Onboard Video

[zornundo]

Well I did find out that the X300 on my motherboard is the same as the X300 that is a dedicated card I talked to the tech guys at ATI so that's good. But is the GeForce 7300 really way better than the ATI Radeon X300? Since if you just say it's better but not that much difference then I will return it and save the money for other things.

What part of "worlds better" don't you understand?

This kid's either a)10 years old or b)rides the short bus :twisted:

 

[jaguarskx]

Posting the DxDiag file means nothing.

Look at the performance benchmarks in the link I posted. The slowest card in the comparison is the Radeon X1300 and that's more powerful than the integrated graphics chip you have.

 

[Anoobis]

A GDDR3 7300GT will not only outperform onboard X300 graphics, it will kick it's ass, take it's milk money, steal it's girlfirend, score with it's mom, beat up it's dad and solve world peace and hunger before dinner.

However, if the ATI X300 seems to be working for you in all of the current games you own and you're happy with it, then return the GDDR 7300GT and buy a newer discrete, more powerful, graphics card later on down the road when you need one.

 

[lostandwandering]

I agree with Annobis. Though I must ask:

beat up it's dad and solve world peace

Isn't that a bit contradictory? lol

 

[AdamBomb42]

What about this video card I currently own? WinFast PX7300 Extreme GT TDH Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT. Is this any better then the onboard X300? If its not big difference then I will return it. By the way even my chipset is X200 its still considered as same as ATI X300. I talked to the ATI techs.

The 7300GT is certainly better that your onboard chip, although it is far from being a powerhouse. Your question really depends on what games you wish to play and what settings you wish to play them at. Please elaborate.

 

[Anoobis]

The list is chronologically organized.

 

[marshahu]

7300 is not that much different to your onboard graphics. Just that it will have its own dedicated RAM rather than pinching some of the onboard memory. Oh and there maybe more connectors for DVI and SVideo output.

Dont bother with the 7300 or the X1300 cards - they are just a step up from your card so you will be wasting your money. My mate is building a rig based on a motherboard with similar onboard graphics - he tried several of the low end cards your thinking about purchasing and he wasnt too impressed with the improvement - in fact he failed to see any so hes gone back to his onboard chip.

That was until I reccommended him the X1600PRO card. I have the Sapphire 512MB X1600 PRO AGP cards and I have been happy with it ever since. Its £100, runs HL2 very well (about 50fps @ 1280x1024x32 with all settings on High, if you have a 17in monitor then drop it down to 1024 x 768 and it is literally like liquid). NFS Carbon ran ok on High settings at 1024 x 768, BF2 runs at high @ 1024x768 whereas Quake 4 ran OK at 1024x768 at Ultra (baring in mind you can only run on ultra with 512MB graphics memory or more). This card also has support for Pixel Shader Model 3 - something which I dont think the X1300 PRO supports - simply put all your games look that much better and run smoother! High Dynamic Range Maps in HL2 Lost Coast also reported for me an average frame rate of 50fps with all the settings on high, AA and other crap turned to the max. And yes Quake III Arena will run at the highest settings easily! These are the specs I get from my PC which as you can see is over two years old - imagine the wonders it will do for your PC.

Simply put, the low end cards with X1300 or 7300 wont give you that same improvement that will make you think you spent your money well. Save up for at least £100 for the graphics card, get a X1600 PRO and you will feel that is money well spent.

I reccommend ATi simply because of the features and ease of use for the drivers. With nVidia I have had plenty of problems with drivers and configuration, and upgrading it was such a nightmare. ATi was a much simpler process and personally I think the image quality of ATi is better than nVidia.

Of course this is going to open a flame war between ATi and nVidia fan boys so Ill duck out before the war begins and finish by saying X1600 PRO or X1650 PRO (the better card) all the way!!

 

[Adammccl]

Ok I tried the game using the onboard X300 and it didn't give me really any good details but it just said basic error message in the game console were you can copy and past. I don't know why it doesn't give any details on why it doesn't work. I tried playing the full game with the latest patch since I have the full game. Do I need to download a driver or get something to play this game? I didn't get a windows error message I just got a control pannel like error message with no details.

 

[dude_here]

Won't even the card he has free up CPU power to do other things, thus helping overall system speed tho? Also freeing up that chunk of RAM as well? That's gotta count in there somewhere too, at least to me.

Just a thought.

 

[Adammccl]

Well my system specs are on my signature. I have more than enough ram since it's 1 gig as you see so I don't think taking 64mb will hurt it alot right? I can make it so it will share up to 128mb on video ram if I changed the bios settings.

 

[dude_here]

Well my system specs are on my signature. I have more than enough ram since it's 1 gig as you see so I don't think taking 64mb will hurt it alot right?

Well, it's just my personal belief that you want all your resources dedicated to doing what they are meant for, and not tryin to do that AND running video and stuff like that. I would use that video card you bought, and dis-able your your onboard stuff in your bios. It gives you dedicated video with a dedicated ram set (which I think is faster than regular ram) and a dedicated chipset that is alot better than your onboard stuff, frees up your standard ram, and frees up your cpu to do its normal stuff faster. That make sense?

 

[Blacken]

Dude... dude. Shut the hell up, click on that 7300GT link that jaguar posted, and hit BUY. Even a 7300GS is gonna rock your X300. I had that same onboard video, upgraded to a 7300GS and was able to; 1. stop those errors you see, and; 2. triple my frame rate. Buying a DDR3 7300GT is almost twice as fast as the DDR2 7300GS (so what does this tell you?).

Pull your head from thy ass and read.

 

[Adammccl]

Well it's only 128mb not 256 or more so even it's DDR3 it's still 128mb. Plus that other person said that it's not big difference on the two he said it's better to use the ATI since it's easier and faster. He also said buying the low end 7300 won't give you improvements.

 

[dude_here]

Well it's only 128mb not 256 or more so even it's DDR3 it's still 128mb. Plus that other person said that it's not big difference on the two he said it's better to use the ATI since it's easier and faster. He also said buying the low end 7300 won't give you improvements.

OK dude, I'm gonna try once more... obviously you are not reading or comprehending this correctly...the card you bought is loads better than your onboard! I would use it for all the reasons listed above! If you don't want to use it and stick with your crap video onboard, knock yourself out, but you'll STILL have problems and STILL have crappy video and STILL be wasting resources.

Your move.

 

[AdamBomb42]

I really suggest going for a 7600gs or gt.

 

[Blacken]

I wish I could find a comparison man, but you have 5 testimonials against 1. Scouts honor when I say I tripled my frame rate. It took games from an unplayable 800x600 at low settings to smooth at 1024x768 and playable at medium/high settings; and this is a 60$ 7300GS.

Find yourself a 7300GT with 256mb of ram. DDR3 if you can but if you can't it will still be worth each penny compared to the useless onboard.

 

[cmptrdude79]

Blacken, this isn't particularly directed at you, so sorry for the reply.

To all people who have posted in this thread: READ THE ORIGINAL POST!

To answer your question, the 7300GT that you already own will ravage, savage, pillage, pwn, or whatever word you want to use, your onboard graphics. You will see a big difference in performance if you crank up your graphics quality just a little in the games you're playing.

That being said, that card is not a powerful graphics card. WAY better than any onboard solution, but that's really not saying much. I have an 11-year-old Matrox MGA (yes, I am that old) that would just about keep up with onboard graphics, if it only had 3d capabilities. But I digress.

There is no reason to go buy a more powerful card if the games you listed are all you ever play. The 7300GT will be fine. There's really nothing around that same price that'll beat it. $50 more and you could get something really good (like an X1650 or 7600GT, as suggested earlier). Neither would really be required to play what you want to, though.

I hope that this helped some.

-J

 

[Anoobis]

@marshahu & cmptrdude79

Read my posts very carefully.

 

[Adammccl]

Here's the exact same 7300 card I got it even looks the same and the box that it came with is this same so I know for sure that this is the exact card I got.



WinFast PX7300 GT

 

[Adammccl]

Ok here's the list of games I play alot. Would the ATI Xpress X300 play well enough with these games? I don't have to have the highest setting or so I just need to know that if the ATI Xpress X300 will play the games fine in low settings at least.




Quake 3 Arena
Quake 3: Team Arena
Quake 4
Unreal Tournament
UT 2004
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
Thief: Gold
Superbike
Need for speed III: Hot Pursute
StarCraft
StarCraft: Brood War



These are games I play sometimes

Primal Prey
Dino Crisis
Croc 2
Lilo and Stitch collection pack

 

[Blacken]

X300 play these games in low settings

Should... but we thought you already owned the games and the X300. Shouldn't you know :?:

The 7300 line will work well for the majority of those games. As said earlier, a 7600GT for around 130$ will allow you to play newer games (Q4 as you have written) much better.

 

[Adammccl]

X300 play these games in low settings

Should... but we thought you already owned the games and the X300. Shouldn't you know :?:

The 7300 line will work well for the majority of those games. As said earlier, a 7600GT for around 130$ will allow you to play newer games (Q4 as you have written) much better.Well the X300 does play in pretty high settings for Quake 3 Arena and UT 2004 and Jurassic Park but for somereason why I try to play Quake 4 it gets an error message and I can't play. If there is a patch or something I can download to help I would like that link to that site or file so I can get it since if I could I would like to save the money and keep the X300.

 

[Adammccl]

I found a new beta patch for Quake 4 and its version 1.4 but it's still a beta but I don't know if that will fix this error. Ya everything is ok with the X300 but only problem is that one game called Quake 4. I tried playing that game on the 7300 and it plays soo well even in ultra high graphic settings. But I don't think for the money it's worth it I mean ya it will play Quake 4 and high settings but when newer games comes then my card will be bad and low end again so maybe I should save my money for future cards. Anyways I need help on ideas to make Quake 4 work on X300 since on my box of the game it says ATI Radeon X300 is supported.

 

[dude_here]

I found a new beta patch for Quake 4 and its version 1.4 but it's still a beta but I don't know if that will fix this error. Ya everything is ok with the X300 but only problem is that one game called Quake 4. I tried playing that game on the 7300 and it plays soo well even in ultra high graphic settings. But I don't think for the money it's worth it I mean ya it will play Quake 4 and high settings but when newer games comes then my card will be bad and low end again so maybe I should save my money for future cards. Anyways I need help on ideas to make Quake 4 work on X300 since on my box of the game it says ATI Radeon X300 is supported.

It seems to me that you don't want to upgrade so just take the card back and be on your way.

 

[Anoobis]

Posting the said error message might help the situation.