So you only have PCI slots and want to game?

Need some help with picking a video card.

I'm trying to figure out which of these two video cards I want to buy:

PowerColor ATI Radeon 9250 256MB
OR
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 128MB

Here are my system specs:
Dimension 3000
Processor - Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
Processor Speed - 2.92 GHz
RAM - 1 GB
OS - Windows XP Home
OS version - 5.1.2600
Int. Graphics - Intel 82865G
Slots - 3 PCI slots, 0 AGP slots, 0 PCIe slots

Any advice? (my main focus is in trying to get Oblivion running on my comp)

EDIT: Okay, after researching some more, it seems that the GeForce 6200 is better. Can anybody confirm this?

The 6200 is better than any comparable PCI ATI card.
The bad thing is that Newegg doesn't have it right now

Ok, thanks.

After thinking (and researching) about it some more, I think I may want to just go out and get a new motherboard to completely solve this problem. Any suggestions? I am on a budget, but I don't want to get something I'm going to be unsatisfied with.

How do I know which one of these will work with my system?
http://www.dealtime.com/xPP-motherboards--intel_pentium_4-price_range_0_80-expansion_slots__search__pci_express_x16

Are you reusing your cpu? If so, you need to know what socket type your cpu is (478).

You need a matx board with socket 478 if you want to keep your cpu, and you most likely will get an agp port on a 478 board with a graphics slot. Pci-e matx 478 mobos are hard to find. Agp is fast enough, but there are fewer card choices available.

I wanted to reuse my CPU, but that seems almost hopeless, because like you said it's almost impossible to find the right board.

And... it seems like if I even want to get the graphics card I want, I'll have to spend upwards of $200+ to get it (~$100 775 P4 processor, ~$50 PCI-E mATX 775 board, $50+ graphics card). Is there any other way around this besides the 6200 route?

this should be a sticky

You could get a micro atx socket 478 AGP motherboard. Agp is much better than pci.
And if you don't replace your processsor, then you have a larger budget for a good graphics card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=
This is probably the best one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131460

hi i have a dell dimensions 2400 and would like to do the same as you .
did the new motherboard fit and plugs are the same ,did you need to buy any thing else other than graphics card. i also heard that a board from a dimensions 4600 is a good fit has an 8x agp socket . what has yours.
thanks dec.

Yes, the new micro atx motherboard fit perfectly in the dell (2300) case. Notice it's a micro atx (matx), not a full ATX board. The normal plugs, like the power connections, hard drive, and cd/dvd drive connections were the same, but the power switch/power led/hard drive led pins were different on the new motherboard. I just used the motherboard manual to find which were the correct pins on the motherboard, and then figured out which two wires in the dell case went to the power button and put those on the boards power switch pins. I then did the same with the hd led and power led, tracing the wires and putting them on the correct pins. Here's how I could tell which wire on the led's was the + and which was the -.
http://img432.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fpguide8cy.jpg
Once you know which led pin is + , then trace it to the end of the wire and then connect that wire to the led+ pin of the appropriate led on the motherboard. Do the same for the - wire on each led.
I believe the 2400 uses a different hard drive led/power led/power switch connector than the 2300 though, so without any more info(pics of connector, and which board you're using), I can't say much more on how to get it to work

Also my dell had 4 additional motherboard standoffs in addition to the standard micro atx standoffs. These surrounded the cpu(processor), and were used to hold the cpu heatsink mount/shroud onto the board. These needed to be removed before installing the new board(or they'd short out the new motherboard).

The front usb and headphone jack probably won't work with the new motherboard(so buy a usb hub ).
I eventually got my usb to work with some modding, but it's more trouble than it's worth in my opinion. Still can't get the headphone to work though, but many speaker sets have a built in headphone jack on one of the speakers.


If you put a nice graphics card in, it might overload the stock power supply, since the dell system wasn't designed to support a graphics card. I usually recommend a cheap 400-450w fsp group, xclio, or enermax power supply if needed.

Yes I've heard a mb from a dell 4600 works, and maybe one from a 4700 as well, but I'm not sure.

I used this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128222
I think it's a decent board.

I put in a leadtek agp 6200 card, that I unlocked into a nvidia 6600 and overclocked a bit, but I did this a while ago. I'd recommend a x1600pro agp, 7600gs agp, or 7800gs agp now though.

Note that swapping motherboards may mean that you might have to buy a new copy of xp (~$85USD), or not be able to access info on your current hard drive, so please back up all important pics, music, docs, emails, bookmarks, etc before you do any upgrades.

Anyone buying 1 of these or any other PCI card mainly, should force pixel shader 1.4, using RivaTuner, huge FPS boost, not much quality differance that i can tell, its under D3D settings.

I have the PCI onlyslot problem too and i was wondering if anyone knew which of the PCI graphics cards can acctually run BF2 even on low graphics. Does the on that vnf4ultra work?

From:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/625/625776p1.html

Conclusion: it should work with the pci 6200, but I doubt any other pci card will give playable results.

Ok thank you.
one other reader review that i read on newegg said that th fx 5500 could run it also so I think that I will most likely be buying this card.

Yeah, a 5500 might run it, but only on absolute lowest settings and even then I doubt it will be running fast enough to be "playable."

My BF2 runs on Lowest on my 5500FX overclocked to 450mhz RAM, and 316mhz Core, at about 30-40fps.

Hmm, care to give some more details about the fx5500 running bf2? Like what screen res and are you forcing direct x 7/8 mode? Using a lower pixel shader version? Any actual benchmarks, like using fraps instead of "about 30-40fps?"

Just wondering how bad bf2 would have too look to play on a fx5500...

Is that Battlefront 2 or Battlefield 2?

I agree, sticky it is.

Regards Howard

So what is the best pci card for around 50 bucks and how do I know the amount of power it needs?

I was assuming battlefield 2, but good point, could be either...

Too bad newegg stopped carrying the pci 6200, it was only $30, and is one of the best pci cards.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cach...00p&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=firefox-a
Now, I guess for $50 you might find a fx5200 or fx5500, look for one with 128bit memory interface. The cards box should indicate the recommended power supply, usually 250w or 300w in this card class, but I think most of these would run on a basic(single hard drive, single optical, lower end processor) system with only a 200w power supply.