The best graphic card for PII-300 ??

[RazorWind]

I have an old PII 300 MHz and 2MB graphic card, I was thinking of getting the GF2 MX400, will it be too powerful for my CPU ??

Intel Chipset
PII 300
196MB Ram
AGP2X
4Gb HD
ISA sound card (ESS)
WinME

 

[RanDum72]

If you have just a little more to your budget, I'll suggest a GeForce3 Ti200 (around $100-145). It will be limited in a way by your CPU but it will give you room to grow later on when you decide to upgrade the rest of your system (CPU, mobo, etc..)

 

[Lvis]

voodoo 3 would be a good choice. 2d is nice and will play any game the 300mhz is able to handle.

 

[Jeff H]

RazorWind, you could throw a GeForce 4 in there, but your system wouldn't do it justice. You need a card more in tune w/ the rest of your system. Check out this Visiontek 5632 GeForce 2 card from Newegg.com. I just put one in my second system (Soyo 440BX board, PII-350) and for $46 you can't go wrong.

 

[Instagib]

<< voodoo 3 would be a good choice. 2d is nice and will play any game the 300mhz is able to handle. >>

 

[StanTheMan]

wait and then go for gf4 4200, 128MB.
the cpeu may be the bottleneck, however, if you play the game at 1024x768x32 bit with 4x FSAA, then the graphic card may still be the bottleneck.
and i think, the performance with gf4 4200 with 4xFSAA will be much better than a geforce2 mx

 

[LoTecha]

It's important to know whether you're planning to keep the card when you upgrade to your next system, or if this card is going to live and die with this p2-300. Obviously, if you're planning to keep, get the best vid card you can reasonably afford. If not, get a cheap one.

 

[InFecTed]

TNT2 or Voodoo 3.

 

[Buddha Bart]

hah! these are some funny answers...

That system wouldn't know what to do with a Geforce!
Actually, if its an LX it woud have serious problems delivering enough voltage to the AGP slot.

Voodoo3 or TNT2, those are your best bet. Although, to be honest with you, don't expect to be able to play much more than quake2 generation games.

bart

 

[StanTheMan]

it's a bx mobo for sure. lx doesnt do agp 2x

 

[DJVIC]

Voodoo 3 series---get a 3500, so u can watch TV as well =)

 

[CubicZirconia]

<< << voodoo 3 would be a good choice. 2d is nice and will play any game the 300mhz is able to handle. >> >>



Too expensive on ebay. Get a geforce 2 gts-v.

 

[slackware1995]

<< it's a bx mobo for sure. lx doesnt do agp 2x >>



Correction for you, yes the LX _does_ support AGP 2x.

Example LX Mobo from Soyo

I tried a few other Mobo makers, but it's hard to find info on their older motherboards, but I'm sure if you wanted to spend the time, you would find that AGP 2x _was_ supported in I440LX.

 

[Adul]

<<

<< << voodoo 3 would be a good choice. 2d is nice and will play any game the 300mhz is able to handle. >> >>



Too expensive on ebay. Get a geforce 2 gts-v. >>


can be had at newegg for around 60 bucks.

 

[apoppin]

You never did say if you are getting the card for a possible future upgrade of your system(?).

 

[aka1nas]

Also, you can't depend on driver support for a 3dFX card. Granted, that system won't be able to handle any newer OS that comes out, but if a new game comes out that you system can play and you do have problems with it, you are probably out of luck.

 

[slackware1995]

The way I would look at this upgrade is this:

How long until I plan on upgrading my CPU/MB?
What is my budget?

If I will be upgrading CPU/MB in say <3 months.
Wait to buy video card until then, prices will continue to drop.

If upgrade will be 3+ months from now.
Go for the best price/performance I can get cheap. That way I can get the most out of the card now while wasting minimal money. If the product I buy now is powerful enough, I may be able to stretch the time until I buy a new video card until after I buy the motherboard, then I can get a even better video card at that time.



<< RazorWind, you could throw a GeForce 4 in there, but your system wouldn't do it justice. You need a card more in tune w/ the rest of your system. Check out this Visiontek 5632 GeForce 2 card from Newegg.com. I just put one in my second system (Soyo 440BX board, PII-350) and for $46 you can't go wrong. >>



That seems to be the best answer right now... Unbelievably, the GeForce2 GTS with 32MB is cheaper than even a GeForce2 MX400 with 32MB. But it is much faster. Plus $50 is a reasonable amount to spend on a video card for your system.

People may tell you that you will be CPU limited with this card. Who cares? You'll probably spend about the same for this card as a much lesser card. You'll get hardware T&L. And, when you get a faster CPU, the performance will improve. So even if you have a friend give you a 450Mhz cpu for your rig, you'll continue to see improvements.
Not to mention, there are still people running these cards with 1Ghz+ cpus and love them.

In other words, spend as little as you can to get the most performance you can.

Good luck!

 

[RazorWind]

This video card purchase will be the last upgrade I do to my system, and that's the way it will remain. I'm getting a new PC next month (all new parts).
So I'll guess I'll take that GF2 gts, thanks for all the replies.
And as slackware already said, the chipset does indeed support AGP2X, confirmation from WCPUID and Powerstrip, and WCPUID indicates it's a "Intel 440LX/EX"

 

[slackware1995]

<< This video card purchase will be the last upgrade I do to my system, and that's the way it will remain. I'm getting a new PC next month (all new parts).
So I'll guess I'll take that GF2 gts, thanks for all the replies.
And as slackware already said, the chipset does indeed support AGP2X, confirmation from WCPUID and Powerstrip, and WCPUID indicates it's a "Intel 440LX/EX" >>



*bows*

So, for being right, do I get your old rig when you buy the new one? hehe *fingers crossed*

 

[manko]

Just FYI, I've had a Geforce 3 ti 200 in my Celeron 300a@450 for six months. Although my 3D mark is probably 1/3 or 1/4 of what this card could do with a current processor, I can play most games (JKII, RTCW, etc.) without a problem at 1024x768 (with medium or lower detail settings). I don't know how well these would do on a lower-spec card on my old machine (even the Geforce 2MX).

And of course, I'll be able to throw this ti 200 into a new machine when I get around to upgrading. And Btw, my card does OC beyond regular Geforce 3 clockspeeds, but I don't currently OC because there's not much point until I have a much faster CPU.

 

[slackware1995]

<< Just FYI, I've had a Geforce 3 ti 200 in my Celeron 300a@450 for six months. Although my 3D mark is probably 1/3 or 1/4 of what this card could do with a current processor, I can play most games (JKII, RTCW, etc.) without a problem at 1024x768 (with medium or lower detail settings). I don't know how well these would do on a lower-spec card on my old machine (even the Geforce 2MX).

And of course, I'll be able to throw this ti 200 into a new machine when I get around to upgrading. And Btw, my card does OC beyond regular Geforce 3 clockspeeds, but I don't currently OC because there's not much point until I have a much faster CPU. >>



What are your 3Dmark 2001 scores?

 

[spanky]

i saw someone selling a asus gf256 for $40 on FS/FT

 

[CubicZirconia]

The gts-v's are 46 bucks at newegg.

 

[Tominator]

Voodoo 3 without a doubt! Better at everything than a TNT2! Get on in the For Sale Forum for around $25 shipped.

 

[bluemax]

<< Also, you can't depend on driver support for a 3dFX card. Granted, that system won't be able to handle any newer OS that comes out, but if a new game comes out that you system can play and you do have problems with it, you are probably out of luck. >>


This was a particularily silly statement along with several other silly statements.
Any new game coming out won't exactly run on a P2-300 now will it?

I agree with the majority suggesting a low-cost card, although I'd suggest the Radeon LE over the GTS-v if they're almost the same price. The Radeon tends to give better numbers when run on a slower CPU. But you can't go wrong with the GTS-V either. Even if you don't push the card to the limit, you should be able to use 2x or even 4x FSAA with no difference in framerate since the CPU is running slower than the video card.

When I ran a Celeron 300A @ 450 (ahhhh...) I had a Voodoo5 that saw almost no difference from normal to 4x FSAA - needless to say I used FSAA wherever possible.