video card suggestions for a cel300a rig?

[spanky]

what would u guys suggest for a celeron 300a based rig? what video card would be a good match? i hope to make it a rig where i can run CS at an acceptable level of play

 

[Ksnif]

Unfortunately I don't think that you can expect anything impressive with a Celeron 300Mhz ,even if it's an A version (internal cache). I've seen a Celeron 300 MHz (not an A) with a Geforce2MX. Even if the card could give you enough FPS in most of the cases, when set on a new system, there was not much to see with this one. TNT on a Duron 650 MHz runs 3 times faster (even more). So if you are about to play some "heavy" Games, I suggest considering a CPU upgrade first. I think that even if you set a GF3 on this system, you won't get any FPS higher than 30(average).

PS1: I don't know what "CS" stands for.
PS2: I've run Unreal and 3DMark2000.

 

[vss1980]

We need to know a bit more about the system in terms of graphics card your already using.

What if....

1) You have lets say around a TNT2/Geforce SDR (GF2 MX) card, get a new CPU as that will give you more of a boost than going to something better.
Oh and I mean a straight TNT2 card (definitely no M64's and certainly not any Vanta cards)

2) You have something which is slightly slower and older like a ATI Rage Pro based card or a Riva 128 graphics card, I would say go for a cheap GF2 MX400. While some may argue to get just a MX200, the MX400 will be better for the long term.

Oh and CS stands for Counter-Strike, the HL (Half-Life) mod.

 

[Brian48]

CS, and any game based out of the HL engine for that matter, is more CPU intensive than graphics card intensive. If this is the only game you play, you can probably get by with even a V2 running the WickedGL so long as your processor is adequate.

Personally, I'd look into the quality of your RAM (is it PC100 or PC66?) and overclock the CPU to 450mhz. Most of the C300a's produced, especially the retail version, could easily run at that speed, even at default voltages.

Bottomline, don't expect any significant performance boost by upgrading your video card at this time. The C300a is just plain too slow and is a severe bottleneck.

 

[cubanx]

A Voodoo 3000 AGP/PCI would probaly be your best bet for $30-40. I use one on my Celeron 400 and it gives the best performance out of the ATi/GeforceMX cards I tried in it. Since CS supports the 3DFX Mini-port OpenGl driver things looks nice and move and decent speed mind you nothing special. Same thing with UT on the same system.

 

[spanky]

thanx for the replies guys.

well...here is the whole story. i recently discovered a brand spanking new oem gigabyte 6bxe (slot1 board) in one of my drawers. so being i am severely strapped for cash, i looked to see what kinda cpu i can get for it. i saw someone posting a cel300a@450 on FS/FT for $18 shipped, so i snagged it. i also have a v3 2000 pci sitting at home. i was just wondering if i should stick with that, or looking into something else. i know that the cpu will be the bottleneck, so radeon8500, gf3, gf2, v5's are outta the question (also can't afford them). i think the v3 should be fine for my rig i plan to set up...just wondering if anyone was gonna suggest a radeon le, mx, or tnt2 ultra....or something along those lines.


-spanky

 

[oldfart]

A C450A and a Voodoo3 are a pretty good match. I'd run it as is.