current fastest regular PCI card?

[Kaizer]

a coworker of mine has a newish dell pc, that didnt come with an agp slot, just pci's. Her son is trying to play world of warcraft, and her daughter sims 2. Whats the fastest one out there?

NVIDIA or ATI, I dont care which.

 

[frankyk]

a new dell pc with regular pci?

are you sure it's not pci-express? i've never heard of mobos with just PCI (at least new ones)

 

[darkhorse]

if you can find it there is an fx5600 that I've seen on one website, other than that maybe the fx5700le.

 

[jebo_4jc]

This question comes up so much it should be a sticky. For WoW and Sims2 I would suggest a Radeon 9250 256MB. Cheap and just as fast as the more expensive fx 5600 in most games. Doesn't support directx 9, but the FX's sucked at DX 9 anyway.

 

[Kaizer]

I know the difference between pci-e and a regular pci.. thats why I said regular pci

The pc is maybe a year old.. dell was offing a bunch of pcs that had no graphic card slot, but used integrated graphics (with shared memory even..yuk!) But.. she didnt have much money with kids and all.. so she got what she could afford.

I was looking at those, but wasnt sure if there was any others out there. I think ill suggest that one.

 

[Shmuckety]

Tell them to take it out back and shoot it, instead of sinking in more money to make it work.

You will be hard pressed to make a PCI card get good framerates in newer games.

 

[jebo_4jc]

Tell them to take it out back and shoot it, instead of sinking in more money to make it work.

Did you miss:

she didnt have much money with kids and all

?

You will be hard pressed to make a PCI card get good framerates in newer games.

We're talking about WOW and Sims2 for kids to play on here. There's nothing wrong with dropping in a $90 graphics card to upgrade from integrated crap.

 

[Shmuckety]

I'm not trying to be rude, but I have not heard of anyone getting any benefit from going the PCI route. Just my opinion. I'm sorry to hear of their predicament.

They should have bought the 2200 sempron PC from outpost for $150 instead of getting a dell.

 

[PixelFreak]

I'm not trying to be rude, but I have not heard of anyone getting any benefit from going the PCI route. Just my opinion. I'm sorry to hear of their predicament.

They should have bought the 2200 sempron PC from outpost for $150 instead of getting a dell.

Well, here's your first chance. I have used an old work computer that did not have an AGP port (Dell), with the integrated Intel Extreme graphics solution.

Yeah, I put in a 9250 PCI and it helped IMMENSELY! Not talking Doom3 or HL:S, but for other games at a performance hit, it was absolutely better than the integrated Intel video solution.

It's worth it for what she has, if it keeps the kids happy and not bugging mom who probably feels bad already because she can't afford a better box right now.

HTH,
PixelFreak

PS - do the mom a favor and check the card with the game's site to make sure the 9250 would be able to run those games - some of the newer games out there do a hardware check for DX9 compliance, and this card does not have true DX9 compliance. The 5600/5700le does, but as the poster said above, the 9250 works better if you can get away with it.

 

[Shmuckety]

I just don't want them to waste money on something that may not work. Thank you, Pixelfreak.

 

[Mloot]

If you can score a Visiontek 9100 PCI off of Ebay (since that's about the only place you will likely find one), it will be faster than any 9250, and it will likely be a bit cheaper. The ones I have seen on Ebay usually go for about $30-50.

 

[DarkBahamut]

PS - do the mom a favor and check the card with the game's site to make sure the 9250 would be able to run those games - some of the newer games out there do a hardware check for DX9 compliance, and this card does not have true DX9 compliance. The 5600/5700le does, but as the poster said above, the 9250 works better if you can get away with it.

And what games do that? I cant think of ANY current game that wont run on DX8 hardware. Sure, you wont get full quality, but were talking PCI cards here anyway, quality is out the window to start with.

 

[Flak Monkey]

Battlefield 2 wont run on most dx8 hardware.

 

[DarkBahamut]

Not running on most DX8 hardware doesnt mean its doing a DX9 compliance check either. And correct me if im wrong, but the only reason BF2 doesnt run on most DX8 hardware is because it requires PS1.4 right? Which the Radeon 9250 has...

 

[HighTest]

Battlefield 2 wont run on most dx8 hardware.

Hmm, that's funny, I missed seeing that in the original posters list of games. Well I guess it's relevant to let the poster know that he can't run that one. Oh well, only 75 other recent titles to try instead.

 

[SpeedRunner]

Battlefield 2 wont run on most dx8 hardware.

lol dude read the thread

 

[Flak Monkey]

lol dude read the thread

He said he couldn't think of ANY current game that wont run on DX8 hardware. Battlefield 2 is a current game. Battlefield 2 will not run on most dx8 hardware. My post was perfectly relevant to the thread. Next time I suggest you read the thread.

 

[CastleBravo]

http://www.inno3d.com/products/geforce_fx/fx5600.html

This is probably the best you can do. I saw some benches comparing PCI cards a while back, it is either this or the 9100, which isn't made anymore that I know of.

 

[Wolf-R1]

a new dell pc with regular pci?

are you sure it's not pci-express? i've never heard of mobos with just PCI (at least new ones)

We just bought a few PCs for our business that have only PCI slots. There is a spot for the AGP slot but nothing is soldered into it.

 

[pigpen]

As usual, nobody can keep their e-zippers zipped up for two seconds and just answer the OP's question.You pretty much have two choices. ATI =9250, Nvidia=5200. All the other guys, 5600, 5700le, 5200ultra, 9250 256MB are pretty much the same. You can drop an extra 20 bucks on them if you want, they really aren't going to improve game play by any noticeable difference. My advise would be to look in the FS/FT forum, or eBAY.

I played through FarCry on 1024x768, low settings, with a 9200 PCI card. I'd give it to ya if i hadn't fried it.

 

[Kaizer]

well I found a 9250 256mb card for a bit under 60 bucks. Oddly enough the ninth "review" on the egg, mentions the exact same model of pc she has, and talking about how much it improved the machine. Talked about playing farcry and some other games. Thats good enough for me.

Id tell her to get a new machine if she could afford it. She also got the dell through our company discount, because we do mass purchases of their equipment. She got a good deal for what she got. It may have been 250 or so with a monitor and some extras.

heres the link to what I suggested:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102533

 

[Kaizer]

I forgot something..

Thanks for the responses

 

[DarkBahamut]

He said he couldn't think of ANY current game that wont run on DX8 hardware. Battlefield 2 is a current game. Battlefield 2 will not run on most dx8 hardware. My post was perfectly relevant to the thread. Next time I suggest you read the thread.

Nope, you want to read it. My post was in reply to someone that said some games do a DX9 compliance check and will not run on DX8 hardware. I said i cannot think of any games that wont run on a DX8 card, and this point still stands even now.

You said BF2, and while BF2 doesnt run on MOST DX8 hardware, it still runs on ATIs DX8 hardware just fine. So the point is, BF2 does work on DX8 hardware (and can even be run on Geforce 4's with a hack/patch supposedly), unless your trying to tell me Pixel Shaders 1.4 arent Direct X 8 now?

Besides, the OP didnt say anything about wanting to play BF2 to start with.

 

[PixelFreak]

I forgot something..

Thanks for the responses

Ignoring troll post directly above me, and then saying "You're welcome."

Hope she is able to extend the life of that machine and bring some happiness along with it.

PixelFreak