2600. (And yes, still in the AGP slot.)

The Ti200 is actually a GeForce3 product. Geforce4 are the 4200, 4400, 4600. The FX series are newer than the GeForce4 but as far as performance is concerned relative to the Ti200, I would say it would be about equal or it may have a slight edge.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
I just bought a Ti4400 (for a retro rig) with 128MB of memory and an upgraded cooler (compared to the reference cooler) from Ebay for about $15 shipped. Used, but cheap.

:thumbsup:

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: RanDum72
...as far as performance is concerned relative to the Ti200, I would say it would be about equal or it may have a slight edge.

Many people, myself included, successfully overclocked the Ti200 to Ti500 specs. It should easily outperform the FX5200. You might need a little extra cooling, but many claimed stock cooling was fine.

 

[RussianSensation]

I think it's important to consider that when discussing P4 1.8ghz and 512mb system it's hard to call anything a videocard upgrade. Sure you can put 6800GT in there but it won't run anything that's 2 years old or newer at acceptable detail settings or framerates. Therefore, I'd probably save your $ and consider getting a new rig. $10-15 is the difference between getting a good cooler and a great cooler for overclocking or going from 400gb to 500GB hard drive or going from HD3850 to HD3870 graphics card - upgrade decisions that are all $10-15 worth spending

 

[vanvock]

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=3

 

[RanDum72]

Yup, you are right. I was thinking more of the Fx5500 (which I had before or was it the Fx5600?) which is more of the Ti200's equal (same memory bandwidth,etc..). Ironically, I bought the Fx5500 as an "upgrade" to my PNY GF4 Ti4400...and you know which card is faster.. The FX series are DX 9 while the GF3's are DX8.

Originally posted by: Slugbait

Originally posted by: RanDum72
...as far as performance is concerned relative to the Ti200, I would say it would be about equal or it may have a slight edge.

Many people, myself included, successfully overclocked the Ti200 to Ti500 specs. It should easily outperform the FX5200. You might need a little extra cooling, but many claimed stock cooling was fine.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: RanDum72

The FX series are DX 9 while the GF3's are DX8.

haha FX series are DX9 in much the same way a Toyota Echo is a sports car.