Don't laugh - anyone try using PCI vcard with Athlon 64?

[Mugsy]

I'm looking to upgrade on a tight budget.

By reusing as much as I can from my existing PC... case, ram, drives, etc... I figured out I can replace just my MoBo and CPU to a new Athlon 64 3800+ for just over $250. But I can't use my AGP video card with the new PCI-X slot format.

Even a cheap PCI-X video card would run me between $35-$40, which seems like an awful waste when I just plan to replace it with something decent a few months later.

I still have this ancient PCI based Voodoo 3000 video card (yes, I know PCI is not PCI-X) that I've had around for ages (still works great). Its CD only has Win98/NT drivers on it, but I know (amazingly) there are drivers for it on the XP CD as I've installed the card once before just to see if it still worked, so I know I can use the card with WinXP. Question is, is a PCI video card too ancient to use (with a PCI-X MoBo with three standard PCI slots)?

Thanks.

PS: I have an LCD monitor that prefers, but doesn't requre, DVI.

 

[vegasgmc]

It should work fine.

 

[dmill89]

I ran a PCI Radeon 7000 video card I had laying around with a socket 754 Athalon 64 for a couple weeks untill I got a new motherboard when My AGP slot died.It gave reasionable preformance On games not as good as the AGP Geforce 5700 I had at the time but that is to be expected.The Voodoo 3000 was one of the best cards of it's time so it should give decent performance. Just don't expect the preformance of a geforce 7900 or ATI Radeon X1900.If you are going to upgrade in a few months I would defently use the PCI card insted of wasteing money on a card you're just going to replace any way.A PCI card will be ok for games(you may have to use low settings) and will give you good graphics on DVD's,Videos,etc.

 

[nickslick74]

I would think it would work, but you won't be playing any of the new games on it. Does your new Mobo have onboard graphics? If it does, you may just want to use that instead of the card.

 

[Mugsy]

Stop-gap

I would think it would work, but you won't be playing any of the new games on it.

Chuckle. No, I didn't think so. But a decent PCI-X vcard will cost me more than half the price of the MoBO and CPU combined, almost doubling my cost.

Does your new Mobo have onboard graphics? If it does, you may just want to use that instead of the card.

No decent MoBo comes with onboard graphics.

 

[chas0039]

I have used a TNT PCI card in my A8N5X MB while I was waiting for a delivery. Things are very jagged on the desktop and when there are no drivers, the default seem to work just fine as long as you don't try to set any high scan rates. Not a long term solution.

 

[Mugsy]

Thanks.

I have used a TNT PCI card in my A8N5X MB while I was waiting for a delivery. Things are very jagged on the desktop and when there are no drivers, the default seem to work just fine as long as you don't try to set any high scan rates. Not a long term solution.

Thanks all.

It appears from what everyone is telling me that a PCI-x MoBo won't demand that I use a PCI-x video card.

Maybe I'll get a new vcard for Xmas.