replacement for 3Dfx Voodoo 3 2000 AGP video card

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coopedw

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Nov 22, 2004
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I'm interested in upgrading my video card, any ideas? I'm not looking for the latest generation card, nor am I interested in upgrading my entire system.

Preferably a video card that will handle T& L and support for Direct-X 8 or 9. I'm a gamer, and some of my games won't work because of graphics issues.

SYSTEM SPECS:

CPU:....Intel Pentium III 450 Mhz. MMX
MOBO:....Biostar M6TZA w/ Intel 82440 ZX Chipset
RAM:.....384 Mb. SDRAM (PC-100)

GRAPHICS CARD:.. 16 Mb. 3Dfx Voodoo 3 2000 AGP

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,...
 
For your system, I would search for a used Nvidia GF4 Ti4200.

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700
 
Anything you replace it with nowadays will be many, many times faster than the Voodoo3. Your goal in the upgrade should probably be to get a good graphics card, that's far better than your CPU can keep up with, and <b>plan on upgrading the rest of your computer</b> to match it. I'm sorry, but a P3 450 will not play any DirectX 9 games. Probably not DirectX 8 games either. That's DirectX 4 or 5 era hardware. (so don't plan on getting Doom3 and HL2 and Far Cry!) Your CPU has to be at least four times that speed to handle the modern games.

So, depending what your money situation is, get a good graphics card and save your way into a new mobo/cpu/ram, or upgrade the video card to something cheap so that you can play slightly more modern games than you currently can, but not the new ones.

Actually, you might be BEST off just not upgrading until you have the money for a full system ($700 to $1000), because whatever you buy won't get you where you want to be anyway, and that way you'll end up with better hardware when you finally do get to where you can play what you want to play.
 
Actually, with a $500 complete system upgrade would be much faster than any graphics upgrade replacement alone.

<font color=red><pre>\\//__________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>
 
It did not sound like you were in a position to upgrade or build a new system... that is a whole new ballgame. But if you want to make SOME DX8 games playable with your 450MHz CPU, find a used Ti4200 or an ATI 9100 for under $50 and just go for it. Even a cheaper GF2 or GF3 or GF4 or ATI 7000 or 7500 would be a step up, and all can be found fairly cheap.

To get a newer card than that would require a newer everything... if you can do it, then go for it... give us a clue about what game or games you NEED to play...

Ya, if you want a card to play Doom3, you are doomed....

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700
 
I'd forget about using DX9 features on that old a system and go straight for reasonable DX8 features. A Radeon 8500 would be fine, an GeForce4 Ti4200 a bit better, the 8500LE/9100 marginal for recent games, anything less would be kind of pathetic.

<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>
 
Wow, talk about old school!

Anyways, you said "I'm a gamer" but what games specifically do you expect to play?

I wouldn't spend a cent until you figure out specifically which games you expect or want to play and then let us here tell you which games would or would not work.

The only games I can think of working on a 450Mhz processor, is either old RTS games or a few Quake 3 engine games, maybe would work.
 
A month or so ago I bought a <A HREF="http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=5628&sid=0REHEL2EVMPG9P88QG7KA2RVB4249DXB" target="_new">128MB Radeon 8500le</A> for $34 shipped through Allstarshop. That would be a nice card for your system. It is $49 now, but they do have a weird <A HREF="http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=9914&sid=0REHEL2EVMPG9P88QG7KA2RVB4249DXB" target="_new">half height 8500le 64MB</A> for $35 also.

At one time, my gaming rig was like the system you mention. It was a Celeron 300a @ 464MHz. I had a Rage Fury Pro 32MB in it and upgraded to a 64MB R8500le for like $99 [ugh]. It did make a HUGE difference back then. The problem is games started coming out that put the once mighty OC'ed Celeron on it's knees. Plopping in a PIII 550 and running it at 617MHz helped for a while longer. But whereas the R8500le can still game even with the newest games, a 600MHz cpu doesn't stand a chance.

MSI K8N Neo2 platinum, A64 3000+, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro
 
Anything from this century.

<font color=blue>AthlonXP-M 2500+(12x200)</font color=blue>|<font color=green>Abit NF7-S</font color=green>|<font color=red>Kingston DDR400 2x256Mb</font color=red>|<font color=purple>NEC Accucync90 19"</font color=purple>|<font color=black>Sapphire 9600XT</font color=black>
 
Funny... :smile:

<font color=red><b>NF7-S/MBarton 2500+
210x11.5 1.82v SP-97
GB Corsair XMS PC3200
BBA 9800 Pro 423/369</font color=red><font color=black>
NF7-S/MBarton 2600+
210x11.5 1.76v
512MB CVR PC3200
Sapphire 9500@9700
 
Personally I think an Etch-a-sketch would be a better graphics card.

<font color=green><b><i>Lizards</font color=green></b> do <b>not</b> taste like <b><font color=yellow>chicken</font color=yellow></b>,<b> <font color=yellow>chicken</font color=yellow></b> tastes like <font color=green><b>lizard.</b></font color=green></i>
 
Before you plunge, you could check out Tom's VGA Charts and see if you actually have to pay much more to get a better card:

<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030120/index.html" target="_new">VGA Charts II Midgrade</A>
<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/index.html" target="_new">VGA Charts II High End</A>
<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html" target="_new">VGA Charts III</A>
<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html" target="_new">VGA Charts IV</A>

I remember VGA Charts III covered the range of cards you're looking at buying as well as performance of some of the more modern cards, and included some pixel shader game benchmarks.
 
On that system, I don't think a Ti4200 will outperform a R8500 or GF3 for that matter. Very rarely if ever would you see a difference. Any of those will do, just don't spend alot on it.

Check out the cpu scaling <A HREF="http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/gf4intelscaling/page9.asp" target="_new">here</A> on a PIII 700MHz & 1.0GHz. It takes high res in all three games tested to seperate A GF2Ti, GF3, GF4. Now drop the cpu to a 450MHz and I'm thinking it's easy to buy too much card for that system.

MSI K8N Neo2 platinum, A64 3000+, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro
 
at very least, a new graphics card might let him run at really really high resolutions with antialiasing on before his 8fps to 15fps start to decline. But if he bought a good card, he would have that good card when he later has enough money (or is due an xmas gift) for buying a new mobo / cpu / ram / power supply.

By the way watch out for power requirements. Some of the cards you might look at might require an AGP slot that can provide high wattage through the slot (aka AGP Pro) and/or a power supply over 350 to 400 watts. (if you get a card that was in the high end of its bracket when it was released.)
 
"Really dude, time to upgrade the WHOLE system there."

Agreed, no more turning a hand crank to start up that computer :)

Its a good time to be a gamer, theres plenty of wonder weapons out there in ati and nvidias arsenal to keep you very happy.


Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel Level II V2,Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, eVGA GeForce 6800 GT<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Rx7000 on 11/25/04 08:08 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
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