The classic need a new video card help thread

[buckeye83]

It's been quite a awhile since I've been active in these forums. So long that I forgot my old user ID and password and had to make a new one. Anyway on to the question.

I haven't kept up with video cards and I am going to upgrade my video from the on board (GeForce 6150) to a pci x16. The question is which one? I have the following criteria in mind:

1) I don't game much but I do want the option. When I do play, I play the Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Unreal 2 type of games. I know they're old but I like them. When I do get a new game it will be of this type. This might be hard but I've set my budget @ around $100, I could go as high as $150 though.

2) I prefer to power the card from the PS not the bus. The ones I've been looking require quite a bit of power and the PCI bus just isn't designed to supply that kind of power. I have a 430W PS with 6pin PCI connectors. I don't plan on changing it anytime soon.

3) I'm not worried about noise and I actually would prefer a fan. I may be wrong but IMO forced cooling means longer life and if you can't tell already I keep my stuff a long time.

From the reading I've do so far this card doesn't look bad but I'm sure its past it's prime.

http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16814102034

I know I can't get the lastest but I would like your in put as to the best bag for my buck.

Thanks

 

[darkxknight]

the HD3850 might be pushing your limits a little bit, but you can get it for 170 at newegg. will handle those games fine, but future releases will be sketchy. obviously won't be maxing them all out but will last you a year or two on medium to low settings.

 

[Dudewithoutapet]

@ $100 go for a used 7900GT -> voltmod 7900GTX speeds or X1800xt 512
@ $100-150 a used x1900/50 XT XTX 512 Might be pushing your PSU though. The XT's can be OCed to XTX speeds easily, or so I heard.
CHeck Craigslist or the FS/FT forum here
@ >$150 3850 or 8800GT 256.

On second thought, depending on your screen size, a 7600GT might be enough. Can be found used for like $65 shipped. You may have to spend some more money in a year or so, but you can save from this card now and get something better then, maybe a system overhaul or better PSU and graphics card?

 

[BernardP]

If you can stretch your budget a little more, the ATI HD 3850 is the best value for money, and your PSU is strong enough for it.

If you want to stay below $100, considering you are not a hardcore gamer, I suggest this:

MSI 8600GT OC for $85 after rebate

No doubt you could spend more money and get something more powerful, but if it is a question of getting something that matches your true needs for a reasonable price, this card could meet your crititeria, except that it requires so little power (43 watts) that it doesn't need a PCI-E 6-pin connector. 43 watts is well below the 75 watts allowed by the PCI-E express slot.

In addition, upgrading to an NVidia card will be simpler, as you already have NVidia video drivers on your system. Just upgrade to the latest version, go into the BIOS to make the system boot with the discrete videocard, install the new card, and you are in business. The video drivers will still be the correct one should you have to revert to integrated graphics at some later time.

 

[buckeye83]

Thanks for the input. I'm leaning towards the HD 3850 as it looks like it will have the longest life for cards in my budget. Okay it's slightly outside the budget but I could swing it. The only issue I can see is that I'm still running 2000 Pro SP4. Yeah I know it old but I hate XP and there seem to be mixed reviews about Vista. Maybe after SP1. I can only afford one I can't do both and I don't have a need for an operating system update right now.

Anyway after looking a all of the cards on Newegg I came across this one.

http://www.diamondmm.com/3850PE3256.php

It says it supports 2000 and I'm tempted to give it a try. What do you think?

 

[s44]

I don't think any of the standard ATI drivers this generation support W2K any more at all. Omega drivers should work, though they haven't been updated for a few months. Honestly, I don't think you need anything more than a $80 2600XT, but the 3850 would be great (assuming that one does, in fact, come with a working custom driver).

 

[JAG87]

Get a 7900 GT, or a 7900 GTO (hard to find) or a X1900XT from ebay or forum. You can find the GT for 120, the GTO and the X1900XT for 150.

Those are the best bang for your buck, unless you are willing to stretch your budget to get an HD 3850 or an 8800GT 256.

 

[buckeye83]

Thanks s44 I thought it might be to good to be true.

I just got off of the chat with Diamond tech support and they're saying it's a miss print on the box and wedsite.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and go to Vista and wait on the video card for a couple of months.

 

[JAG87]

lol from windows 2000 all the way to vista? you're in for some surprise...

 

[buckeye83]

You might be right. I've toyed with the idea of riding it all the way to 2010 when M$ officially stops support. I have a feeling I'll need to upgrade before then though.

I use XP Pro at work. That might be why I hate it so much.

Seriously though, do you guys think I'm better off going to Vista and waiting on the card?
I want to get a good card when I get it. I probably won't get another one for 2 to 3 years. Like I said earlier I keep my stuff for a long time. Then my daughters get the old stuff when I upgrade.

 

[ttraveler]

Originally posted by: buckeye83
Thanks s44 I thought it might be to good to be true.

I just got off of the chat with Diamond tech support and they're saying it's a miss print on the box and wedsite.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and go to Vista and wait on the video card for a couple of months.

I run win2000. A great OS.

So far everything that I have found that says XP only on the box is a lie and it runs fine in win2000. I use the latest official win2000 ATI drivers for everything I do except a game or two. For the one or two games that need newer drivers I temporarily install the latest Omega drivers and then revert back after playing.

BTW I'm eyeing the HD3780.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: buckeye83
It's been quite a awhile since I've been active in these forums. So long that I forgot my old user ID and password and had to make a new one. Anyway on to the question.

I haven't kept up with video cards and I am going to upgrade my video from the on board (GeForce 6150) to a pci x16. The question is which one? I have the following criteria in mind:

1) I don't game much but I do want the option. When I do play, I play the Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Unreal 2 type of games. I know they're old but I like them. When I do get a new game it will be of this type. This might be hard but I've set my budget @ around $100, I could go as high as $150 though.

2) I prefer to power the card from the PS not the bus. The ones I've been looking require quite a bit of power and the PCI bus just isn't designed to supply that kind of power. I have a 430W PS with 6pin PCI connectors. I don't plan on changing it anytime soon.

3) I'm not worried about noise and I actually would prefer a fan. I may be wrong but IMO forced cooling means longer life and if you can't tell already I keep my stuff a long time.

From the reading I've do so far this card doesn't look bad but I'm sure its past it's prime.

http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16814102034

I know I can't get the lastest but I would like your in put as to the best bag for my buck.

Thanks

How's it going man. I was just about to reply that you made an excellent choice and to trust your instincts as the X1950GT really is a fine card and can likely be clocked to X1950 Pro speeds but.........I also just looked up your power supply. Please look at link to confirm ....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...0RUC+430W+Power+Supply

If this is your power supply you're going to need to really consider doing an upgrade for almost any of the cards mentioned here. The one you have only has a single 18a +12v rail. The recommendations for the X1950 GT for example are for a 450w PSU with 30a on the +12v rail or combined rails for multi-rail units. This spec is a little high but 18a is not going to cut it. Even if you were going to use something like a 7950GT, you want 20-22a on the +12v rail. So either you go really low-end which I don't think you want to do, or consider a new quality power supply (about $70-$75 for a good one). About the only newer card that may work with your power supply, and as ss4 suggested, is the 2600XT. I also Just looked up the 8600GT and the recommended +12v rail amperage is 22a, so yours might work, but no guarantees.

 

[betasub]

Running W2k SP4, and agree with both OP & ttraveler that it's a great OS. There's no technical reason why XP-certified drivers/games/etc shouldn't work on W2k, but in many cases the installers have an OS version check (for licensing or support reasons?). This is the problem I ran into with ATi's recent (7.1x) drivers for my 2900pro - as a result I'm using the Omega XP/W2k drivers (thanks to the Omega team for unpacking them from the ATi's Catalyst installer with the nasty OS version check).

 

[s44]

Originally posted by: ttraveler

Originally posted by: buckeye83
Thanks s44 I thought it might be to good to be true.

I just got off of the chat with Diamond tech support and they're saying it's a miss print on the box and wedsite.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and go to Vista and wait on the video card for a couple of months.

I run win2000. A great OS.

So far everything that I have found that says XP only on the box is a lie and it runs fine in win2000.

I used to run W2K as well (before I upgraded to a 8800GT and Vista 64), and official ATI drivers past, I believe, 6.3 simply won't install on it.

Again, you can run Omega (though I don't think they've caught up to the 3850/3870-supporting drivers) -- or get a Nvidia card. None of Nvidia's non-8800 cards really make sense, though. (8600GT gets killed by the 2600XT these days.)

 

[buckeye83]

Thanks to everyone who replied.

I've come to the realization that I'm going to have to bite this off one piece at a time. I don't know what I was thinking there's much more to it than just slapping a video card in there. Most likely I'll start with a PS with more on the 12V rail(s), then the video card and see if I need to tackle the OS. Thanks for the tip on the Omega drivers.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: buckeye83
Thanks to everyone who replied.

I've come to the realization that I'm going to have to bite this off one piece at a time. I don't know what I was thinking there's much more to it than just slapping a video card in there. Most likely I'll start with a PS with more on the 12V rail(s), then the video card and see if I need to tackle the OS. Thanks for the tip on the Omega drivers.

Smart move buckeye, I think you made the right choice. Just checked and the power supply I was thinking of at $75 has gone down in price and is now only 61$ with free shipping. See link below. It's a high quality power supply by Corsair with 33a on the +12v rail. It would be great fo powering almost any single-card config using any of the newer cards such as the 8800GT or HD3870. If you were thinking of SLI or Crossfire then you may want to move up the food chain a bit ....

http://www.buy.com/prod/corsai...loc/101/205466485.html

 

[buckeye83]

At some point I will probably upgrade the CPU to Athon X2 6400+ which requires 125W (13A). With an HD 3850 and the new cpu and a 20% margin I'm looking at 36A. With that in mind I was thinking of this one:

http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16817341010
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/451/4

This is way overkill but it's a great deal:

http://www.svc.com/rs-850-emba.html

The Corsair 520 would work though and I like the modular design:

http://www.clubit.com/product_...l.cfm?itemno=A6200026#

I should probably move this to the power supply forum at this point but I'm not sure how to do it.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Originally posted by: buckeye83
At some point I will probably upgrade the CPU to Athon X2 6400+ which requires 125W (13A). With an HD 3850 and the new cpu and a 20% margin I'm looking at 36A. With that in mind I was thinking of this one:

http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16817341010
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/451/4

This is way overkill but it's a great deal:

http://www.svc.com/rs-850-emba.html

The Corsair 520 would work though and I like the modular design:

http://www.clubit.com/product_...l.cfm?itemno=A6200026#

I should probably move this to the power supply forum at this point but I'm not sure how to do it.

Out of the bunch you linked to I would go with the Corsair 520 as well. Some of the others you linked to aren't bad, it's just that Corsair really makes outstanding power supplies for the money.