DO I need a better video card?

[Guest]

I want to remove unwanted ghost images (shadows) everytime I try to drag and move an open window in my desktop. It also seems slow to react when I try to drag a window to a new location. I'm pretty sure it's not the CPU or ram since I am running a P3-667 w/ 128mb PC133 Ram. My current video card is an SIS agp w/ 8mb I am planning on upgrading to a Geforce 2 MX w/ 32mb.

 

[machow]

Good choice. I bet your current graphics is built-in and those are a piece of crap and they take memory space in system memory.. so it means you have only 120MB ram...


Smart guys are not smart; they only see things in different perspective.
1st <b>member</b>!

 

[Guest]

Yup. Get a utility that displays free RAM. if your
using your insalled RAM for video memory that just plain sucks, but your your choice is excellent.

But for now, maybe disable "show window contents while dragging"?...

 

[Reverend_Bel]

If your SIS video is integrated and therefore steeling system bandwidth (the amount of ram stolen is negligible in terms of performance) then that would be why you have those "ghosts". If it's an old SIS card with 8 mb then it shouldn't be that bad unless you have bad drivers.

My boss had a crappy E-machines with a cel 633 with 810 integrated video and it was atrocious. When his motherboard died for the 3rd time and he was sick of sending it back, I bought him a Via appalo board of some sort and an S3 trio with 8 mb (it's just a little newer than your card if I have my history right) and the performace difference was incredible. It looked fine no matter what I had open.

I'm not saying you shouldn't upgrade from the caed you have but unless you want to play 3D games (I don't think your card even supports direct3d) you could go for something a little older and a lot cheaper than a GF2mx. The cheapest mx400 I've seen was $62 at a store in cleveland (I live pretty close to the city). You might be talking about the mx100 or 200 but what's the point of paying for T&L if the card has the same casrated 64 bit bandwidth a TNT2 Vanta. For that matter you could just get a Vanta. I've seen them stockpiled lots of places so somebody has to be getting rid of them. Basically anything TNT2/Rage128 generation or later will give you all teh 2D performance you could ask for.


Also, ram is so damn cheap now, you should get another 128 just to make sure you're not hitting the harddrive too much. I think Crucial has 128 mb pc133 cas2 for under $20.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

 

[Arbee]

Actually the 2d performance of the TnT series is quite bad. Enough for everyday work though.

How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise

 

[arsend]

If you upgrade, you will see an enomous increase in preformance over your current card. The crd you picked is OK, and so are any ATI Radeon based cards. I would go with the chepest one you can find, unless you do DVD playback, then I would go with the Radeon based cards.

If it works for you then don't fix it.