So you only have PCI slots and want to game?

[Tha General]

You had/have a PCI 8500GT ? Interesting. Why are you using the 8400/2400 then ?

I had one for a brief amount of time, the sparkle version. Guy from the pawn shop was using it , he let me use it for a short time. It ran games better then the 8400gs and 2400hd. I am not using my 8400gs anymore tho. Just a backup now, using the 2400hd for gaming until i go video card shopping.

That is some of the worst advice I have ever seen.

I disagree, power supply requirements are inaccurate. I remember people kept telling me, " oh don't buy a 2400hd or a 8400gs or even a 6200 ", its not going to work with 90watts, and when i did, everyone was so shock that it ran with 90watts. Even to this day , people are wondering how i was using 90watts. I think people are just out for a sale.

@sk821, don't bother with a new PSU. Get an 8400GS PCI and be done with it. The 9500GT PCI will run like crap anyways; none of the PCI cards are made for gaming in mind, if that's what you're going to be doing. For general use, the 8400GS will do.

The Evga 9400gt or 9500gt is better then the 8400gs, you talking about me giving bad advice , thats horrible advice. The 8400gs is ok, but the 9400gt or 9500gt has better stats.

he even lies about the hardware he owns...

Read above.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Paying almost double for a meager increase in performance hardly sounds like good advice to me. Maybe you should think twice before assuming others want to waste their money in the same way as you do. As I stated before, none of the PCI cards are made for gaming in mind.. So long as people understand that they are utterly useless for gaming, I'm fine with it.

And take it from an EE, PSU requirements are not BS. They are there just so some ******* doesn't go around suing the crap out of companies based on what they said. PSU companies would rather overestimate a bit than underestimate and get slapped with a lawsuit. That being said, running such crappy cards on a 90W PSU doesn't mean anything. Try running a decent card like an HD 4670 on it and I'll bet there'll be a set of spectacular fireworks.

Or, you might simply be lying about the PSU, as you lie about your benchmarks.

 

[PCIGamer]

its also interesting to note that even PCI-e counterparts of the same PCI cards (6200, 2400HD, 8400gs, 9400gt, 8500gt etc) are horrible gaming cards.

 

[electromagnetic]

Yeah but the PCI versions of Nvidia 6200 does not have Turbo-cache.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

its also interesting to note that even PCI-e counterparts of the same PCI cards (6200, 2400HD, 8400gs, 9400gt, 8500gt etc) are horrible gaming cards

True, but some of those cards will perform dramatically better than their PCI counterparts, owing to saturation of the PCI bus.

Look here for the performance of the 8500GT PCI-E in Fallout 3, versus the performance of the PCI flavor of the card as tested by Yukikaze here. There's a difference of about 15FPS, which makes the game go from choppy to playable, even though it still looks like ****.

Also consider looking at the Crysis benchmarks here. Those results are resemble the results with the PCI card that Yukikaze got, but the IQ is set to Medium, as opposed to low for Yukikaze's setup.

Yeah but the PCI versions of Nvidia 6200 does not have Turbo-cache.

Turbo-Cache is a marketing gimmick that allows card-makers to cut costs by lowering the amount of onboard memory on the card. It provides no significant gains in performance AFAIK.

 

[Tha General]

its also interesting to note that even PCI-e counterparts of the same PCI cards (6200, 2400HD, 8400gs, 9400gt, 8500gt etc) are horrible gaming cards.

What is more interesting is that you called yourself a PCI gamer, when you are clearly not one. Like myself, i said recently that i was moving away from PCI, well i am with the system i have now/or system i am buying soon, dual core to replace the single core.
However i plan to continue to game with PCI when i get my Quad core.

Maybe you should change your name, just some useful advice. I game just fine with PCI cards, even tho most people see 40fps and up playable, i see 20 as being playable, " depending on the game ", pretty much all my games i play i get around 30-200. Bioshock , which i recently tested with my HD2400, at 1280x1024 Max settings, i get around 12-18, playable to me, so it really all comes down to how you feel about playing a game.

To say PCI cards are horrible or cards similar to them in pcie, makes no sense. Pci cards may not be meant for gaming " as they say ", but i disagree and they game just fine.

 

[LinkedKube]

Even the pci E counterparts do allow more bandwidth through the interface, BUT i would'nt use them for anything more than watching dvd's.

 

[Texman]

Nice Thread

Definately entertaining

I do need some educated advice though. My secondary system is a Dell Dimension 2400 with these specs:

Win XP Pro 32bit SP3
Celeron 2.5GHz
1.12gb ddr ram
BFG 6200
250w PSU

Obviously, this system was not hot when it was first introduced, and it is not even worth comparing it to today's standards. However, my bro and I play some older games together (Urban Terror, CS, Battlefield 1942/Vietnam, Freelancer, Command & Conquer Generals, Jedi Academy, etc...) and I would like to bump its performance a little bit. If I understood correctly, the concensus of most places is that the 8400GS is the best value for a PCI graphics card. However, has this card been compared to the newer 9500GT? I know it is much more expensive, but I would not mind paying for it if the performance difference was defintily noticeable.

Hmm, i cant post links yet. Are any of you familiar with the Radeon 4350 PCI card? Its on newegg.

Thanks

 

[sk821]

I buy the Sparkle Geforce 9500 GT, but how i configure the BIOS to use like primary video card?

 

[EXCellR8]

^you just need to disable the onboard video in bios and then install the card and drivers.

 

[Tha General]

Definately entertaining

I do need some educated advice though. My secondary system is a Dell Dimension 2400 with these specs:

Win XP Pro 32bit SP3
Celeron 2.5GHz
1.12gb ddr ram
BFG 6200
250w PSU

Obviously, this system was not hot when it was first introduced, and it is not even worth comparing it to today's standards. However, my bro and I play some older games together (Urban Terror, CS, Battlefield 1942/Vietnam, Freelancer, Command & Conquer Generals, Jedi Academy, etc...) and I would like to bump its performance a little bit. If I understood correctly, the concensus of most places is that the 8400GS is the best value for a PCI graphics card. However, has this card been compared to the newer 9500GT? I know it is much more expensive, but I would not mind paying for it if the performance difference was defintily noticeable.

Hmm, i cant post links yet. Are any of you familiar with the Radeon 4350 PCI card? Its on newegg.

Thanks

Nice system IMO you have there, i had a celeron d at 3.06ghz. You should upgrade to 2GB if you can tho.

Anyways, if you have the cash to spare, i would either buy the 9400gt by EVGA or the 9500GT. The 4350 for the PCI, the core is 600 and the memory is 400, its a nice upgrade from the 2400HD. But weaker then the 9400gt or 9500gt. Not that much weaker, but slightly. I plan to buy the 4350 pci myself later this year.

I would just go for the 9400gt or 9500gt if you have the cash to spare. Now if you have no choice but to buy a 8400gs, please buy the evga version, its the fastest.

 

[LinkedKube]

I know it is much more expensive, but I would not mind paying for it if the performance difference was defintily noticeable.

Thanks

Get the 8400gs, you'll see an increase over the 6200, dont waste your time jumping to a 9 series, the performance increase over the 8400gs is meager for the price jump you have to pay.

 

[teklord]

I buy the Sparkle Geforce 9500 GT, but how i configure the BIOS to use like primary video card?

You should be able to get into the BIOS when you first boot up. I press F1 to get into the BIOS from the load up screen on my HP.


@ Texman - 9500GT PCI may be twice as powerful as 8400GS but twice as expensive. You will notice a difference in performance but you can only use these cards semi-effectively with older games like you mentioned. I recommend the 9500GT for people like yourself and 8400GS for casual gamers like the person that wanted to play The Sims 2 earlier in this thread.

 

[LinkedKube]

Show me a 9500gt getting twice the performance of a 8400gs and I'll show you a fatman that can fly. Maybe

 

[Tha General]

Show me a 9500gt getting twice the performance of a 8400gs and I'll show you a fatman that can fly. Maybe

FX5200 VS FX5500 = FX5500 is more powerful
FX5500 vs 6200 = 6200 is about triple the performance because of the 3.0 shader model
6200 VS 8400GS = 8400gs is about 4x more powerful
8400GS vs 2400HD = Depending on how your setup is , the 8400gs is more powerful, even tho the 2400 is slightly more powerful in certain games.
8400GS vs 8500gt = 8500gt is about 2x more powerful
8400gs vs the 9400 = about 2x more powerful, and i have proof of this, from a user over at guru3d.

So i am sure the 9500gt is about 4x or 5x more powerful over the 8400gs.

oops forgot about the 8600gt gddr3 pci card, but i am sure its way more powerful then the 8400gs or 2400hd.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Again, more FUD.

The 6200 is not 3x better, and certainly not because of the shader model. It provides a 50-100% performance increase in most cases, and with PCI I suspect the gains will be even lesser. And we are talking about a 128-bit 6200 here; the 64-bit is just crap.

And the 8500GT is about 40% faster than the 8400GS in general, mainly due to the 64-bit bus on the 8400. They are otherwise identical. You're claiming 2x the performance from just a wider memory bus?!

And please post that proof of yours; we'd like to verify at least one of your claims.

 

[PCIGamer]

What is more interesting is that you called yourself a PCI gamer, when you are clearly not one.
Maybe you should change your name, just some useful advice.

I will call myself whatever I like. And being a person who purchased an original 3dfx Voodoo card with VGA pass-through and gone through a slew of PCI graphics cards, i think i am justified in that - thanks.

Maybe you should take your own advice 'Mistery Ridah' :haha:

 

[LinkedKube]

lol pci gamer, that's old school, not first gen floppy old school, but dang, far before I became informed.

 

[Yukikaze]

FX5200 VS FX5500 = FX5500 is more powerful
FX5500 vs 6200 = 6200 is about triple the performance because of the 3.0 shader model
6200 VS 8400GS = 8400gs is about 4x more powerful
8400GS vs 2400HD = Depending on how your setup is , the 8400gs is more powerful, even tho the 2400 is slightly more powerful in certain games.
8400GS vs 8500gt = 8500gt is about 2x more powerful
8400gs vs the 9400 = about 2x more powerful, and i have proof of this, from a user over at guru3d.

So i am sure the 9500gt is about 4x or 5x more powerful over the 8400gs.

oops forgot about the 8600gt gddr3 pci card, but i am sure its way more powerful then the 8400gs or 2400hd.

If I recall, the manufacturers themselves (Sparkle) claimed around 1,200 3DMarks (IIRC, it was 06) with the 8600GT PCI and 1,000 with the 8500GT PCI. I got around slightly over 1,000 with my 8500GT PCI in 3DMark06, verifying that claim. Thus, the 8600GT/9500GT would be 20% (And giving them the benefit of the doubt: 30%) more powerful than the 8500GT. In other words, I have no idea where you are pulling your results out from, but it is probably an alternate dimension known as "Tha La-La-Land".

BTW, if we follow your logic, and borrow the benchmark chart from Tom's, we get that the 9500GT (Which in its DDR2 version would be comparable to the 8600GT's performance) on PCI, which is "about 4x or 5x more powerful" than the 8400GS displays in your miracle world more improvement on PCI than on PCI-E, since the 8600GT is only three times more powerful than the 8400GS on the PCI-E interconnect. On the same chart we also see that the 8500GT isn't even twice as powerful as the 8400GS.

So unless you have anything to prove your claims, you've been found lying four times now, and we're still counting.

 

[Yukikaze]

lol pci gamer, that's old school, not first gen floppy old school, but dang, far before I became informed.

I'm a VESA gamer then. My first "real" video card sat on that bus. Spent some time on floppies too. I still have the first TIE Fighter on floppies, as well Earthsiege on the same media. Both don't work, but I still keep them around as a reminder of a bygone age :haha:

I started gaming with Star Control and Star Control 2 in the early 90s. Damn, I feel old.

 

[jives11]

Definately entertaining

I do need some educated advice though. My secondary system is a Dell Dimension 2400 with these specs:

Win XP Pro 32bit SP3
Celeron 2.5GHz
1.12gb ddr ram
BFG 6200
250w PSU

Obviously, this system was not hot when it was first introduced, and it is not even worth comparing it to today's standards. However, my bro and I play some older games together (Urban Terror, CS, Battlefield 1942/Vietnam, Freelancer, Command & Conquer Generals, Jedi Academy, etc...) and I would like to bump its performance a little bit. If I understood correctly, the concensus of most places is that the 8400GS is the best value for a PCI graphics card. However, has this card been compared to the newer 9500GT? I know it is much more expensive, but I would not mind paying for it if the performance difference was defintily noticeable.

Hmm, i cant post links yet. Are any of you familiar with the Radeon 4350 PCI card? Its on newegg.

Thanks

Hi Texman,

I have been through a very similar odyssey with a dell 2350 as described here :
http://mr-ives.blogspot.com/search/label/Dell. In summary agree with The Generals advice here, you can probably go to 2Gb , 8500GT is good and you might need a new PSU.

 

[LinkedKube]

If I recall, the manufacturers themselves (Sparkle) claimed around 1,200 3DMarks (IIRC, it was 06) with the 8600GT PCI and 1,000 with the 8500GT PCI. I got around slightly over 1,000 with my 8500GT PCI in 3DMark06, verifying that claim. Thus, the 8600GT/9500GT would be 20% (And giving them the benefit of the doubt: 30%) more powerful than the 8500GT. In other words, I have no idea where you are pulling your results out from, but it is probably an alternate dimension known as "Tha La-La-Land".

BTW, if we follow your logic, and borrow the benchmark chart from Tom's, we get that the 9500GT (Which in its DDR2 version would be comparable to the 8600GT's performance) on PCI, which is "about 4x or 5x more powerful" than the 8400GS displays in your miracle world more improvement on PCI than on PCI-E, since the 8600GT is only three times more powerful than the 8400GS on the PCI-E interconnect. On the same chart we also see that the 8500GT isn't even twice as powerful as the 8400GS.

So unless you have anything to prove your claims, you've been found lying four times now, and we're still counting.

Anything that's pure fact he wont respond to, he does it to me, and other members. Dont expect a response that resembles anything older than a 10 year old.

 

[Tha General]

Hey xpunkdthrice if you reading this, i have my 8400gs back, using XP pro. Most of my games are running really amazing, at 1280x1024 max settings 40-100-200fps, sometimes 400fps in older games like serious sam, and nitro family. Alpha Prime max settings 40-120fps. Using the 190.38 WHQL drivers.

Bad news tho, games like Crysis, or warhead or SOF3, or l4d or the Jericho runs like a POS.
I am not sure if its bottlenecking, or something wrong with my config. But as i said you are using a intel board, you may fare better in those games. But overall my 8400gs is running games amazing. The ones which i can play anyway.

 

[PCIGamer]

Bad news tho, games like Crysis, or warhead or SOF3, or l4d or the Jericho runs like a POS.
I am not sure if its bottlenecking, or something wrong with my config. But as i said you are using a intel board, you may fare better in those games. But overall my 8400gs is running games amazing. The ones which i can play anyway.

Which is your way off saying what people have been saying here all along :

PCI Cards will generally give you great performance on games from before 2007.

 

[teklord]

PCI Cards will generally give you great performance on games from before 2007.

I wouldn't say great performance, maybe respectable performance. I wouldn't say 2007 either, especially for the P4 folks like myself, more like 2005.