Whats the best/highest end PCI video card for gaming ?

[Valhalla1]

So I bought my gf a cheap Dell Dimension 2300 P4 desktop a year or so ago... well she started playing Halo PC on her nice Dell laptop which has a good video onboard, but she wants to be able to play it now on her desktop machine.

I told her no way with the built in cheese-mo Intel integrated graphics. She wants me to FIND A WAY DAMMIT

so I pop the top and much to my non-surpise there is no AGP slot onboard this machine.

So whats the most BLING BLING badass beast of a PCI video card out there? when did they stop making these, like 15 years ago ?!

purpose is for playing Halo PC, and GTA: Vice City PC on a P4 Dell

should I laugh and tell her no way, or is there some salvation out there for the old school PCI bus

 

[carage]

I am pretty sure there are still a few Radeon 7500 PCIs around.
I also know there are GeForce 5200/5600 PCIs on the market.

 

[df96817]

Halo and Vice City are some pretty graphic intensive games. Best you can do with a PCI graphics card is probably an ATI Radeon 9200. Not really sure how comfortably you'll be able to play those games though.


Here's one at newegg.com:
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=14-131-270&depa=1

 

[TStep]

Here are your options.

 

[BW86]

http://www.ocie.com/metacart/product.asp?intProdID=371

 

[HumblePie]

I would get the 9200 over the 5600 any day for a PCI card. The 9200 PCI 128MB vid card works just fine at low settings on any game out there. I got that for my parents crappy dell comp not to long ago.

I'm talking about the NON SE version. Harder to find but out there. If not, then get the 5600.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

1) Tell her "Sure there's a way"
2) Sell Dell 2350
3) Buy/build something with an AGP slot
4) Girlfriend is happy.
5) Score.

- M4H

 

[Matthias99]

The best cards available in PCI are the RADEON 9100 (AKA the RADEON 8500LE), and the GeforceFX 5600 (though these are apparently VERY hard to find, as few were produced).

I second the idea of buying a system with an AGP slot. There is NO upgrade path for a system with PCI only.

 

[Mloot]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
1) Tell her "Sure there's a way"
2) Sell Dell 2350
3) Buy/build something with an AGP slot
4) Girlfriend is happy.
5) Score.

- M4H

Nice summary.

 

[Valhalla1]

thanks for throwing some options my way... I'll check these out and we'll decide. We're tossing the idea around of buying/building her a new system and donating the dell to family

 

[blazer78]

Ati Radeon 9100 PCI

 

[five40]

I would go with the 9100. I had the AGP version for a while and it was a great card. I was able to play all the current games (excluding doom3...I sold it before it came out).

 

[Marsumane]

Ive actually seen a 9800p in pci form. I saw it on bensbargains. U could search there and see what site it was that had it. It was sometime in the beginning of the summer i believe. The card would be horribly bottlenecked tho and id just get a new system or buy a 5600. The 5600 seems to be the same performance (or so) around the 9100 and it has dx9 so it would provide the most iq in your games. So either get the 5600, if not get the 9100, if u cant get that then get a new motherboard and graphics card. Maybe a new mobo + a 9700 variant for $200 total.

 

[Porter21]

I would probably say a nvidia 5200.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Marsumane
Ive actually seen a 9800p in pci form. I saw it on bensbargains. U could search there and see what site it was that had it. It was sometime in the beginning of the summer i believe. The card would be horribly bottlenecked tho and id just get a new system or buy a 5600. The 5600 seems to be the same performance (or so) around the 9100 and it has dx9 so it would provide the most iq in your games. So either get the 5600, if not get the 9100, if u cant get that then get a new motherboard and graphics card. Maybe a new mobo + a 9700 variant for $200 total.

i very much doubt there is a 9800 pro for pci.

 

[GreenMonkey]

The site Tstep listed has a good breakdown of the PCI video cards. There's a couple that you can get...although some of them are now harder as hell to find. I was going to post thel link myself if needed...someone else with a P4 Dell asked the same question on a different forum I frequent and I found the site. Very useful.

 

[Mloot]

Originally posted by: Mik3y

Originally posted by: Marsumane
Ive actually seen a 9800p in pci form. I saw it on bensbargains. U could search there and see what site it was that had it. It was sometime in the beginning of the summer i believe. The card would be horribly bottlenecked tho and id just get a new system or buy a 5600. The 5600 seems to be the same performance (or so) around the 9100 and it has dx9 so it would provide the most iq in your games. So either get the 5600, if not get the 9100, if u cant get that then get a new motherboard and graphics card. Maybe a new mobo + a 9700 variant for $200 total.

i very much doubt there is a 9800 pro for pci.

TBH, it wouldn't completely surprise me if some company overseas made a few 9800 PCI video cards. That's not really any more farfetched than a FX 5900 PCI card.