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Please recommend me a new video/graphics card!

S

Sunspots

what's my mission now?...
Display Adapters: VIA/S3G KM400/KN400
Click to expand...

XP SP1

AMD Athlon XP 2600+

1.92 GHz

1.18 GB of RAM
Click to expand...

As you can see, I've got a rather ropey old PC. :o

I recently bought a second-hand copy of Doom 3 for a couple of quid in a charity shop (...-yep, I'm only five years behind everybody else! :D). When I tried to load it, I got this message:

ERROR: The current video card / driver combination does not support the necessary features.
Click to expand...

...-which I assume means I need a far better graphics card than the puny outdated thing I've currently got. (-Is there anything else I'd need to consider? -How do I know if my sound card is good enough, etc?)

From what I can gather, the minimum required for Doom 3 is a 64 MB video card, and the blurb with the game says that the following video cards are supported by Doom 3:

- nVIDIA Geforce 4 MX (the bare minimum)
- nVIDIA Geforce 3
- nVIDIA Geforce 4
- nVIDIA Geforce FX (and higher)
- ATI Radeon 8500s, 9000s and higher
Click to expand...

(-I'm guessing even these are all probably a bit old by 2009 standards now too!)

So, to cut a long story short: can anyone recommend me a video/graphics card that I can buy that'll at least get me up to minimum spec? (-Budget options particularly welcome!)

Any advice welcome. (-And no, I can't afford to just buy a new computer!)

Thanks. :)
 
Do you know if you have a PCI Express or AGP graphics port. If its AGP it will limit your choices somewhat. It would be also useful to know you maximum budget. From the sound of it your running onboard graphics, so anything would be an improvement.

If you could stretch to £80 and Have PCI-E the ATI 4770 has got some great reviews for a mid range card, although the rest of you machine will hold it back. If your planning on upgrading in the next 12 months it would be worth a look.

ETA: Another gig of ram would be a cheap upgrade and would give you a nice boost as well.
 
Global_Stoner said:
Do you know if you have a PCI Express or AGP graphics port.
Click to expand...

I've really got no idea! :o

How do I find out? :confused:

Global_Stoner said:
It would be also useful to know you maximum budget.
Click to expand...

Again, I don't really know. I'm usually fairly broke, but I suppose I could probably stretch to the £80 one (-if I saved up :o).

Global_Stoner said:
From the sound of it your running onboard graphics, so anything would be an improvement.
Click to expand...

Almost definitely true! :D

Global_Stoner said:
If you could stretch to £80 and Have PCI-E the ATI 4770 has got some great reviews for a mid range card, although the rest of you machine will hold it back. If your planning on upgrading in the next 12 months it would be worth a look.

ETA: Another gig of ram would be a cheap upgrade and would give you a nice boost as well.
Click to expand...

I can't afford to buy a new PC at the mo', and I doubt I'll be able to in the next year either tbh. I'm also not a serious gamer (-that's probably obvious!), so I doubt I'll be going out buying any of the latest games (-I'm more likely to just be occasionally picking up a second-hand game now and again, like I've done with this Doom 3).

(-It may well be the case that I just have to accept that I'm stuck with an old PC which I can't afford to fully upgrade, and so playing modern-ish computer games isn't an option. -It wouldn't be the end of the world; I've got plenty of books that I could/should probably be reading instead, etc!... :))

Whatever I do, you're right about getting a bit more RAM though.

Thanks for all your advice!
 
No need in getting the one I suggested then. A £35 one would do the job.

Use a tool like this to find out what motherboard you've got and we can go from there.
 
It's AGP for a a7v8x-vm.

You would be wasting money on anything other than the cheapest AGP cards around. Or hunt out someone with a spare old one. Good luck.
 
Global_Stoner said:
Use a tool like this to find out what motherboard you've got and we can go from there.
Click to expand...

That's a handy little program, cheers. :cool:

I think these are probably the relevant bits:

ASTRA.jpg


It's a bit of a creaking frankenstein, but at the mo' it's all I've got! :o :)
 
Crispy said:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/AGP/

Any of those will do.
Click to expand...

*mini-bump*

Ok, so I bought one of those (-the middle one of the three)...

I don't understand how it's supposed to fit in here though:

Photo653.jpg


Photo654.jpg


Photo655.jpg


The instructions are really vague. It mentions about removing the existing graphics card first, but I'm not even sure what that looks like.

The only bit that makes any sense to me is that the new card has sockets that are presumably supposed to protrude through the back plate in the same position as the existing ones. But if that's where the new card's supposed to go, then what about that heat sink, fan, etc, plonked in the way? I can't see how there's room. :confused:

Is it compatible? -I've got a bad feeling about this... :hmm:
 
See the fan, then the brown slot, then the three white slots in your last photo? It goes in the brown slot. You'll need to take the infill plate off the matching space on the back of the case.

You don't have an existing gfx card because it's built into the main board. Your old monitor socket on the back (the blue one) will become redundant.
 
Crispy said:
See the fan, then the brown slot, then the three white slots in your last photo? It goes in the brown slot. You'll need to take the infill plate off the matching space on the back of the case.

You don't have an existing gfx card because it's built into the main board. Your old monitor socket on the back (the blue one) will become redundant.
Click to expand...

Ah, right, I think I understand; so the card will be sitting upright, rather than flat? :confused:
 
That's right. You should see a similarity in the shape of the metal backplate on the card, and the 'filler' metal plates held in by screws by the expansion slots.
 
Crispy said:
That's right. You should see a similarity in the shape of the metal backplate on the card, and the 'filler' metal plates held in by screws by the expansion slots.
Click to expand...

It's fairly obvious now you've mentioned it. :o

It was just that the old one was fixed flat, so I ...er... y'know... :o :D
 
Sunspots said:
Ah, in that case, I suppose I'm going to have to buy an adapter for that then...
Click to expand...

And if I do need to buy an adapter for the monitor connection, I suppose I'll have to wait 'til I've got that before fitting this new card (-otherwise, I won't be able to see anything... :hmm::D).

Thanks for the advice Crispy. I clearly don't have much of a clue when it comes to this kind of thing. :o:)
 
Sunspots said:
So there's effectively nothing to remove/replace, I can just leave that bit as it is?



Ah, in that case, I suppose I'm going to have to buy an adapter for that then...
Click to expand...
no no - you should just be able to plug the monitor into the new card and everything will be ok :)

once you've rebooted, click this link to download the latest drivers:

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/9-3_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu.exe

and run that file when it's downloaded. this will enable all the features of your new card.
 
Photo660.jpg


Photo659-1.jpg


Ok, I fitted the card in an upright postion. It fits into the brown slot (-fnarr, fnarr! :D ...sorry...) and lines up with the expansion slot at the back.

Buuuuut, it all stands up too high. Too high to get the casing back on, and too tall for all the sockets at the back plate. (-I didn't push it all the way down 'til it clicked in, but I'm pretty sure it'll still be sticking up too much even if I did.)

It seemed like it was all going so well. :confused::(
 
Oh no :( You have a 'slimline' or 'low profile' case. The card will work - the motherboard doesn't care what size the case is - but obviously it looks completely frankenstein :(

You should be able to send the card back for a refund, and get this one instead:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149296

EDIT: actually, that one looks like a 1/2 height card, with a full height backplate :(
 
If it's an NEC desktop some of their cases are smaller than standard, I have no idea if there's any way around it.

ETA: This link provides some useful info about graphics card options for slimlines.
 
Crispy said:
Oh no :( You have a 'slimline' or 'half height' case. The card will work - the motherboard doesn't care what size the case is - but obviously it looks completely frankenstein :(

You should be able to send the card back for a refund, and get this one instead:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149296
Click to expand...

Oh fuck. From the moment I ordered it, I was worried this might happen. :(

I've splurged all my pennies; I can't even afford to pay the postage costs to return it.

(-Anyway, surely they wouldn't give me a full refund now that I've tried it?)

Fucksticks. :(

Suppose I could sell it cheap on Gumtree or whatever?... :(
 
As long as it's within 7 days you can return it no questions, for just this reason, you buy it and make a mistake on what you're buying. The P&P costs is a bit more of a pain but a padded envelope and royal mail won't cost the earth.
 
Bob_the_lost said:
As long as it's within 7 days you can return it no questions, for just this reason, you buy it and make a mistake on what you're buying. The P&P costs is a bit more of a pain but a padded envelope and royal mail won't cost the earth.
Click to expand...

I suppose ^that^ doesn't sound so bad. I had visions of having to pay CityLink silly money to collect it. A ton of bubblewrap and Royal Mail Special Delivery will probably do the job instead then.

Are the company I bought it from more likely to offer a credit note to buy another card from them (-rather than just give me a full refund)? I don't mind that, as long as they sell one that'll be compatible with my casing. I guess I should give them a call and find out.

<sigh>

On the plus side though, I didn't realise 'til now that I was so 'slim'. :hmm::D
 
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