[jenniferdurst]

I got Steam to work at my new apt and bought Portal last night. Turns out I apparently need pixel shader 1.1 and my crappy integrated graphics card doesn't have it. I've been slowly upgrading this machine for the past few years so it's good enough to play games on in every other respect. At this point, a tv out line would be alright (although it's not required). I'm looking to go as cheap as possible seeing as I'm not a gamer so much. So good and mostly cheap with pixel shader?

[jenniferdurst]

And apparently I don't have a slot for it.

[AcousticSmash]

How old is the motherboard? What is the wattage of your power supply and what kind CPU are you running? If it is a desktop with a motherboard that does not have PCI express, you are wasting your money on a new graphics card because the previous generation AGP cards are hard to come by for something worthwhile and they are expensive as well. All desktops have a graphics card slot, open up the case and take some pics and I can help you further.

Otherwise, if your computer has at least a 300 watt power supply, the eVGA GeForce 8600GT 512MB should suffice for your gaming needs, isn't overly expensive and will last you a while before needing an upgrade.

This post has been edited by AcousticSmash: 17 August 2008 - 06:34 PM

[nealmac]

I have no idea if it will work with your system, but I put an ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 in my machine. It hasn't failed to run any game I ever tried, including some of the most demanding games on the market at the minute. I also use 3D Studio Max, and I do quite a bit of rendering and it's super quick. The other plus was, that it was as cheap as chips to buy.

Thereagain, what do I know?

[jenniferdurst]

Thats actually what I was looking at if I was going to build a new system. This one won't have a new graphics card at all. No slot 'cause it was originally built for an integrated card.

[AcousticSmash]

No desktop lacks a video card slot Jen, that is pretty much impossible unless it is an Asus Eeebox or Mac Mini type of thing, otherwise the damn thing is at least 8 years old if not 10 and is pretty much unupgradeable. Graphics card wise, this is not an attempt to bash ATI but their cards require more power then Nvidia cards do and generally Nvidia cards outperform ATI as well. Don't even bother with any graphics card over 150 dollars because there will are better cards that will cost that much about 6 months later. Right now the best bang for your buck for video cards is the Nvidia 8800 GT which retails for about 130 USD and outperforms the more expensive 8800GTS 640MB, the only difference being that the GT has 512 MB's of RAM but it's core components are much better. The better cards then the 8800 GT are in the 250+ range for Nvidia. I am a firm believer that Nvidia gets more support for graphics chipsets on motherboards, from a technical standpoint the higher the chipset the better performance as well. ATI makes some nice cards that are great for gaming and some of them are cheaper then Nvidia equivalents, however they have higher power consumption ratings.

This post has been edited by AcousticSmash: 18 August 2008 - 02:49 PM

[nealmac]

The ATI 2600 and the Nvidia 8800 GT was what it boiled down to for me. Both of them looked to be about the same (at least to my limited knowledge) and I only chose the ATI because it was cheaper. Having said all that, I'd still listen to Smashy. He does kinda know his stuff in this field.

[jenniferdurst]

Except that it really doesn't have a video card slot. It's a cheap dell computer and the integrated was fine so they didn't put in a spot for it.

[AcousticSmash]

Neal, yes ATI's are without a doubt cheaper for the most part and I think the only difference between them is power consumption and the heating factor. From the reviews I have read on some of the newer ATI cards, they generate a bit more heat then their Nvidia counterparts, and heat is a bad thing with desktops but it is not over bearing and it isn't so bad that it will wreck your system.

Jen, my advice would be to open up the case and take everything apart, do not use a magnetic screw driver though, if you touch your hard drive you can fry it in a second. The best thing to do is buy a new motherboard, power supply, CPU and RAM because the odds are your machine won't accept a new processor or there will be compatibility issues with the memory. The only things that you can salvage would be PCI slot card stuff such as a sound card or those cards that add more USB ports to your computer as well as the hard drive, case and disc drive(s). Do you have any idea what the overall specs are for the computer?

[nealmac]

Neal, yes ATI's are without a doubt cheaper for the most part and I think the only difference between them is power consumption and the heating factor. From the reviews I have read on some of the newer ATI cards, they generate a bit more heat then their Nvidia counterparts, and heat is a bad thing with desktops but it is not over bearing and it isn't so bad that it will wreck your system.

Yeah I heard they generate a bit more heat. It hasn't caused me any problems (a year later). I leave my machine running almost all the time and it's still working fine. And even if it does feck up on me, like I said, it's not all that expensive to replace.

[AcousticSmash]

Good that you like it, the desktop we have in my house has an old ATI Radeon 9200, still works perfectly 4 years later.

[Airwolfy]

yeah the idea of a desktop lacking a graphics card is going the way of The Phantom

This post has been edited by Airwolfy: 22 August 2008 - 03:53 AM

[jenniferdurst]

I ended up getting this: http://www.amazon.co...duct/B000F5IE9Y

I read a few reviews of people who put into my machine and they say it works well enough, so I guess we'll see in a few days.

[AcousticSmash]

lulz

[gusdotcom]

Neal, yes ATI's are without a doubt cheaper for the most part and I think the only difference between them is power consumption and the heating factor. From the reviews I have read on some of the newer ATI cards, they generate a bit more heat then their Nvidia counterparts, and heat is a bad thing with desktops but it is not over bearing and it isn't so bad that it will wreck your system.

Jen, my advice would be to open up the case and take everything apart, do not use a magnetic screw driver though, if you touch your hard drive you can fry it in a second. The best thing to do is buy a new motherboard, power supply, CPU and RAM because the odds are your machine won't accept a new processor or there will be compatibility issues with the memory. The only things that you can salvage would be PCI slot card stuff such as a sound card or those cards that add more USB ports to your computer as well as the hard drive, case and disc drive(s). Do you have any idea what the overall specs are for the computer?

Get your thermodynamics right Smashy. All tests I've seen have shown that the 9800GTX+ needs more power than the 4850 which means that it produces more heat.

[jenniferdurst]

And I'm playin' portal *flex* Although, it's trying to tell me that the 'installed graphics adapter' is not found and therefore I can't install the driver o_O i'm downloading one straight from the company though, so maybe that'll do something....and if it doesn't, who gives a ###### it works!

[AcousticSmash]

Neal, yes ATI's are without a doubt cheaper for the most part and I think the only difference between them is power consumption and the heating factor. From the reviews I have read on some of the newer ATI cards, they generate a bit more heat then their Nvidia counterparts, and heat is a bad thing with desktops but it is not over bearing and it isn't so bad that it will wreck your system.

Jen, my advice would be to open up the case and take everything apart, do not use a magnetic screw driver though, if you touch your hard drive you can fry it in a second. The best thing to do is buy a new motherboard, power supply, CPU and RAM because the odds are your machine won't accept a new processor or there will be compatibility issues with the memory. The only things that you can salvage would be PCI slot card stuff such as a sound card or those cards that add more USB ports to your computer as well as the hard drive, case and disc drive(s). Do you have any idea what the overall specs are for the computer?

Get your thermodynamics right Smashy. All tests I've seen have shown that the 9800GTX+ needs more power than the 4850 which means that it produces more heat.

Well no sh.t, the 9800GTX came out after the ATI 4000 series did. Look at the size and specs of the cards too, the 4850 is not as powerful as the 9800GTX even though the latter costs only a bit more money.

[gusdotcom]

Neal, yes ATI's are without a doubt cheaper for the most part and I think the only difference between them is power consumption and the heating factor. From the reviews I have read on some of the newer ATI cards, they generate a bit more heat then their Nvidia counterparts, and heat is a bad thing with desktops but it is not over bearing and it isn't so bad that it will wreck your system.

Jen, my advice would be to open up the case and take everything apart, do not use a magnetic screw driver though, if you touch your hard drive you can fry it in a second. The best thing to do is buy a new motherboard, power supply, CPU and RAM because the odds are your machine won't accept a new processor or there will be compatibility issues with the memory. The only things that you can salvage would be PCI slot card stuff such as a sound card or those cards that add more USB ports to your computer as well as the hard drive, case and disc drive(s). Do you have any idea what the overall specs are for the computer?

Get your thermodynamics right Smashy. All tests I've seen have shown that the 9800GTX+ needs more power than the 4850 which means that it produces more heat.

Well no sh.t, the 9800GTX came out after the ATI 4000 series did. Look at the size and specs of the cards too, the 4850 is not as powerful as the 9800GTX even though the latter costs only a bit more money.

The 9800GTX+ performs pretty much exactly the same as the 4850. It's a matter of a couple of fps better in some games and a couple of fps lower in others. Around here the 9800GTX+ is a bit more expensive. You can get a 4850 for €140 and the 9800GTX is €160. Since there's no difference in performance the 4850 wins on economy. Cheaper is better.

But that's not the issue here. The issue is you not knowing the difference between temperature and heat. The Radeon is hotter but generate less heat than the Nvidia.

[jenniferdurst]

Trying to use your tv as a monitor from across the room is really annoying, but this is way too much fun to put away right away. =3