Best PCI Video Card?

S

Shorty

Gawd
Joined
Aug 5, 2003
Messages
791
Check pricewatch for Radeon 9100s. There's a PCI version available.
Usually I recommend this one: http://www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=4924
Unfortunately it doesn't have TV out.

These guys have one w/ TV-out, but resellerratings says they're a bit shady. http://www.enetshoponline.com/atirad9164dd.html
Err... scratch that. I just read the fine print. No TV out. (nuts)

As far as PCI cards go unless you really want to go nuts (NV Quadro, $700 Matrox Parhelia 256MB PCI-64, etc.) the real trick is to find a 5200 or 9200 w/ a 128-bit mem bus and decent core clocks. A lot of them have a 64-bit bus. Which one? No clue.
 
PCI=Lame, talk about getting a card that cant even take the bandwidth, got a lame amount of bandwidth?
 
Unless you can find me a Mini-ITX motherboard for a Pentium 4 which features AGP? And while you're at it, could you find me one with an 865 chipset along with Serial ATA? Thanks!
 
no, im not doing your dirty work for you punk, do it yourself
 
Originally posted by 3dfx
PCI=Lame, talk about getting a card that cant even take the bandwidth, got a lame amount of bandwidth?
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that's a funny comment coming from a guy using "3dfx" as his nickname, given that 3dfx cards never used agp texturing :rolleyes:

if you don't have anything useful to say, don't bother posting


Originally posted by 3dfx
no, im not doing your dirty work for you punk, do it yourself
Click to expand...
oh, and if you're going to keep posting like this, you'll be banned
 
Originally posted by 3dfx
no, im not doing your dirty work for you punk, do it yourself
Click to expand...
I was being sarcastic; if you don't have anything worthwhile to post, then don't at all. Thanks guys for the information... so I need to find a Radeon 9100 with tv-out or a GeForceFX 5200 with the highest clock speeds.
 
In another PCI oriented post within the last week or so someone posted a direct comparison, the 5200 PCI vs the Geforce 4 MX 440 PCI.
The 5200 scored higher on 3dmark 2001 and had a lower FPS in every bench, the difference was that it was capable of running the entire bench.

He also posted some game comparisons, the 440 was faster, by a small margin, in damn near everything.

That being said, I'd look for a Saphire 9100 or Geforce 4 MX 440 or above PCI. If you look at Powercolor 9100s, read all the fine print. Often the memory clocks are lower than advertised.
 
I highly doubt that extra ram will help at all. I can't believe someone was foolish enough to complain about pci. Its a mini-itx box guys. You may want to do a search for geforce 3 half height cards. Its easier to fit into many itx cases. If you build your own the extra space is nice too.
 
The Mad Dog "FX 5200 Plus" comes in a PCI version. Over the last month, it's been as cheap as $60AR at CompUSA (or $69 with no rebate at OfficeMax).

The one I had overclocked easily past 300MHz core speed and the 4ns Samsung memory (default speed 500MHz vs 400MHz for other FX 5200s non-Ultras) overclocked to over 600MHz. That's a huge performance increase over a regular FX 5200: 50% more memory bandwidth and a 20% core speed increase.

The VisionTek 9100 PCI cards were cheaper (bought a couple of 64MB versions for $30AR), but unfortunately it doesn't have TV out.
 
Originally posted by rally9x
I highly doubt that extra ram will help at all. I can't believe someone was foolish enough to complain about pci. Its a mini-itx box guys. You may want to do a search for geforce 3 half height cards. Its easier to fit into many itx cases. If you build your own the extra space is nice too.
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geforce3's were agp only, no pci versions were ever made, so that rules that out.

i'd defniitely suggest going with the visiontek 9100 pci.
 
Use your noggin. Yoy know what you want. Pci is not the issue. For brand - wise arguments, BFG has great tech support/warranty, and usually have cards with great o/c potential.
 
Originally posted by rally9x
I highly doubt that extra ram will help at all. I can't believe someone was foolish enough to complain about pci. Its a mini-itx box guys. You may want to do a search for geforce 3 half height cards. Its easier to fit into many itx cases. If you build your own the extra space is nice too.
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The extra RAM is going to help offset the slower interface.
 
Originally posted by 0ldman
The extra RAM is going to help offset the slower interface.
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no, no it won't. the problem with pci, is that it can't get the data fast enough. hence, regardless how much ram is there, it's being limited by how fast the data can be transferred.

the extra ram will allow you to run at 1600x1200x32 with 4xaa and 8xaniso in ut2003, but even in the agp version the card doesnt have the balls do run at that, much less the pci version.
 
Yes, but lower resolutions will allow more of that memory to be used for textures.

I agree, the PCI bus will definately be a limitation. Its not going to be a monster performer.
Personally, I'd get the 9100 128 PCI. There was a review somewhere, I think maybe Xbit, that reviewed tons of PCI cards. The 9100 128 was something like 20% faster in certain apps than the 9100 64 with the same clock speeds.
 
Originally posted by 0ldman
Yes, but lower resolutions will allow more of that memory to be used for textures.
Click to expand...

but, lower resolutions only require so much space in memory to use... if you're running 1024x768x32 with 8x aniso, you won't come anywhere near using 128 megs, much less even 64 megs - so the extra 128 still won't come into play.

sorry if it seems like i'm just trying to be an ass, i'm really not trying to be.
 
No, I'm enjoying this discussion, that's why I'm here.

and I somehow lost the entire response I typed, that's why I'm STILL here... doh
so, to begin again...

I've seen numbers comparing the 9100 PCI 64 to the 9100 PCI 128 in a huge PCI card review. 5200 was the newest, I think the Geforce 2 MX was the oldest. The 9100 128 beat them all by a good margin except for Quake III, where the 440MX took the crown. The 9100 128 was faster than the 64meg version in all but one bench, I can't remember which game.

I think that 256 would be overkill on most PCI cards, but I was looking at the Parhelia for a moment...
If I remember correctly, pulling from cobwebs here so bear with me, 1400x1050x32bit was 4MB per frame.

I'm trying to figure out how to work up a framebuffer size on 3 displays at 1600x1200x32 for 3 extended desktops. More or less that will depend on bandwidth more than size, as long as it is enough memory to handle it.
 
5600:

Inno3d - - GeForce FX 5600 PCI w/128MB DDR(128Bits) + DVI + TV out + Dongle(DVI to CRT Converter) for Dual Head
Details:
-New NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 128MB high speed DDR(4ns)Memory

www.amamax.com

$155

End of argument.
 
Originally posted by moodysj
5600:

Inno3d - - GeForce FX 5600 PCI w/128MB DDR(128Bits) + DVI + TV out + Dongle(DVI to CRT Converter) for Dual Head
Details:
-New NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 128MB high speed DDR(4ns)Memory

www.amamax.com

$155

End of argument.
Click to expand...
$155 for a PCI card? seems like a waste...Mini-ITX is supposed to be capable of playing movies and some games, but small and cheap are more important considerations than performance (above a certain minimum of course)
 
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