Whats the best ATI PCI graphics card?

[EmoshBZ]

My gf has a Dell dimension 2300 with integrated video but I don't see any AGP slots.

I have to confirm this from Dell. Spent 30 minutes on phone and had to hang up. So I have to call later when I have lots of time to waste....haha!!


If there is no AGP slot then whats the best ATI graphics card for PCI slots? give me some good choices please.


cheers....

 

[human2k]

why would she need a new graphx card? does she game?

 

[BigFatCow]

radeon 9000 pci

 

[rbV5]

*All-In-Wonder VE 64MB DDR PCI ~ $120 excellent feature set
*POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9000 64MB DDR PCI CRT+DVI+TV ~$100 dual head

are 2 decent choices

 

[Rav3n]

3dfx Voodoo 4 and 5 (and 6, but no one has those)
3dfx Voodoo3 w/16mb of RAM is actually a pretty solid card...
Nvidia Riva TNT2 I think you can get PCI, I know the original TNT hehe - 16mb
ATI Rage Fury MAXX I think is the best... or maybe the all-in-wonder 128... hmmm I forgot
S3 Savage3d I think you can get pci...

Try compgeeks.com, they have a bunch of used cards and stuff..

 

[magomago]

There is a radeon900pci? ???



I was going to say that AIW

 

[BigFatCow]

Originally posted by: magomago
There is a radeon900pci? ???

yep

 

[bmacd]

i'm using a voodoo 3 3000AGP on my primary system and won't trade it for world peace! Great card, IMO.

-=bmacd=-

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: rbV5
*All-In-Wonder VE 64MB DDR PCI ~ $120 excellent feature set
*POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9000 64MB DDR PCI CRT+DVI+TV ~$100 dual head

are 2 decent choices

FYI the small-form-factor forum on sudhian.com had a link to benches in a thread that showed the All-in-wonder beating the Powercolor, a search for "powercolor" there should find it. Apparently the powercolor is not designed very well (crippled onboard memory path?)

 

[rbV5]

FYI the small-form-factor forum on sudhian.com had a link to benches in a thread that showed the All-in-wonder beating the Powercolor,

Doesn't suprise me, it would be my choice. Only way I'd pick the 9000 would be for dual heads....too bad the AIW doesn't include the remote like the other AIW card though.

 

[Mloot]

Here's a link to a review of ATI's best PCI cards, minus the AIW VE:

link

A few weeks ago, I did a couple of benchies comparing the VE and the Powercolor 9000 PCI. Here's a link if you're interested (the post is about halfway down the page):

here

 

[rbV5]

I was getting ~6000 with my AIW 7500 with my XP1600 @ 2200+ (FWIW) so, the VE does pretty good for a PCI version , especially against the 9000, nice.

 

[FrustratedUser]

That is some really good scores for a PCI card!

Would a PCI card with lots of memory (128Mb) be less handicapped by the slow PCI bus than a similar card with only 32Mb? I was thinking that a card with lots of memory would not have to send as much data on the PCI bus as a card with less memory.

 

[Mloot]

I don't think so. I thought I read somewhere that PCI cards could not do texture swapping, so the amount of memory on the card was a more important factor in performance than it was on an AGP card. I could be wrong, though.

I did notice that going from a 32mb Radeon 7000 PCI to a 64mb MX440 PCI made a world of difference. Dungeon Siege, on the 32mb card, would often freeze for a half second or so during heavy battle scenes. The 440's gameplay was much smoother. Of course, that was probably a combination of more memory + much faster card.