Best card for PII-333

[Blurr]

I currently have a Dell XPS D333 (PII) with 192megRAM using a m/b with the 440LX chipset. I am currently using an STB 8meg card with the Riva 128ZX chip. I am looking to find out the fastest/best card I can get for the system without the system itself being the bottleneck. My system works fine for most of my needs, but I wanted to see if I could increase gaming performance by replacing the card. I originally posted on a newsgroup and it was suggested either a TNT2 card, GeForce 256 (if I could get one cheap) or the GeForce MX. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. My m/b supports AGPx1 only. Thanks. ERH

P.S. If a card is AGPx2 or higher, is it backwards compatible for AGPx1?

 

[Guest]

Oh, its a shame your board isn't a BX. A cheapy Voodoo3 2000 would be fine if you're not a hardcore gamer otherwise go for something with NVidia on it.

If you do get any problems with a big meaty card then go for something less macho as the LX chipset strains on supplying the AGP with higher voltages used by chunky cards.

I hope you don't run into any problems, you should be ok. Good luck!

 

[Guest]

LX, you poor lost soul. I will say a prayer for you!

Take care.

 

[Blurr]

Is all hope lost for my upgrade options? I had a bad feeling the LX issue was going to come into play...

 

[Blurr]

It seems so far the LX thing is really a problem. I would definitely like to try something w/ nVidia like you recommend (I am definitely partial to their stuff). However, what should i try for, GeForce 256? GeForce MX? Is a card w/ DDR too much for my system? What specific card/chip should I aim for that would not exceed the capabilities of my system? TIA ERH

 

[Guest]

Thinking more about it, I thoroughly suggest you start saving up for a board/processor/memory job. If that seems distant then buy a cheapy voodoo3 2000 to get you by in the mean time. They're not bad by any means, they are just in the shadow of NVidia somewhat.

I bought a voodoo3 2000 second hand for £20 and it was the best £20 I ever spent.

You can risk the GeForce2 MX if you wish but your system won't let you get your moneys worth.

 

[Guest]

Go for one of the old TNT2 Cards.. I had a TNT2 Pro with my previous PII-233Mhz on a LX board, it worked good, could do QIII, UT, FreeSpace 2 quite nicely.

/---------------------------------------/
Be and let others be as well!
<b>The Dark-Knight</b>

 

[berkeljm]

You shouldn't have too much of a problem with the voltage requirements from an MX card. The geforce2 MX card doesn't suck as much juice as the GTS card. I would go with the MX over a voodoo since the cards will be about the same price depending on where you buy it from. Creative labs has a good price on an MX card but it's handicapped with a 64bit data path. They tried to make up for this with DDR memory but who are they trying to fool? For a low-mid range card I would go with the Herculies 3D II. Don't get the OEM version since that has 6ns memory versus the Retail that has 5.5ns. Well that's what I would do, take it for what it's worth.