So you only have PCI slots and want to game?

Breech said:
I'd also recommend the 9500 GT over the 9400. It doesn't cost much more and has 32 stream processors vs 16 for the 9400. I should have gone with it but I thought that the 9400 would play games well and so far I haven't had very good luck with it.

So, as an update, I downloaded both Crysis and Bioshock demos just to see if I could play them. I was using EVGA precision 1.8 to monitor fps and card temp on both games. Crysis actually played half way decent with all settings to low and no AA. I'm guessing an average fps of around 20 with some dips into single digits during heavy action but that was rare. Bioshock was a different story. Also had graphics set to lowest possible and although the game did run it was much worse during heavy action. It became almost impossible to play as it went into slide show mode when action got heavy. I was suprised as I thought if the card could handle Crysis on low then Bioshock wouldn't be as much of a challenge for it. BTW, just for fun I cranked Crysis up to the "High" setting (max allowed on the demo) with AA at 2X. It was of course unplayable at about 6-7 fps but man did it look good. I mean like different game good. I don't think I'd be willing to play it at low settings after seeing all the detail that is available. As for card temp..........my 9400 GT idles around 52-53° C and I saw a max of 61° C in game. CPU usage was also
Click to expand...


Well my computer is way more powerful then yours:


However i tested bioshocked at max settings at 1280x1024 with AA on my 2400hd and 8400gs, seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?pi=0&ps=20&sf=added&sa=0&sq=bioshock&dm=1

2400HD
Without fraps 1280x1024 MAX SETTINGS = 12-18fps. Which is playable to me, seriously.
With fraps = 1280X1024 MAX SETTINGS = 4-8fps.

8400GS
Without fraps 1280x1024 MAX SETTINGS = 19-35fps. Which is playable to me, seriously.
With fraps = 1280X1024 MAX SETTINGS = 9-13fps.

Note: Bioshock only runs good in XP[/b]

Anyways, i just think the card is not good with your type of computer. Because i never had any major issues with using PCI cards. You guys keep getting slideshows and low fps, but i got better performance in crysis with my p3 with my 8400gs and 2400 over your dell computer. Slightly better performance anyway.
 
electromagnetic said:
So either PCI is too slow for gaming, or the 64bit needs to be increased to 128bit.

Please post a GPU-z please like this.

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/09/09/12/4cr.png

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/09/09/12/3wa.png
Click to expand...

The PCI bus is not slow for gaming, and having 64bit does not decrease performance. Trust me, it does not. Yea having 128bit or 256bit may incresase performance, but having a 64bit bus is not a bad thing.

I play L4D at 1280x1024 High to very high to low with AAX2, AFX16 and get between 15-30fps easily. It says around 15 too. and most of the time moves at around 20-30fps.
 
Tha General said:
The PCI bus is not slow for gaming, and having 64bit does not decrease performance. Trust me, it does not. Yea having 128bit or 256bit may incresase performance, but having a 64bit bus is not a bad thing.

I play L4D at 1280x1024 High to very high to low with AAX2, AFX16 and get between 15-30fps easily. It says around 15 too. and most of the time moves at around 20-30fps.
Click to expand...

I did check out your youtube channel General and I was very impressed how the games played considering the equipment you are using. I have plenty of computer to push this card though, I don't think it's a matter of that. I mean the P4 might not have been the greatest CPU but at 3.0 ghz with hyperthreading it was one of the fastest ones at the time of purchase. I also have 2 GB of RAM. I've checked both my CPU usage and memory usage in game and I'm not pushing the limits of either. As a result of that I can't say that this card sucks because of my system..........it sucks because of itself. It's just not a good gaming card and that's why I'd recommend to spend the extra few bucks and get the 9500 GT instead.

For me it should be a non issue come Monday. My new system is supposed to be here at that time and hopefully all will be well with it. I'm looking forward to moving on to PCI-E 2.0 as it's a far superior interface. The quad core cpu and DDR3 RAM should also be nice improvements to have as well.

I put that screenshot up just to show that for whatever reason the 9400 GT just doesn't game well. If you read the reviews for it on Newegg there is another customer that bought it just for WoW and RMA'd it because he said the same thing that I'm saying..........it plays it poorly.
 
I Implore you, do now spend 100 dollars on that card, seriously. Budgets as cheap as 350 dollars for a new and current system have been suggested on this site. You're pushing spending 24% of that on a video card that's severely outdated. Please, dont add to the fud, thx, and goodbye.
 
supersmashbrada said:
I Implore you, do now spend 100 dollars on that card, seriously. Budgets as cheap as 350 dollars for a new and current system have been suggested on this site. You're pushing spending 24% of that on a video card that's severely outdated. Please, dont add to the fud, thx, and goodbye.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100%. I'd only recommend the 9500 GT if you are dead set on getting a PCI card. In retrospect, I could have saved myself some money and a headache had I just bit the bullet and upgraded to a new pc immediately. I was just trying to maximize what I could get out of my Dell as aside from gaming it does anything else I ask of it with no hassles.

That said there is almost no excuse to not upgrade to a new pc these days with dual core systems as cheap as they are. If you can build your own they are even cheaper still.
 
Tha General said:
The PCI bus is not slow for gaming, and having 64bit does not decrease performance. Trust me, it does not. Yea having 128bit or 256bit may incresase performance, but having a 64bit bus is not a bad thing.
Click to expand...

lol, "may increase performance".

i needed a good laugh today, thanks!
 
Well folks, i am picking up my first PCIE card this sat, and i will have it install and doing some testing sat night. WOOOOOOOOOO, but i have no idea what i want to buy because best buy is damn near expensive , my goodness haha. Walmart i am not sure they carry video cards anymore, because there is no video card section on the walmart site??????

Anyways, most likely the way its looking i am either buying a 4350 or a 9500GT.
Peace
 
Tha General said:
Well folks, i am picking up my first PCIE card this sat, and i will have it install and doing some testing sat night. WOOOOOOOOOO, but i have no idea what i want to buy because best buy is damn near expensive , my goodness haha. Walmart i am not sure they carry video cards anymore, because there is no video card section on the walmart site??????

Anyways, most likely the way its looking i am either buying a 4350 or a 9500GT.
Peace
Click to expand...

Hmm.

Yay ?

W00t ?

Yippdie-Doo ?

Open a Blog and write all about it ?

Whatever.

This has as much relevance to the subject at hand (PCI cards) as does the socioeconomic situation on the outer colonies of the Dravathan Republic on Geolidus (Don't bother Googling the names, I just came up with both :) ).
 
Well i would stick with pci, if they sold them in stores, which they obviously do not. Because i never ever will shop online. So really i have no choice but to move on to pcie.
 
Hello..
One of my friend has just a same problem like you,where her PC only have PCI slots and she wants to play latest games and I think your article can help her properly. You have given a good information. Thank you very much for giving such a useful information to us. It will help all of them who has problem about PCI slots.
 
Now i can play videos at Full HD (1080i)!!!! :cool:

Video Programs:

Cyberlink Power DVD 9 (With the technology NVIDIA PureVideo HD on, for the support for HD videos)
 
electromagnetic said:
With the 9500GT card. How are games ?
Click to expand...

The games are running at max video quality,like Need For Speed Cabon Collector's Ediction,Need for Speed Most Wanted, Dolphin Emulator (GameCube and Wii emu) and coming soon Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2

EDIT:

In a few weeks im going to test FIFA 2010 DEMO and (if possible) Need For Speed Shift and UnderCover
 
sk821 said:
The games are running at max video quality... Dolphin Emulator (GameCube and Wii emu)
Click to expand...

How in the world can you run Dolphin on a PCI card, even the most powerful one? Technically you can, but it won't be at full speed. You need at least a dual core clocked @ 3 GHz to run Dolphin at 60 FPS and I don't think the PCI card will cut it. Those are the requirements for PCSX2 and I doubt it is much different for Dolphin.
 
Running Dolphin depends highly on the game, and it is much more bound to the cpu than gpu. For instance, running Super Smash Bros. Melee, I got around 18 fps with my old 3 ghz pentium d with 3 enemies, but 30 fps with only one enemy.
 
30 FPS in a console emulator means it is running at half the speed of the original. I don't like to bother with emulators unless I can get them to run at or very near a constant 60 FPS. The original was nothing but 60 FPS so you aren't accurately emulating the console if you aren't getting that.

If you can live with slow emulation, then more power to you.
 
I never said that I could run it full speed. I was just saying that a PCI graphics card will most likely not cause too many issues with emulators, because they are much more CPU bound.
 
Just wanted to throw an update out there. I received my new system and the difference is incredible. I am now running an almost constant 60 fps in WoW vs the 6 fps (shown in screenshot in previous post). Even at the worst spots it only drops to around 30 for a split second but goes right back to 60. I have Crysis running at max settings with 4xAA and Bioshock at highest settings and gameplay is smooth as silk..........BTW Crysis is a beautiful game. Obviously this wasn't possible with my previous PCI system.

My conclusion........well, it's the same as has been said by many and what common sense would tell you. Can you game with PCI? Sure, but you will be playing at significantly reduced quality and performance. It's very much worth the money to upgrade to a more modern system and in the long run is more cost effective.

If you must game with PCI I wouldn't spend a boat load of cash on a fancy card as from my experience it just wasn't worth it. You may or may not see a gain but if you do it probably won't be enough to justify the cost.

All that said, I'm happy to be gaming on a proper rig again. This thing is mind blowing :D
 
Breech said:
Obviously this wasn't possible with my previous PCI system.
Click to expand...
Thats not true. You just needed a different or better rig with your 9400gt pci to see good performance. Also it really depends on how you like your performance to be. With my setup and with my Visiontek 2400HD PCI, i can warhead at 1280x1024 enthusiast to gamer to mainsteam to low and get around 18-35fps, sometimes more. Not a steady 30fps of course, but overall playable and looks really good.

Breech said:
Can you game with PCI? Sure, but you will be playing at significantly reduced quality and performance.
Click to expand...
Again thats not true.


Breech said:
All that said, I'm happy to be gaming on a proper rig again. This thing is mind blowing :D
Click to expand...

I am sure it is, nice rig and cool card. Have fun with your new system
 
On the contrary, I would say Breach was spot on with his last post. And once again, what does enthusiast to gamer to mainstream mean?
 
I'm glad to see someone else upgrading and seeing a noticeable difference. PCI cards arent ment for current games with mid to high resolutions. When someone puts hundreds of dollars into something they dont expect studdering in movements. As far as video and memory bandwidth the pci has proven to be a bottleneck in a pc. If it wasnt I dont think agp and pci e would have been invented...no?

Sure if you have a system that's 5-7 years old, and dont have the money for a complete upgrade and just want something so that you can watch movies and play low detail games a cheap pci card will do the trick. But if you're running/buying a pci card on a current system, may I say "we laugh at you" for your ignorance.
 
Tha General said:
Thats not true. You just needed a different or better rig with your 9400gt pci to see good performance. Also it really depends on how you like your performance to be. With my setup and with my Visiontek 2400HD PCI, i can warhead at 1280x1024 enthusiast to gamer to mainsteam to low and get around 18-35fps, sometimes more. Not a steady 30fps of course, but overall playable and looks really good.
Click to expand...

Actually everything he said is true.

That is the worst advice i have ever heard. To build a better rig around a PCI graphics card? A 9400gt even - which is not even a gaming card in any bus type. And i dont even know how you can give advice like this when clearly you do not understand anything about bus speeds and bottlenecks.

No screenshot, "benchmark" or video will ever convince people that somehow you get amazing fps in Crysis Warhead. You dismiss standard benchmarking tools like 3DMark06, Crysis Benchmarking tool as "inaccurate" and your screenshots of gameplay where there is next to nothing going on is how you attempt to prove how you get great FPS on a PCI card.

Most people here have been PC gaming for years, they understand the limitations of their hardware and how to get better performance. Now you coming on here claiming all they need to do is get better hardware around a PCI card is absurd.
 
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