Upgrading video card

[MorseLady]

My old PC World computer has just been put in a brand new case with a 300w PSU and on trying it out I noticed the graphics were wishy washy compared to my new machine which has a 256Nvidia card. I am wondering how far I can go in upgrading the older machine. The machine is three or four years old and is a 2.8GB P4 with 512MB system memory and I imagine the graphics card is AGP. I have already upgraded it to USB2. At the moment it has a 64MB Nvidia card. Could I put a 256MB Nvidia card in or would this extra power be wasted and is the machine man enough for a big card? I do not play games and use my machines extensively for graphics such as digital photography, fractals and web design. I have a new ViewSonic 17" flat screen CRT monitor.

The machine will act as my backup and test machine and will be on a home LAN with this one sharing broadband and peripherals and using the KVM switch for monitor sharing. I may upgrade the system memory and hard drive later. Wow, we almost have a new machine!

[ross.v]

Well if there are no hardware issues especially (Monitor in this case) with yer old machine, ya can have new card in this machine if ya wish so. I would suggest a PSU with more juice mabbe 400W and up will be worth if yer looking for future upgrades to machine as well and also look for video card power requirements (and connectors) before going fer new PSU incase ya go.

[confus-ed]

..I would suggest a PSU with more juice mabbe 400W and up ..

Morselady has just 'done that', so I'd modify your advice & say that there's plenty of 'high end' agp cards about, but yup, voltage can be an issue with them, however as long as you have a spare molex cable (many of the later cards can draw too much power from the m/b & you need to wire them direct to the psu) & a 'decent' psu (capable of maintaining voltage & not at any particular wattage) will or should be 'fine'.

A 'really good card' might though be pretty expensive to put in your 'spare' - how much Morselady were you thinking of spending ?

[Platypus]

I do not play games

With this in mind, I'd suggest 256M would be well and truly wasted, as the memory is mostly used for 3D applications. However 2.8GHz is still a reasonable specification, and if the existing card is a low-end model, like one of the MX units, or even a 5200, a better one could make the display of the graphics you do more snappy. You may be able to get a better specified card by only going to 128M - it's not unusual for the 128M version of a card to actually be slightly faster. (Except at the very top end, the largest memory spec for a particular card at any given time is likely to be fitted with slightly slower memory to avoid being overpriced.)

[Platypus]

how much Morselady were you thinking of spending ?

Well, some places do charge an arm and a leg...

[confus-ed]

With this in mind, I'd suggest 256M would be well and truly wasted, as the memory is mostly used for 3D applications..

I thought that & then changed my mind as the cost difference between a 128 & a 256 card of the same spec is often not much at all, & I feel in the long run its probably false ecconomy ?

I think there's room for arguement either way

However if I only had a choice of two cards at roughly the same cost, I'd probably do exactly what you are saying & buy the better chipset over more memory on the card, unless I was anticipating lots of 3d work.

[Platypus]

buy the better chipset over more memory on the card

Or other desirable features - VIVO?

Another thought, Morselady, do you work with that system close to you, or when the house is quiet? More powerful video cards produce more heat and can have noisy fans. (All that cheering and blowing plastic trumpets! ... sorry, I'll go now... )

[confus-ed]

Or other desirable features - VIVO?

Very good point ! .. as I seem to recall we had a great big thread from Morselady about choosing a camcorder.. so this may well come in useful on her 'spare', again this isn't necessarily an expensive 'addition' more a matter of finding somebody who sells the right variation of the basic card.

( & how much coffee or 'whatever' have you had today ? - cheering & platic trumpets ? )

[Platypus]

cheering & platic trumpets ? )

Noisy fans...


Heh, "platic"

[confus-ed]

Noisy fans...

Ahh I see said the blind man ! .. your word play got away from me there & of course I got confus-ed ..

[timegoblin]

for my two penneths worth, it may be just a requirment for updated drivers of your 64mb card. I suspect its an MX440 or similar, nothing wrong with that if your not polatying high end games. Ive used that card to play Doom3 before now...

Anyway, try going to the Nvidia site and update the drivers, then update your direct X and maybe look at how old the monitor is, could be a case of upgrading that.

Oh, and check that your on 32bit colour not 16biyt in the settings section.

Goblin.

[Garak]

Well, if your set on a new card, I'd look to set a list of what you want from the card Morse, maybe then we have a better idea for recommendations Hope we can help.

[Platypus]

The topic was from two months ago, but ML could still be pondering the matter...