Graphics card for older computer (p3 500mhz)

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SonDogg

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 11, 2002
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Hey all. I have an older computer here, p3 500mhz, 384mb pc133 (maxed), buying a newer 7200rpm hard drive. the question I have is the graphics card. The computer used to have a geforce 2 mx400 in it, but I have recently given that to a friend. I won't be playing any fps or anything that needs a really high frame rate, but I do play a good bit of MMORPG's so the card's going to need a little bit of oomph. Also, the card needs to be directx 9, no sense in buying a card that only does dx8. Money isint really an object, but I'd rather not pay over $150 because this is the last graphics card going into this computer, when it's time for my next build I'll just get a top end graphics card. So suggest away, and thanks for your help.
 
What games do you play? I don't the a P3 500 will be enough to handle even somewhat modern games.
 
I mainly play games like EQ and WoW when it comes out. The old computer still played regular eq with 2 windows ( 2 diffrent characters playing at the same time on one computer) just fine, it's just I really can't turn up graphics at all. This isin't my main computer, I have a G4 powerbook for that, this is just one that I'll use if I want to play a second character on an online game. It doesnt have to look exceptional, i just don't want to deal with lag.
 
i'd go for a 5700. no real argument behind it, that's just what i see working well in that system.
 
no way in HELL is WoW going to run a on a 500Mhz PIII >.> i think the min req is 1.2Ghz or some thing hmm Radeon 9000 would work well if you HAD too try its not full DX9 but it will run FFXI and far cry that was what i had in my old Athon 900
 
I need to get a similar card for my sister's PC... it's a P3-667 that currently has a 8MB(?) Matrox G550.

All she really wants is something that has TV-out, since she doesn't really play any 3D games.

I'm thinking a 9200 or 5200 (or maybe a 9600SE or 5700LE on sale) would fit the bill. I don't really care about the brand, and the performance between them isn't a big deal, so basically it's gonna be whichever one is cheap.
 
Elios said:
no way in HELL is WoW going to run a on a 500Mhz PIII >.> i think the min req is 1.2Ghz or some thing hmm Radeon 9000 would work well if you HAD too try its not full DX9 but it will run FFXI and far cry that was what i had in my old Athon 900
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I know several people running WoW beta on 450-600mhz machines.
 
any thing under 1Ghz get a 9000 you can get it at walmat for dirt cheap
 
Neutraleyes said:
I know several people running WoW beta on 450-600mhz machines.
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Yeah WoW ran fine on my p3 500, just not really any detail. That's fine with me, like I said, the old computer is just going to be a "bot box", a computer to have my second character on. Graphics and what not don't bother me, and since I won't be doing any raiding on that char ( lag issues) I just need a card that will run the game with minimal settings.
 
iBran said:
I need to get a similar card for my sister's PC... it's a P3-667 that currently has a 8MB(?) Matrox G550.

All she really wants is something that has TV-out, since she doesn't really play any 3D games.

I'm thinking a 9200 or 5200 (or maybe a 9600SE or 5700LE on sale) would fit the bill. I don't really care about the brand, and the performance between them isn't a big deal, so basically it's gonna be whichever one is cheap.
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Geforce4 MX 440, has TV-Out and is cheap as dirt.
http://www.aerocooler.com/shop.cart?action=ITEM&prod_id=VCM46D8X
Or a Radeon 9000 for a few dollars cheaper.
http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=5462&sid=5D3JAJVMK3WP9HMS895H5PG3QQT90SNC#
 
All of you are completely, totally, and unutterably insane. If the motherboard only supports AGP 2x, snag a Geforce2 MX or comparable card that will support the 3.3v spec. If it supports AGP 4x, then a Geforce4 MX or 9200SE is the fastest card that should be chosen. In neither case should he spend significantly over $50 unless he has highly specialized needs (i.e., wants godlike 2D). The processor is an enormous bottleneck, to say nothing of the motherboard chipset's capabilities and RAM speed. Should the owner of this system wish to upgrade the CPU (and I urge him to build a new system if he wants consistently good results at all), he could probably get a decent deal from Powerleap on a faster CPU to cram into that older motherboard. As-is, it simply isn't tenable. I speak from the position of someone who owns several older computers and uses them regularly. New MMORPGs will punt that computer across the street and laugh until their sides hurt.
 
dude, no offense but u need to upgrade ur comp. im not even sure some of the old cards like 9200+ cards or past the ti(not even sure if this series will work, talkin about the higher end of this series) series will work. u will be bottle necked if u get a good card which u need since mmo's aren't exactly easy graphics to handle especially since all the new mmo's coming out will req much more then WoW. for WoW i'd say having a 9600 pro range card can handle it. but for EQ2 and those graphic demandin new mmo's. u'll HAVE to upgrade. if u plan to play WoW based graphic games then i guess get a 9600 if it works with ur comp... but don't expect urself to play eq2, linage2 and those new mmo's. WoW was made for the users but the other games were made to look great. just my 2 cents. i realize its just to play with ur sec char. but i doubt u can even play it w/o lag or even make it work... i mean that comp has to be like so old...
 
Systems like the described are the reason why the GF4MX440 is the most used video card.

The CPU in that system and systems like it are going to be the bottleneck in any game you play. No matter what video card you get, you're going to be limited by the CPU speed.

You noted you wanted DX9 support... but any game that takes advantage of shaders, you're not going to be able to play with that processor anyways.

That being said, the best card for your system would obviously be the cheapest with the best feature set. If your system was a bit faster, it might be able to take advantage of a GFFX5200, but for your system I would personally reccommend the GF4MX440.

As someone else already stated, both cards have TV out and have nView multi-monitor support, and both can be found for cheap.
 
9550, 9600se, anything but an mx xx0... but nothing below a 9550 because anything smaller is dx8 and not dx9. 9550 is your best bet if you don't play fps's. It probably performs about the same as a 9600np, if nto a little worse.

~Adam
 
Vriess said:
Geforce 4 mx, Anything more is a waste and these things are like 20 bux
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If people would actually read his first post...................

He wants a DX NINE (9) capable card.

~Adam
 
CleanSlate said:
If people would actually read his first post...................

He wants a DX NINE (9) capable card.

~Adam
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While you speak the truth, a DirectX 9-compliant card will do precisely TWO (2) things for him: Jack and shit. It may be possible to create a pretty fragment shader demo that would run comfortably on a Pentium III 500 with a 9550SE, but that's nothing like meeting his expectations of running new and upcoming MMORPGs on the latter CPU with 384 MB SDR memory. There's just no way.
 
use that 150$ to buy a new mobo +cpu like a sempron 2400+ w/ mobo for like 70$ and buy a 512mb stick of pc2700 ram
thats a better use of that money :)
 
Halon said:
While you speak the truth, a DirectX 9-compliant card will do precisely TWO (2) things for him: Jack and shit. It may be possible to create a pretty fragment shader demo that would run comfortably on a Pentium III 500 with a 9550SE, but that's nothing like meeting his expectations of running new and upcoming MMORPGs on the latter CPU with 384 MB SDR memory. There's just no way.
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I don't play MMORPG's but I was under the impression that their graphics are ussually not intensive.

~Adam
 
Search the for sale forums on the net (every major tech site's forum) for a used 9600 or 9500 of any suffix (XT, Pro, etc.)
 
CleanSlate said:
I don't play MMORPG's but I was under the impression that their graphics are ussually not intensive.

~Adam
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Relative to something like Far Cry, they generally aren't... but they're still well beyond what his system can push around.
 
CleanSlate said:
I don't play MMORPG's but I was under the impression that their graphics are ussually not intensive.

~Adam
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While they don't look as good as FPS games, they're a lot more graphically intensive. As of now EQ2 is only *just* playable at 25 FPS or so on Extreme settings on a PC like mine.
 
joecuddles said:
While they don't look as good as FPS games, they're a lot more graphically intensive. As of now EQ2 is only *just* playable at 25 FPS or so on Extreme settings on a PC like mine.
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Yea the thing that a lot of people dont realize is that mmo and rts games are a lot more demanding than an fps game on the "cpu" mainly and the gfx card.

As for him wanting a dx9 card thats a pointless thing to want for such an anitque system. Lets face it whats the point of buying a dx9 card if your not going to enable any dx9 options? And God forbid he actually did enable a dx9 option b/c his cpu will just go up in smoke. Somebody said it before, buy a Geforce 4mx card. Buying anything else is just a complete waste of money. He'll see little to no difference between a Geforce 4mx and something like a x800 XT PE with a cpu and ram setup like that.
 
Elios said:
i still say a Radeon 9000 is better >.>
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RAWRORZ!!!!

I still say hes better off using that $150 to buy some bullets and a gun and popping a few rounds into that "thing". Surely thats a much better use of money for that "thing" than buying an upgrade for it ;)
 
Elios said:
i still say a Radeon 9000 is better >.>
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yes, and no matter how many times you say it, you're wrong and its not what he asked for anyway.

If you put a piss poor graphics card with a slow system you still have a very slow system.

If you put a decent card in there you can play some games as the vid card will take a portion of the load. The 9000 just can't handle the geometry well. The 440 MX is even better in that realm, which is what you'll need running a slow CPU.

If you just gotta have DX9, grab a 9600 or 5700... I'd go with a Ti4200 or something, but I don't know if the prices are any better.
 
I dunno what Tualatin and slot-T adapters cost these days, but last christmas I upgraded a system for someone with a PIII 500 to a Tualatin 1.3ghz for about 70bucks between the processor and slot-T adapter and shipping.
 
Elios, did you happen to notice that the testbed system was an athlon XP 1800+ with 512MB of ddr333 ram in the link you posted? while a Radeon 9000\9200\9250\9550\x800xt will beat out a GF4mx440 on that system, they will perform about equal on severly CPU limited systems.

If the system had a ~1gHz processor, then the story might be different, i'd definitely reccomend one of the aformentioned radeons, but since the original poster said this was the last upgrade going into this system, the cheapest card with the best featureset is the best option. that card is the GF4mx440.

you don't need shaders if all games that require shaders require a minimum 1gHz+ system! DX9 video support for this system does not make sense!!!

As for the tualatin slot adapter option, that's a good idea if his motherboard would support it. Tualatin cores are about equal with athlon XPs clock for clock. Throwing a 1.4gHz Tualatin Celeron proc in that system would give Athlon XP 1700+ or 1800+ performance.... but he would still need a graphics card.
 
I've got a couple of each. The MX can run my games just fine, the 9000 chokes on a few.

Recent drivers have improved that greatly, however my 440 MX has improved as well...

You may convince someone else, but I've got them both within 100ft right now. Pixel shaders notwithstanding, I will not purchase another 9000. It has a strong fillrate, decent AA and AF, decent performance on most apps, but cannot hang with my 440 MX once the polygon count goes up unless running with a much faster CPU.

It cannot handle DX games any better than a 440 MX. Just doesn't have the processing power.
 
Being a PIII 500, odds are it is a slot one 512K external L2 cache CPU still on the .25 process. If the board can support Coppermine processors, the Tulatin adaptor may work, but I do believe that is a basic requirement. If it cannot support a Coppermine, I don't think a Tualatin will work.
 
wow, i left my computer home for the weekend, and look at all the traffic this thread has gotten in that time. First of all, I want to thank everyone that responded to this thread so far, there is a lot of excellent information in this thread, and most all follow up questions I would have asked have already been answered. I just wan't to clear a couple of things up though real quick. One, I know that I won't be able to run anything very new on this computer, and ya'll already know this system is not my main, just a bot box. I wasn't planning on ever playing anything more intensive then WoW on this computer, and most of the time, it will just be an internet browsing computer. I just wanted to know if I had the option of maybe squeezing a little bit more life out of the computer. I'm in college so I don't have the money to spend on a new computer after I paid for my powerbook. I also understand that most likely I won't be able to run any dx9 games on it, but I got screwed with EQ a couple times because they would bump up dx requirements on the game, and I would get horriable performance. I just wanted to future proof the game for WoW and EQ1, that's all. I know it's stupid to put any more money into this system, but on top of sentimental value to me, I have an old computer sitting here that works just fine, she's just missing a graphics card and I wanted to see what other's thought would be the best route to take. Thanks again for all the responses.
 
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