Long time lurker here…
Anyhow, I’ve recently decided that I’d like to see more than just the floor in my games again… which means it’s time for a bit of an update. The original plan was to build a new system (~$1,000) that would last me a few years, but we’re going to end up buying a house in a few months, so scratch that idea. My last build was somewhere around 1999ish, so a bit has changed. (That build was a 800 MHz Intel, Matrox G400 Max, etc.) Of course shortly thereafter I got the opportunity to get a <A HREF="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph05968" target="_new"> HP Pavilion 8765c </A> (AMD 900 MHz) for free so I jumped at it and sold off most of my original build, keeping my G400 Max. So now many years (and a wife, and a kid…) later I still have that system with a different sound card (Hercules XP game theatre), and 2 x 256MB ram. Scary huh? 😱
Not surprisingly, I don’t play games much anymore. In fact the only games I play regularly are Everquest and Tribes 2. So, my archaic system has been able to suffice for quite some time. That is …err was until DX 9. Now everything is FUBAR. EQ keeps updating their engine so people keep playing, T2 is abandoned, and Matrox has long since abandoned any serious effort into keeping updated drivers for the G400. So, now I have to load one set of drivers for EQ, and another for T2… very fun… on top of that, neither game’s graphics are that good because I need to play with (nearly) all options off. It’s now so bad in EQ, that I actually do have to look at the floor most the time, because I’m out of options to disable to help boost frame rates. :frown:
Anyhow all that long history to basically say that I don’t want or need to spend the big bucks. I’m no longer a hard-core gamer, nor an avid over-clocker. What I’m looking for now is a low-cost solution ($50-$200 total) that gets me a new v-card so I can actually enjoy my scant online time once again. My intention is to get my $1,000 system around the December-May time period anyhow. So I’d really like any investment I make now be good enough to last 1-2 years (maybe until PCI-express cards are ‘cheap’). I’ve read enough to realize that the card I want is the 9800 Pro (that was the card I was going to get with the new MoBo, etc.), but there are a few issues with that.
First, my current PS is only a 185W (*cry*) so I’m really going to have to get a new one of those. I’m thinking a 300W would work, but if I got a 400W I could use it in my future system. Either way, a new PS (assuming I find one that fits in the tower) is going to take cash, most likely taking the 9800Pro out of my reach. So go for a cheap PS that will last a year, or a dependable one that I can reuse…?
Then I thought I found a solution for my v-card woes… a <A HREF="http://www.atacom.com/program/print_html_new.cgi?cart_id=7334289_24_33_150_141&Item_code=VIDA_ATIX_96_PR&USER_ID=www" target="_new"> $110 9600 Pro </A>. Yes, yes I know that my wimpy 0.9 GHz or my current MoBo will be the bottleneck, but I figure a 9600 Pro could probably make it a year or two (maybe more with my tolerance). So after convincing the wife that I was making a frugal decision I realized that according <A HREF="http://www.ati.com/support/faq/agpchart.html" target="_new"> ATI </A>, the 9600 Pro requires AGP 3.0. Of course my MoBo is a K7M (Some OEM version I’m sure) which according to Asus only has a AGP 1.0 (i.e., 1x/2x). So I opened up the case and sure enough it’s keyed near the back of the MoBo (3.3V). But then I noticed a possible loop-hole after looking at the pictures of the 9600’s. According to ATI’s images, the 9600 card has the key notch for only the 1.5V, but the 9600 Pro has the double notch, making it universal. Yet their specs on the 9600Pro clearly states that it only works with 4x (1.5V) and 8x (0.8V)… So I’m a bit confused here. Is the 9600 Pro really a universal AGP card, that I can run at 2x in my MoBo, or not? I’ve always assumed that if a card can fit in the slot, it will run (just slower)… after-all, that is the whole purpose of keying the slots isn’t it?
Either way, would I be a fool for buying a ‘decent’ card only to have it be bottle necked for 6-8 months? $100 for the 9600 Pro seems like a good deal right now. If I’m going to buy a v-card for 6 months use, I really would prefer only spending $50 on it. Unfortunately none of the $50 cards seem to be DX9 compliant. Which, as EQ’s trend goes, is bad news. Also, the only other ‘new’ game I see myself getting into will be Tribes 3, which I’m sure will make use of DX9 (release date sometime in Q4 of this year). So I’d really like to either have very little invested as a loss, or have a decent card that can run the games (even if at lower quality settings) for another year or two.
Maybe I’m just making too big a deal out of natively supporting DX9, but I really feel that if I am going to have the card for a few years I really should make sure it passes that test… I’m not sure how many of the G400max’s competitors would have made it this far (voodoo 2 I think?). :tongue:
Thanks in advance for any input (and for reading my long ars post)
Anyhow, I’ve recently decided that I’d like to see more than just the floor in my games again… which means it’s time for a bit of an update. The original plan was to build a new system (~$1,000) that would last me a few years, but we’re going to end up buying a house in a few months, so scratch that idea. My last build was somewhere around 1999ish, so a bit has changed. (That build was a 800 MHz Intel, Matrox G400 Max, etc.) Of course shortly thereafter I got the opportunity to get a <A HREF="http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph05968" target="_new"> HP Pavilion 8765c </A> (AMD 900 MHz) for free so I jumped at it and sold off most of my original build, keeping my G400 Max. So now many years (and a wife, and a kid…) later I still have that system with a different sound card (Hercules XP game theatre), and 2 x 256MB ram. Scary huh? 😱
Not surprisingly, I don’t play games much anymore. In fact the only games I play regularly are Everquest and Tribes 2. So, my archaic system has been able to suffice for quite some time. That is …err was until DX 9. Now everything is FUBAR. EQ keeps updating their engine so people keep playing, T2 is abandoned, and Matrox has long since abandoned any serious effort into keeping updated drivers for the G400. So, now I have to load one set of drivers for EQ, and another for T2… very fun… on top of that, neither game’s graphics are that good because I need to play with (nearly) all options off. It’s now so bad in EQ, that I actually do have to look at the floor most the time, because I’m out of options to disable to help boost frame rates. :frown:
Anyhow all that long history to basically say that I don’t want or need to spend the big bucks. I’m no longer a hard-core gamer, nor an avid over-clocker. What I’m looking for now is a low-cost solution ($50-$200 total) that gets me a new v-card so I can actually enjoy my scant online time once again. My intention is to get my $1,000 system around the December-May time period anyhow. So I’d really like any investment I make now be good enough to last 1-2 years (maybe until PCI-express cards are ‘cheap’). I’ve read enough to realize that the card I want is the 9800 Pro (that was the card I was going to get with the new MoBo, etc.), but there are a few issues with that.
First, my current PS is only a 185W (*cry*) so I’m really going to have to get a new one of those. I’m thinking a 300W would work, but if I got a 400W I could use it in my future system. Either way, a new PS (assuming I find one that fits in the tower) is going to take cash, most likely taking the 9800Pro out of my reach. So go for a cheap PS that will last a year, or a dependable one that I can reuse…?
Then I thought I found a solution for my v-card woes… a <A HREF="http://www.atacom.com/program/print_html_new.cgi?cart_id=7334289_24_33_150_141&Item_code=VIDA_ATIX_96_PR&USER_ID=www" target="_new"> $110 9600 Pro </A>. Yes, yes I know that my wimpy 0.9 GHz or my current MoBo will be the bottleneck, but I figure a 9600 Pro could probably make it a year or two (maybe more with my tolerance). So after convincing the wife that I was making a frugal decision I realized that according <A HREF="http://www.ati.com/support/faq/agpchart.html" target="_new"> ATI </A>, the 9600 Pro requires AGP 3.0. Of course my MoBo is a K7M (Some OEM version I’m sure) which according to Asus only has a AGP 1.0 (i.e., 1x/2x). So I opened up the case and sure enough it’s keyed near the back of the MoBo (3.3V). But then I noticed a possible loop-hole after looking at the pictures of the 9600’s. According to ATI’s images, the 9600 card has the key notch for only the 1.5V, but the 9600 Pro has the double notch, making it universal. Yet their specs on the 9600Pro clearly states that it only works with 4x (1.5V) and 8x (0.8V)… So I’m a bit confused here. Is the 9600 Pro really a universal AGP card, that I can run at 2x in my MoBo, or not? I’ve always assumed that if a card can fit in the slot, it will run (just slower)… after-all, that is the whole purpose of keying the slots isn’t it?
Either way, would I be a fool for buying a ‘decent’ card only to have it be bottle necked for 6-8 months? $100 for the 9600 Pro seems like a good deal right now. If I’m going to buy a v-card for 6 months use, I really would prefer only spending $50 on it. Unfortunately none of the $50 cards seem to be DX9 compliant. Which, as EQ’s trend goes, is bad news. Also, the only other ‘new’ game I see myself getting into will be Tribes 3, which I’m sure will make use of DX9 (release date sometime in Q4 of this year). So I’d really like to either have very little invested as a loss, or have a decent card that can run the games (even if at lower quality settings) for another year or two.
Maybe I’m just making too big a deal out of natively supporting DX9, but I really feel that if I am going to have the card for a few years I really should make sure it passes that test… I’m not sure how many of the G400max’s competitors would have made it this far (voodoo 2 I think?). :tongue:
Thanks in advance for any input (and for reading my long ars post)
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