Dell P3 866 bottleneck

[NiMo]

Hi !

Any comments on approx. what kind of gfx card I can buy
for upgrading my fathers old P3 866 without overkilling
to much ? I might upgrade the system totally later on, but
not right away. Is for instance a ATI 9200SE or 9600SE
too much ?

regards Niklas

 

[Crashman]

A Radeon 8500LE would be perfect, an 8500 would be better.

The 9100 is the newer version of the 8500LE, it uses the same parts with the same performance. The 8500LE is an underclocked 8500 with slower RAM.

The 9200 is an even more chopped down version of the 8500LE,and the 9200SE is a chopped down version of the 9200 with 1/2 the already low memory bandwidth.

I know the model numbers don't make sense, but it's all true, if you can find an old 8500 card cheaply, you'll get your best performance for your dollar.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[pauldh]

Check out the VGA charts 2. Shows performance of many cards on a faster system compared to a slower system.

<A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html" target="_new">http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html</A>

I'd have to agree that a Radeon 8500le is a great, if not the best, choice. A GF3Ti200 for around $55 or less is also a good choice. At max, a GF4Ti4200 or a Radeon 9600 non pro for around $100 each. The 9600 would allow some DX9 effects, but remember, most DX9 games will crave more CPU power than you have with that PIII. I definately would keep to the under $100 cards though, unless you plan on upgrading the whole system soon and keep the graphics card. If a computer upgrade is far down the road, the cards will be cheaper and faster by then, so no need to think about that.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[Crashman]

By the way, I should also mention the old GeForce4 Ti4200, it's around $85 and can kick the 9600SE's butt for speed. Although the Ti4200 and 9000/9200/9100/8500 card are DX8, they can play DX9 games in DX8 mode. So the Ti4200 would be much faster than the 9600SE but lack a few of the newer visual effects that are comming out now. In this case I think the performance is more important than the added eye-candy.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[NiMo]

Thanks for all answers.

One problem is that since it is very hard to actually get a
Ti4200 or 8500, I will probably get an 9600 and thus put
myself in a position where I will end up upgrading the
whole system..... Another reason for this is that I
found a Sapphire Radeon 9600SE Atlantis 128MB DDR/AGP/DVI/TV-OUT for 775 SEK (107 USD). Also ASUS
and Club3D and Hightech Excalibur for approx the same price.

Is this a totally stupid idea, considering that I might
upgrade this system within 6 months ? And if it is not,
is any of the cards I mentioned a preffered one ?

regards

 

[cleeve]

If you plan to upgrade the system in a couple months, spend the extra $$ and get a real 9600 PRO.

A 9600SE will only deliver so much, but a true 9600 PRO will offer much better performance when scaling up.

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9500 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(hardmodded 9500, o/c 322/322)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>2600+</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 2400+ w/143Mhz fsb)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>4,055</b></font color=red>

 

[splenda20]

I would suggest two things...
1) If there's a particular game that you really want to play now, then buy the cheapest card that will run that game and get a new card when you get your new system.
2) If you can wait, buy a new card when you buy your new system and get the best one you can afford. There's no point buying a more expensive card now that won't give you any performance increase over a cheaper card (cause of your CPU bottleneck)
If you decide you actually want to get a good new card for your current system, then at least wait until Mar/Apr when ATI and NVidia bring out their new line of cards so that you can get the best card for your money.