TI4600 + P2 450 - Is this pointless?

[Guest]

Hey all

I have an old as hell pc (p2 450, 512 meg ram, asus p2b mobo, geforce 256 graphics card).

I am fed up with bad frame rates but don't want to spend huge amounts of cash getting a new system. The question is...if I get a ti4600 and put it in my pc, will I notice a lot of improvement or will the slow system hold it up badly making the whole process pointless?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Ta
K

I cannot be held responsible for anything posted here as my dog has learned to type.

 

[chuck232]

Well I'm not positive on this but from what I've read I think when the resolutions are low, the CPU is the main factor holding back the frame rates because the GPUs are blazing away, but the CPU isn't fast enough to support it. At higher resolutions however, I think that you can actually use the power and bandwidth of a good video card.
If I were you I would be reluctant to go for a Ti4600, cause I really think you would be wasting like $100-$200. Instead go for a Radeon 8500/8500LE, Ti4400, or when it comes out, Ti4200. Also if you plan on buying a new computer later on, you may want to think about the Ti4600, so that you can switch it to the new comp, if you get it.

 

[williamc]

Your improved graphics perforamnce will be extreeeeeemly low. It should work though, just make sure that motherboard has an AGP 2.0 compliant slot. You would get far more for your money buying a 400 dollar bare bones setup w/ motherboard processor ram, and using the rest of your equipment in it for now, the geforce 256 is not a bad card.

"OOOOO Shiny things. I can make powerful equipment with shiny things!" - The imp Butler from BGII

 

[Codfish]

Well the cpu will be the bottleneck so you'll be holding back the Ti4600. The Ti4600 will increase the performance (maybe double or triple the frame rates?) but i suspect that a GF2 Ti will serve equally well at your current cpu speed.

 

[AMD_Man]

The GF4 Ti4600 is very CPU intensive at least with the current drivers. What this means is that the Ti4600 might be slower than your current GF256.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Harisahmed]

Definately check to make sure your AGP port will support these cards. The main reason I'm not bothering to upgrade to any new card is my AGP 1x would kill any performance increase for a card meant to run on an AGP 2-4x port.

Williamc makes a good point, you'd be better off spending the money on a barebones system and transfer your existing card.

 

[bront]

You're better off upgrading the CPU and Motherboard. Get one of the T-bird Bs or go with DDR and get new memory too.

Heck, if you go with the Nforce board, AXP 1700+, and 2 256 PC2100 chips, you get a video, sound, and CPU upgrade all for less than the price of the video card. You can try your old Geforce in the slot and see if that works better, but I think the integrated card will work better for you.

Bad trolls Bad trolls... Whacha gonna do... Whacha gonna do when they post here too...

 

[eden]

There is little use for doing this, unless you plan to change mobo and CPU soon. Any system below 1.2GHZ IMO, is not enough to fully feed the Ti4600. Upgrading now would be the same as getting a GF2 or even a Voodoo 4. So save the money, or upgrade the PC too.
Indeed the Nforce combo would be worth it, your Geforce is probably better than the integrated MX200-400, but you decide.

--
For the first time, Hookers are hooked on Phonics!!

 

[Unolocogringo]

You could put a P3 1gig processor on a slocket with adjustable voltage jumpers and a G3 TI 200 in there for the same price or less. The p2b is a great motherboard.

I aint signing nothing!!!

 

[Crashman]

Rick has a valid suggestion, a GeForce2 TI and a PIII 1000EB would do the trick better than anything else for the money.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?