PCI or AGP card?

[cyuill]

My computer is based on a 500 MHz K6-2 on an Asus P5A-B, which has the supposedly infamous ALi V chipset. I'll upgrade the entire computer in a year or two, but in the meantime I want to upgrade my video card to allow me to run a 17" or 19" monitor at photo-realistic color. My main concern is having a card that is good for creating documents, editing photos, creating Web pages, etc. But I do play Unreal Tournament and other 3D games a fair amount too. I currently have a 2MB Matrox Millenium w/ a Canopus Pure 3D Voodoo I card. I want/need something better. The ALi V chipset had some initial problems accepting AGP video cards, although I understand that driver and BIOS revisions fixed this problem. Would in be better (safer?) to go with a PCI rather than an AGP card with this motherboard? Someone suggested a Voodoo 3 PCI card. I was thinking about going with something like a Geforce2 MX 32MB, Radeon 32MB SDR, or Kyro I 32MB in AGP or PCI flavors so that I can enjoy 32-bit color and more-modern visual effects. Please don't suggest upgrading my mainboard and CPU---I've done this already within the past year. I'd rather get a whole new machine, but can't afford to right now. I have a greater need to upgrade the monitor (from a measly 14&quot first.

 

[Swanny]

Get an APG card. I don't have personal experiance, but any card should work with your mobo. APG offers too many advantages not to use it. Look into getting an ATI Radeon LE. They can be tweaked to perform identically to the Radeon DDR. It has good 2D and can perform pretty well in 3D.

 

[pen^2]

if you are reluctant to upgrade your cpu/mobo, you dont have many choices left since most newer generation card will be cpu limited. pick up a cheap pci v3 2k and overclock it to 3000/3500 speeds, ALi V is notorious for its AGP incompatibility/instability issues. with a v3, you should do fine in UT

AGP offers nothing more than higher bandwidth and DME, which should be avoided if possible anyway. with the kind of games your computer would be able to handle, this is a rather moot point.

Swanny, you mean LE could be twaked to DDR speeds? LE is already just as fast as SDR if not faster.

 

[elkinm]

I have the Radeon 32 MB DDR AGP and it is extremely fast. I upgraded from a K6-2 450 on an ASUS P5A and it worked fine but the P5A soes lack AGP 4X support but it is still fast without it. I once had an old Rage Pro card, both PCI and AGP and the AGP was much faster. My recomendation is none other then the Radeon LE DDR or the retail version for AGP as they are both faster then the GF2 MX or the Voodoo 5. Since you have a K6-2 you will not see the full capabilities of the Radeon but it will still work well if you upgrade to a better AGP system with 4X support in the future.

 

[BFG10K]

Another vote for the V3. Honestly, most old non-Intel chipsets have notoriously bad AGP implementations. Also your CPU is too weak to take advantage of anything faster.

 

[Swanny]

Oh yeah, sorry I was thinking DDR but typed SDR. It will be edited

I guess if the AGP incompatibilities are that bad then maybe you should get a PCI card. In that case I'd also recommend a V3 2000 or 3000.

 

[Shalmanese]

Since you already have a good 2d pci card. I would recommend that you get a TNT2 or V3 or something similar in AGP and leave the matrox as a 2ndary pci card. then you have a good gaming card as well as a good 2d card if there are incompatibilitys with your AGP car. I know there are switch boxes for 2 moniters to 1 card but I do not know if you can get 2 cards to 1 moniter.

 

[merlocka]

Another vote for the Voodoo3 PCI. $38 bux on Pricewatch. Compared to your Voodoo1 card Unreal performance will knock your socks off. Compatability, good 2D performance, $38 bucks. Mix those up and you make a nice little cake.

 

[cyuill]

Thanks for the replies. The Voodoo3 has been recommended to me before, so it is not a surprise to see the above recommendations. I had, however, hoped to get a card that had more in the way of eye candy. As per continuing to use the Matrox Millenium, I agree that it's a good 2D video card. Unfortunately, it has only 2MB of memory, which will produce photo-realistic color only up to 800 by 600. That's not good enough for the larger monitor I plan to get. It uses WRAM, which is similar in concept to DDR, but is also not a very common type of memory. My gut feeling tells me that it'll cost more for a 2MB or 6MB memory upgrade for the Millenium than just going out and getting a new card. I don't even know if it's possible to get this type of memory anymore. A low-end Radeon is about as extravagent as I intend to get.

 

[Boogak]

How about getting a cheap PCI Voodoo4 then? It supports 32bit color and has Glide support for UT.

 

[matheusber]

as Boogak said , what about a Voodoo 4 PCI ? i tried one AGP and is something like my V3 AGP with 32bits color ... glide ... and not that expensive ... at least think about it ..

matheus

 

[elkinm]

I'd go for the Radeon LE AGP. It is only slightly more expensive then the Voodoo 4 PCI and I am shure it will work in your system as I also have a P5A with a RADEON AGP.