I guess this settles the 64 vs 128 bit memory question....

I have no clue what the hell an IRQ is. When I go to device manager I don't see IRQ anywhere. I completely ignored Jive's post because he's an ***** who failed to read the post above his where I did mention my system specs, and card specs.

The following is what I did to get my x1550 working.
1.) I uninstalled absolutely all of the video drivers I had (through Add Remove Programs), I then removed my video card, and ran Registry Mechanic to make sure absolutely everything was cleared.

2.) I then went to my BIOS and switched it from Onboard Video to Auto, saved settings, and let my computer load.

3.) I then went to device manager and disabled my integrated card, and SHUT DOWN my computer. (This is an important step)

4.) I pulled out all the wires in the computer, and I placed the new PCI card into one of my open pci slots (I have 3), and hooked my monitor into it.

5.) I rehooked everything else, and booted windows.

6.) When my computer started back up, everything was at 640 by 480 resolution and 4bit color. However, I recieved 4 different, "New Hardware Found" messages. I closed all of those. Placed the Driver CD I got with the card into my computer, and ran it.

7.) I restarted my computer, and all was well.

A tad harsh I feel. Unobservant - guilty as charged, keen to help - mostly, ***** ? well I do know what an IRQ is after all, but we'll let that pass shall we ?

IRQs (Interrupt Requests) are the way which all of your system devices get the CPU's attention. There are at least 16 IRQ's (0-15), some newer PC's have 23+. To view current IRQ's

Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager and under the view menu select 'View Resources by Type'. While XP is designed to allow multiple devices to share the same IRQ, you will have issues with performance if too many CPU intensive devices share the same IRQ. One PCI slot on my dell Dimension caused XP to share an IRQ between PCI graphics Card, on-board Sound and on-board Network Card. Not a very good idea. So IRQ's are important.

I am pleased that you have got your graphics card working. The next step is trying to squeeze as much performance out of it as the PCI will allow.

I thought I had an IRQ conflict with the diamon x1550 card. My comp shows that irq 22 is shared with my diamond card and something called "pci standard pci-to-pci bridge." However, I'm pretty sure this bridge driver is part of the ati driver set and is needed for my graphics card to function. I'm 99 per cent positive because the pci-to-pci bridge is automatically installed with the diamond drivers. Does anyone else have this card? Can you confirm with a x1300 perhaps?

You have to select "Resources by type" from "View" menu in Device Manager.

I'd be interested in the benchmarks of the x1550. I'll consider getting one after i see the results, im looking for 1280x1024res with low or medium details benchs.
Since almost any card can run almost any game at 640x480 max detail.


And gratz... this is a quite nice and informative thread i signed in just for it, a dedicated pci gfx discussion its hard to find even more an updated one.

If you look through my posts in this thread, I have some benchmark scores for my Diamond x1550 card. However, I've been told that they are possibly a little off. I really don't know why though. BTW, my comp has a pretty crappy Celeron processor as well.

So i have been searching a lot looking for DX10 cards but i could not find anything, sometime ago i read that "Galaxy" was going to release a 8500gt pci, it had an oficial site and all, but the site is nowhere to be found.

I know "Galaxy" has some reputation of "promising" too much.

i just ordered the albatron low profile 6200a on newegg, it should arrive tommorow or the next day, since it only costs $55 its a pretty good deal, lets hope it works properly.

by the way this is a great thread, ive been looking all over for simple reviews of these things (pci videocards) and there pretty much arent any. for us people stuck with a crappy old computer its nice to know you still have options.

im gonna benchmark it with quake 3, counterstrike and day of defeat. maybe if its good enough i might buy half life 2 but if its gonna run like crap i wont.

its going to go on an xp 1700+ with 256 megs of pc133 sdram! i get framerates of 15-30 fps in day of defeat at 640x480 in opengl. it actually runs better with the software renderer....

the integrated graphics are the via chrome chipset, which pretty much sucks horribly, theyre about on par to a 8mb riva 128 if anyone remembers that thing, maybe a little faster.

all i know is that this computer performs about the same as my old celeron 300a, with a tnt card, and 128megs of ram, in half life anyway. maybe even slower.

ill be back with the full review

quake 3 - 47 fps, max settings 1600x1200 demo001
cs and day of defeat run fine at 1600x1200, somewhere around 25-30fps
i also fired up clive barkers undying, it ran flawlessly at 1600x1200, god damn it looks good.

i have to get half life 2 to see how it works, im pretty amazed thus far

man those numbers look great, even better when they are at such high resolution.
i'm impressed, so i think maybe i will be getting myself a little something-something from nvdia. Ill wait a bit in case someone come up with a 7000 or 8000 series pci card but not much looking at these results.

thx for the benchs... but now you only have to oc it and let us know.

I registered just to post this.

SPARKLE Introduced GeForce 8500 GT PCI And GeForce 7300 GT PCI Graphic Cards For Special PCI Users

http://www.sparkle.com.tw/News/SP85_...3_PCI_EN1.html

I can't find it for sale anywhere on the net. This Press Release was posted August 17, 2007.


I just put in a BFG GeForce 6200 OC PCI into a computer coming from intergrated graphics, and increased the memory to 1GB. Looks pretty good.

Ashame too, I tried going with the ATI X1550 first but I had nothing but issues.

Good catch v00j00. It's interesting that they continue to release new pci cards. Both cards have 128bit memory interfaces, so that's a plus. Maybe they will see retail one day....

Hey, I think I've found my next video card. That is as long as the price isn't too exhorbent. Mmm.... 8500gt.

wow man your the reason i registered here - to say thanks for this post. ive been looking for this like for a month. i have da same exact problem. dell dimension 3000 and the crapppy built in g825 grafix ctrller. well, im definately getting that one the 6200. thanks so much for this post it saved me another month of work

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1130987962366
is this it at best buy? i couldnt find the 128 mb one and btw the link in your first post that leads to the best buy website has expired... and the revie of http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1130987962366 is pretty scary too o_O can anyone gimme a good working link for it pl0x

The card you linked to should work, since it's pci. That said, you might be better off with the visiontek x1300 pci(it's newer/faster). I've seen the visiontek x1300 for sale at walmart, so you might check that out.

Hello guys,
I have a Dell Dimension 3000, and I have this motherboard: Dell (E210882) Motherboard http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Dell-DELL-E210882

My question is: Am I able to use VisionTek x1300 PCI?
Thanks,
Op2.

Yes, you'll be able to use it in that motherboard.

so which one would be better for a dimen 3000 the VisionTek x1300 PCI or the geforce 6200?