Best Card for Pentium 4 system?

[spacekid]

Hi guys, I'm about to do the whole hackintosh deal, and wanted to know what is the best card i can use with my system, that wont be bottlenecked by the cpu?
My PC is a gen 3 XPS, with the P4 3.4Hz cpu.

Thanks!

 

[spacekid]

^^ Forgot to mention, i do have a PCI-Ex16 lane.. but only 1.0 of course

 

[jassao]

If you're playing modern games, your P4 is going to bottleneck any mid-range card, but I would suggest maybe a nvidia 8800gt, It also depends of the games you're trying to play.
Even a 8600gt would be good for you, you would be able to play at low-mid specs on somehow recent games (1-2 years ago?)

 

[invisik]

I would recommend a 4670.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814140095

 

[edeawillrule]

Pretty much the best graphics card you can use with a Pentium 4 is a Radeon HD 4550.
Anything stronger will be severely hindered by your cpu and would be a waste.

 

[spacekid]

Excellent range of opinions! Very much appreciated
Also, i wont be gaming on this much if at all(only game on it is nascar 2003), this is just a second system i have, and wanna tool around with(Hackintosh).. the mainreason i want a good card is for multimedia and photo editing etc.

Thanks again!!

 

[mindless728]

best card.....save up to get a new system
maybe sell your old one as a non-gaming system to somebody

 

[4745454b]

the mainreason i want a good card is for multimedia and photo editing etc.

Which to my knowledge doesn't matter. The GPU doesn't play into photo editing at all, unless you are running a CUDA app, etc. Only the CPU (and RAM and harddrive) matters, the GPU simply displays what you did. If this is the case and your not a GPU demanding user, you can use nearly anything. I said nearly because you do play one racing game. I second the 8800GT. Might get a bit bottlenecked by your P4, but it shouldn't be to bad. The 9600GT or the 4770 is also not a bad idea. If you need cheap, the 4670 will work.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Get a 9800GTX or 4850. I think that'll be at the very upper limits before you experience any major CPU bottleneck.

 

[successful_troll]

First of all, give your pentium 4 to charity and save up for a dual core at least. Secondly, hackintosh sucks plain as that. If you want to play with sth get the windows 7 RC.

Get a 9800GTX or 4850. I think that'll be at the very upper limits before you experience any major CPU bottleneck.

this is stupid, get your facts together. its totally worthless to add any modern card to a pentium 4.

 

[edeawillrule]

First of all, give your pentium 4 to charity and save up for a dual core at least. Secondly, hackintosh sucks plain as that. If you want to play with sth get the windows 7 RC.



this is stupid, get your facts together. its totally worthless to add any modern card to a pentium 4.

+1
+1

 

[rewindlabs]

OP if you are still reading posts go over the the hackintosh forums and ask this....not all cards are compatible with osx so don't go on the suggestions placed here....

And ohh please OSX is fun to mess around on even an intel atom let him tinker.....i kind of miss my Msi Wind netbook which had a dual boot of osx

You know what...i may just use one of my spare P4 machines i have lying around as a new osx test bed...

 

[spacekid]

Lol thanks again guys and gals! Yeah i can't really sell this system as it was an expensive gift long ago.. my mom would kick my ass lol

My main system is the standard combo of an OC'ed Q6600(DFI LP UT P35) and a 8800GTX.. I dont do that much gaming, although i need to try and get back into it.

Successful Troll you hit it right on the head.. i just want the best for my money that wont have wasted frames on my slowass CPU.. I'm pretty familiar with what is Mac friendly, i just needed to get an idea of the GPU ranges i should be looking at.

<3 this forum

 

[Bluescreendeath]

First of all, give your pentium 4 to charity and save up for a dual core at least. Secondly, hackintosh sucks plain as that. If you want to play with sth get the windows 7 RC.



this is stupid, get your facts together. its totally worthless to add any modern card to a pentium 4.

1. ummm, excuse me? How rude.

Yes, there will be bottleneck, but the P4 is still a CPU capable of holding its own.
This guy paired a 9800GTX with a P4 @ 3.0 GHz, and he can run Bioshock with all settings maxed out at 60fps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BH28LrTWmA

So the OP's 3.4 GHz P4 should have no problems in any game except Crysis at max.

Hell, even there's another vid showing a guy playing Crysis on low/medium with a P4 and a POS 9500GT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol82YOjS_EM&feature=related


2. I didn't know that was his 2nd rig. His OP didn't say anything about him having another computer.
My post was just to let him know what his 3.4 GHz cpu is capable of. And a P4 is still a respectable cpu, not a total piece of sh*t like you claim.

 

[rewindlabs]

BSOD is right...i came across that exact video a few months ago looking for relative benchmarks...even if it isn't the best money spent the P4 can push and stroll with that 9800gtx+...

 

[jitpublisher]

Get a 9800GTX or 4850. I think that'll be at the very upper limits before you experience any major CPU bottleneck.

Umm, pardon me and with the utmost respect, I have to disagree here. That P4 is going to hold a 4850 or a 9800GTX well below their full potential. I know they don't cost a lot these days, but they are overkill for a P4. And to top it off, If all the OP does is the Nascar thing, and Photoshop. Neither are very GPU demanding, especially Photoshop.
I would suggest something in the range of a 4670 or a 9600GT depending on which camp you prefer. That is plenty, plenty of card for your use, and system I am afraid.
To the OP, you do realize how dog slow that P4 really is compared to a modern processor, right?

 

[rewindlabs]

Umm, pardon me and with the utmost respect, I have to disagree here. That P4 is going to hold a 4850 or a 9800GTX well below their full potential. I know they don't cost a lot these days, but they are overkill for a P4. And to top it off, If all the OP does is the Nascar thing, and Photoshop. Neither are very GPU demanding, especially Photoshop.
I would suggest something in the range of a 4670 or a 9600GT depending on which camp you prefer. That is plenty, plenty of card for your use, and system I am afraid.
To the OP, you do realize how dog slow that P4 really is compared to a modern processor, right?

Good suggestion GPU wise Jitpublisher....and i think the op has an idea on how the system preforms but as he has said below...

Yeah i can't really sell this system as it was an expensive gift long ago

My main system is the standard combo of an OC'ed Q6600(DFI LP UT P35) and a 8800GTX.. I dont do that much gaming, although i need to try and get back into it.

 

[spacekid]

I'll probably go with the 9600GT or GTX, as you all just mentioned.. it's probably overkill for what i will use the system for..
As Rewind said.. I know it's a dog, but it's there.. so might as well make use of it! Maybe I could toss a few older and/or lighter games on it just for my nephews and such

And yeah I thought BSOD made a few very good and reasonably informed suggestions.. so that was a rather abrasive response

But wow..you all are definitely on point with everything!

 

[rewindlabs]

The system will have its limits...but you actually have a broad range of titles you can sink into singleplayer wise and current COD games should do well along with source titles...let your nephews take battlefield heroes for a run....its the cheap bastards TF2 well atleast it looks like TF2