feline feline

what grahics card would you recormend?

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what grahics card would you recormend?

from WinCustomize Forums
*sigh* following the problem with DVD playback lastnight https://www.wincustomize.com/msgboard.asp?BID=WC&id=157507 i opened up my machine to make sure that my graphics card was properly in its slot.

as far as i can tell it is, however, despite being as careful as i could be, my machine no longer boots!

all i get are some beeps from the mother board. it is as if it cannot find the graphics card.

so, it is possible (i do hope not) that i am going to need to get a new graphics card. if i do, what would people recormend?

my last machine had an ATI card, but given the problems i had with drivers i got a nvidia gforce2 for my current machine. however, i have had a mass of driver problems with the nvidia card, so i am very loath to get another nvidia card. if they cannot relably produce stable drivers, why should i by another one of their cards?

from what i have read the ATI cards seem to be very good these days, with good hardware support for winFX 2.

i dont play a lot of games, but i do play some. in power terms, my current nvidia gforce2 MX 64meg card is fine, if it would just work!
13,996 views 42 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
wow cool thread. I am computer shopping and I did want to know what is what.

the ATI sounds good. I don't understand the greaphics card RAM thingy... 64 RAM sounds good and winFX workd fine on my slower computer with 4mb RAM.

Then there is the system bus. I hear it can go as high as 133mb

Anyway, I'll think I'll go with the ATI as long as it doesn't cost more than 200 dollars.

SDRAM, RAM, DRAM... its getting so confusing.

Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top

One small caveat with ATI: the 8500 and 9000 boards are not DX9 compliant (think the same about the 9200's if those are still around as well).

While hardly an issue right now even in terms of games, if you expect to be using Longhorn in 2005 with that card, it's worth noting. Course, if you get an 8500 or a 9000, the money you save will go nicely toward a new card 18 months down the road.

 

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Then there is the system bus. I hear it can go as high as 133mb


Actually the new Pentium 4 and AMD athlon boards go up to 533 mhz on the front side bus.

SDRAM, RAM, DRAM... its getting so confusing.


I can explain it if it helps...
Reply #29 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo must be at the races this weekend....'recormend'????



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Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top
feline- if you flashed your bios or made adjustments to it...go back in and make sure your bios is set to AGP and not PCI. That should make your card show up. If your machine doesn''''t boot and you removed card while the computer was still plugged in ,you may have a fried card. For what it''''s worth I use a FX5900 and have no problems at all with it. I paid way too much for it....but then again I''''m nuts



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Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You forgot to mention that if the BIOS was flashed and done wrong, the motherboard itself might be toast.
Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top
/me *sigh*

i updated the bios about 3 weeks ago.
the machine was booting fine on Friday evening, but DVD playback would not work. the only advice i found at nvidia's website was check the cable connection, or its a driver problem.

since i had just had a problem where the sound card wasnt properly in its slot, i opened up the machine to make sure the video card was properly in its slot.

take video card out, put it back in, machine no longer boots.

it is as if the card died, but i have no idea what i did wrong, since i was very careful. i have swapped the video card on my work machine several times (long story) and never had this problem.



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Reply #33 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Could be something as simple as the card being fried by static. It can happen.

If you can't get more than a blank screen then it has to be a hardware fault.
Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ok feline.....can only come up with one thought...this has to be a hardware problem. It might be that you did nothing wrong and it is one of those 'things'. If you're not getting a post there's a chance your mobo is shot. If you are getting a post and it stops, it's probably a card. Try one more thing ...remove all your PCI cards and leave the AGP card in. Try to boot. If it doesn't, try another AGP card. If it does boot you can easily determine which card it is. There is a slim chance just one slot is fried, so try a PCI graphics card if the AGP card doesn't do it. Sorry to say, if it's a bad slot that's as good as a bad mobo, but at least you'll know your cards are ok.....and it will be off to see the wizard for a new mobo. Good luck...again



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Reply #35 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yeah!! Jebland, I got it. I needed to update my bios...now the new ATI drivers are working. Thanks for the tips
Reply #36 from WinCustomize Forums Top
/me *blush* *confused*

last night the hardware expert looked at my machine. he took out the video card, and he put it back in. then the machine started working!

thats what i did, and when i did it, the machine didn't work

what he did looked identical to what i did, even he agreed that i seemed to have the card in the slot properly *shrug*

so, i will postpone getting a new video card for now. however, many thanks for the helpful suggestions i know what sort of thing i will be looking for when i get a new video card now

in the mean time, i think i will stop opening up my case, and just stick to software instead.



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Reply #37 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I just got a new 128 MB NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra last night. I haxe WinXP Pro, P4-1.6 GHz, 512 Mb DDR, It worked fine for about 7 hours then crashed my computer & I haven't been able to get it to work since unless I un-install the card in device manager. I downloaded the latest drivers from BFG before I put the card in. I tried using the drivers that came with the card & no luck.
Reply #38 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hashonboat, i have been there myself

part of my problem turned out to be a conflict between my old bios and the nvidia drivers (solved by a bios upgrade). it is worth looking in the system log to see if that gives any clues as to where the problem lies.

I downloaded the latest drivers from BFG before I put the card in.


BFG? have you tried the latest drivers from www.nvidia.com ?

if you are going to try different drivers (probably you need to) check out:

https://www.wincustomize.com/msgboard.asp?id=154784&BID=WC&page=1#157244

post #24 by yrag
i havent tried this program yet, but i intend to tonight when i try to get some nvidia drivers that let me watch DVD's.



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Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top
#35, gillon

I just love happy endings....
Reply #40 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I just got a new 128 MB NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra last night. I haxe WinXP Pro, P4-1.6 GHz, 512 Mb DDR, It worked fine for about 7 hours then crashed my computer


I am using a old nvidia tnt 32 megf card with xp pro I have never had a problem.

I think the problem is that the nvidias work better with a AMD setup than a overpriced P4 setup.
Reply #41 from WinCustomize Forums Top
AMD ROCKS! I just had to say that.

I am glad this ended for the best with feline (and others)

I learned allot about these card drivers. All I really want is to play my simple Microsoft Train Simulator game and use winFX on my system without such a huge hit (along with DX of which I really never had a problem even on win98 with 64 RAM)

I guess this is why I get so confused with all this 512 this and 264 that. If it works fine on a 128 system card and doesn't work on a 512, what is the problem?
Reply #42 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Go with the nVidia 5900 Ultra if you are buying a new card and price doesn''t matter (it''s beat the ATI cards in pretty much every benchmark I''ve seen). I use the GeForce4 Ti4600. It works great and probably won''t cost you that much now.
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