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Thread ID: 29165 2003-01-12 00:46:00 Tnt or geforce? Kira (2973) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
113027 2003-01-12 00:46:00 I am looking at buying a pci graphics card for my pc. Currently using onboard graphics which are slow and buggy. trying to decide between
TNT 32Mb($90) and geforce2mx400 64Mb($180). System is via mvp4(vtech manufacturer), cyrix pr333, 184Mb ram. Would appreciate feedback regarding value versus performance of the 2 cards (am I throwing money into a well) and any known conflicts I may encounter. Also experiences from anyone who has done something similar.
Cheers, Kira
Kira (2973)
113028 2003-01-12 01:31:00 ok - i have owned both a TNT2 and a Gefore2 MX100/200 (bit slower than the 400 u mention).

do you play games? if not the cheap card will do nicely. if you play games - how old are they?

but if you're gonna pay $180 for a card - then don't get ripped off.

Leadtek GeForce4 MX420 64MB SDR 5ns TV OUT $186

www.hotchips.co.nz

nice price - delivery included.

dan
daninjapan (2703)
113029 2003-01-12 01:33:00 as your cpu is old you will not really notice any marked diff between these cards .

afterall the benchmark difference has to be quite significant for the causal human to notice the difference .
daninjapan (2703)
113030 2003-01-12 01:51:00 firstly make sure you can disable the onboard video. the cyrix is really slow exspecially for games, so unless you are looking at upgrading the processor then just get the cheaper card. (also which TNT as there is a few different versions) tweak'e (174)
113031 2003-01-12 01:55:00 your best with a 2nd hand 32meg ddr card try trademe.co.nz.
Your cpu is a bit slow for most newer games
kiwibeat (304)
113032 2003-01-12 01:55:00 Unfortunately daninjapan didn't read your post fully, the card he is quoting is AGP, where you are asking about a PCI card.

By this I assume you have no AGP slot (a common issue).

I tried fitting a PCI MX200 32 Mb card once, only to find the PC simply wouldn't boot, just kept beeping, complaining of a video card error. There was no way to make it accept the card, there was also no way to disable the on-board video either in bios or hardware.

For that reason, buying from somewhere you can return it to is useful, however my experience does not represent the majority of cases.
godfather (25)
113033 2003-01-12 02:11:00 thanks tweak'e, the tnt is TNT2M64 32Mb, Hightech brand, supplied by Big Byte(Noel Leemings). Probably could get it cheaper elsewhere but they have a good returns policy. Also would any benefit be had from replacing onboard sound with dedicated card?
Cheers ,Kira
Kira (2973)
113034 2003-01-12 03:12:00 The MVP4 has no AGP slot but has an onboard videocard that can expand up to 8MB. The onboard video on that motherboard was actually pretty good for its time and i find it unusual that you find it buggy. I can understand why you would find it slow though, as many of todays games will struggle to run on your system.

I don't believe it is a good idea for you to go out and spend $90 on a videocard especially when its going to be PCI which is old technology.

You'd be better spending say $250 - $300 on a 900Mhz duron and M/board that has onboard video.

The CPU is obviously faster, and while it means you continue to use onboard video, it won't be as noticable as the CPU will cover much of the processing power.

Yes having a seperate card for sound is good as it means less load on the CPU. However if you buy one of those cheap $20 cards i believe they rely on much of the CPU for the processing so you'd be no better off.
roofus (483)
113035 2003-01-12 04:22:00 >
> By this I assume you have no AGP slot (a common
> issue).

One which I had a while back...

>
> I tried fitting a PCI MX200 32 Mb card once, only to
> find the PC simply wouldn't boot, just kept beeping,
> complaining of a video card error. There was no way
> to make it accept the card, there was also no way to
> disable the on-board video either in bios or
> hardware.

Same here, It was a Cyrix 233Mhz and it just wouldnt accept anything but the onboard VGA! Godfather is right, i would go brand new and somewhere you can return it!

300Mhz is a little on the slow side, but should be enough to get 640x480 if your system is setup smoothly, with as little else running as possible :-)
Chilling_Silence (9)
113036 2003-01-12 05:14:00 it will depend what you are trying to run on it. installing a new vid card and sound card will make it perform some what better but the catch here is the cyrix pr333 cpu. clock speed is only 266 (i think) and the fpu performance is somewhat poor. i would suggest upgradeing cpu as well. however for cost of new vid card, sound card and cpu you could proberly get an upgrade box or get a far better pc 2nd hand. tweak'e (174)
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