help with right PCI card

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shoot2kill

n00b
Joined
Apr 15, 2005
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5
this has been done an endless amount of times, i know, and i'm sorry. i searched around a bit and didn't help, and as someone who really looks into user feedback before purchasing, i thought i'd drop by. apparentley "best" is omitted from hf search queries... haha :D

all i'm looking for is a video card that will run UT2K4 on my pc with at least 60FPS high detail, at least 800x600. you can probably already tell i'm not too hardcore when it comes to PC gaming :)... so thanks for sticking with me for a moment.

specs currently are: 3.0ghz p4 with 512mb ram, onboard memory.... and of course I'm stuck with PCI for the card. right now i'm looking at this for purchase:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145087
CHAINTECH Geforce FX5200 P-FX20 256MB Video Card

it's 72.00, sounds reasonable. has decent feedback on newegg. anyhow, please recommend me something that will run UT2k4 at around 60FPS with my setup. card must be PCI and the cheaper the better, i'm not going for a 6200 PCI if its not necassary, and from the UT2k4 min specs i've saw it really shouldn't be.

thanks for anyone that helps.
 
shoot2kill said:
specs currently are: 3.0ghz p4 with 512mb ram, onboard memory.... and of course I'm stuck with PCI for the card. right now i'm looking at this for purchase:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145087
CHAINTECH Geforce FX5200 P-FX20 256MB Video Card
Click to expand...
Any 128-bit memory FX5200 will be fine for UT2004 at 1024x768. The only thing I don't like about that Chaintech card is that it has slower than stock memory speed (333MHz instead of 400MHz).

This cheaper one is around $64.50 shipped and has normal core and memory speeds, but only 128MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814108129
 
Do you not have a AGP port on your motherboard?
 
no agp. its a dell. wasn't bought with gaming in mind. i'm more of a console gamer, but i love the UT series.

and that prolink looks pretty sweet, pxc. 128bit memory as well. looks like i may go with it. thanks tons.
 
The 5200 is fine if you're sticking to DX8.x and earlier games, or games that have a DX8.x path.

If you want something in PCI that supports DX9, there's a 6200 PCI version for around $86 shipped: http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190709 (or sign up for the auto-notify at the egg to get it much cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143058 )

The bad thing about the 6200 PCI is that is has a 64-bit memory interface. Mildly overclocked it's between the speed of a 9600SE and 9600 non-pro. But if you're happy with 800x600 this card should be OK.
 
I had a VisionTek Xtasy Radeon 9200 256mb, it played UT2k4 at 1280x1024, nearly everything maxed, 40-60fps. Worked better than the 5200 I had.. But a 6200 wouldnt be too bad, probably better actually..
 
lloose said:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=192&card2=153
Click to expand...
You compared the wrong cards. The NV43 6200 rocks especially if unlocked and overclocked, but the NV44A (AGP version of 6200 TC, also used on the 6200 PCI) isn't as good: http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=198&card2=153

The FX 5200 is a decent DX8.1 card, but a bad DX9 card. See my 5200 PCI benchmark thread if you feel like learning something: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=813082 Far Cry, CS:S, UT2003 and older games play fine. DX9 games play badly.

The NV44A isn't a good DX9 card either. It's memory bandwidth starved and only a bit better than a 9600SE at stock speeds. Unfortunately, that's as good as PCI DX9 cards get.
 
defaultluser said:
But that 6200 is a 64-bit card.

The 5200 would be faster if it has a 128-bit bus.
Click to expand...

Except it's an FX series card, which instantly means it is crap and isn't faster than anything worth mentioning, including the 64-bit 6200.
 
Yeah it seems after all the resarch i've done as well... the 6200 is the way to go now.
 
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