is my geforcefx a 128bit memory interface?

[tecate428766]

how do i know if i screwed my self over by buying a geforce fx 5200? i got a PNY agp 8x model with 128mb, i just got it. but..how do i know if it has 128bit memory channel? also, its on a linux machine with a 2.0GHz celeron and only 128 ddr ram. i run play ut2k3 on it, and it runs pretty dismal for my proc speed. it shuold be faster shuoldnt it? while playing the game, i get around 10-30fps depending on whats on screen.

[saturnotaku]

I would partly attribute your poor performance to the video card, but also to the fact that you're only running 128 mb of system memory. Upgrading to at least 512 will improve UT2003 performance drastically.

[tecate428766]

any video card you can suggest that would be better then a geforcefx 5200??

Originally posted by saturnotaku
I would partly attribute your poor performance to the video card, but also to the fact that you're only running 128 mb of system memory. Upgrading to at least 512 will improve UT2003 performance drastically.

[saturnotaku]

Depends on what you want to spend. For about $179 or so you can get a GeForce FX 5900SE, which is really good. Or for about $149 (and if you're willing to overclock) some folks are getting really incredible results with a GeForce FX 5700 non-ultra. Since you're running Linux I won't mention ATI.

Buy the best card in your price range, however make sure you keep some money set aside for the purchase of more system memory. You can buy 512 mb kits (2x256) of quality RAM for less than $100.

[tecate428766]

what about getting a geforce3 ti 500? or possibly a geforce4ti series, used ofcourse. would that be better then waht i have now? and in anyone elses opinion or experiance, besides my system memory bottle neck(128mb ddr 2100) is it really my video card thats holding my system back? and should i return it for something els(this is what im considering).

[Gator]

I'm gonna go along with what Sat said... 128megs of memory simply is NOT enough for today's computers. Even non-gaming machines shouldnt have less than 256megs with 512megs recommended. 128megs simply doesn't cut unless you wanna run Windows 95/98 :p

Get yourself 512megs of ram as a first priority and see how the FX5200 runs. It's not that great of a card, but at 1024x768 with no AA/AF it might be decent provided you get 512megs of RAM. If that's still not enough, I donot recommend anything less than an FX5700NU for you, they start at $137us

[tecate428766]

what about getting a geforce3 ti 500? or possibly a geforce4ti series, used ofcourse. would that be better then waht i have now? and in anyone elses opinion or experiance, besides my system memory bottle neck(128mb ddr 2100) is it really my video card thats holding my system back? and should i return it for something els(this is what im considering).

[Gator]

yes, return the FX5600XT and get yourself a GF4TI, FX5700NU, or better

GF3TI... ya it's probably better than a FX5600XT too. The FX5600 competes with the GF3TI in most benchmarks, so I can only imagine that the weaker XT version is probably worse than your average GF3TI. But I don't think you should get a GF3TI since it's showing it's age.

And trust me, everyone will tell you that 128 RAM is not enough to game

[saturnotaku]

You still haven't said what your budget is. We can't recommend good cards if we don't know what you have to spend. But we can tell you what not to get, which would be a GeForce3 Ti or anything lower. A Ti4200 is kind of iffy, I would go with a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra before a Ti4200. But honestly, I would go with a 5700 non-ultra if you're in a cash crunch. There are overclocking utilities that work under Linux so you can push the card that way.

[ragejg]

Originally posted by saturnotaku
I would go with a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra before a Ti4200.

omg it's been said... :p

...or did you mean 5600 ultra?


Originally posted by saturnotaku But honestly, I would go with a 5700 non-ultra if you're in a cash crunch.

Great card, great value, definitely seconded... :)

[tecate428766]

wow, i completely forgot about that. I got around 100-150 maxxxx to spend on my system at the current moment. so basically, the gffx5200 is a peice of junk if you want performance? other then my video card, my system ram is my biggest bottle neck. but, does anyone have "decent" performance with the gffx5200?. thats probably a stupid question.
So basically, should i upgrade my system ram first? or just dump my video card completely and buy more ram AND a different card?

[Gator]

Originally posted by tecate428766
wow, i completely forgot about that. I got around 100-150 maxxxx to spend on my system at the current moment. so basically, the gffx5200 is a peice of junk if you want performance? other then my video card, my system ram is my biggest bottle neck. but, does anyone have "decent" performance with the gffx5200?. thats probably a stupid question.
So basically, should i upgrade my system ram first? or just dump my video card completely and buy more ram AND a different card?

Well RAM is definetly the first thing you need... and yes an FX5200NU does stink, but I'd say try your games after the RAM upgrade first. If you're still disatisfied, only then should you do the video card as well ;)

Remember, with that card I wouldn't go higher than 1024x768 if you want good FPS

If it DOES turn out to be a 64bit card though... ditch it without hesitation

[saturnotaku]

If you can get the $90 or so back from your FX 5200 that will give you about $230 to spend on components. Use said $90 to get 512 mb of RAM (GeiL PC3200 is about that much and it will be backwards compatible with your system plus be ready for when you next upgrade). Then take the $150, get the FX5700 non-ultra then overclock the bejesus out of it. The eVGA 5700 is $139, and they're one of the best quality cardmakers.

[tecate428766]

well...my $150 maxx is all i got right now. and i've spent that 100 so far on the gffx5200. but i think im going to return the peice of crap. i installed it on my winxp machine;1.0 thunderbird with 512ram with only a 200mhz fsb, and it runs slower then it does when i have a gf3ti200 in it. so, would it be safe to say its only a 64bit memory interface? eitherway. its going back to bestbuy. uhm.. from that $150 i will have back, should i plug the gf3ti200 in my linux machine and buy ram instead? that would be a better setup in most cases for me considering my $150 buget. any input on that?

[saturnotaku]

For $150 total, buy RAM first. Go to Newegg and order one of those 512 mb kits for $90 and then start saving for the new video card. You'd be nearly half way there. The Ti200 will be enough to last for a couple more months until the NV40/R420 come out. By that time, current video card prices should drop even more and you might be able to pick up a 5700NU for $125 or less.

[tecate428766]

so, not to be to reduntant, but ditching my gffx5200, buy ram, slip in the gf3ti200 in(for now) and i should see alot better performance from my system? comparing it to my winxp machine(1.0 thunderbird/512ram-gf3ti200) at least.

[ragejg]

YES :)

[tecate428766]

sounds good to me, lets just hope SOB's at bestbuy will take it back. anyway, thanks everyone for the help and having dealing with me. and when are these new chips from nvidia supposidly hitting market?

[saturnotaku]

Best guess would be late spring, early summer. Hard to say really. It shouldn't be any later than June. Even before the NV40 comes out, the prices on existing cards probably will continue to drop. Snap one up whenever it gets in your price range.

[Edge]

A 128-bit FX5200 is still pretty good for modern games if you don't use AA/Aniso, but the 64-bit version has performance closer to a GF2mx or a 9000se. If it's a 128 bit card, it should run almost any game at 1024x768 at acceptable framerates (40 fps or so). It's roughly equal to a GF3 (non-ti), so it's not all that bad, it's just that there's much better options out there (though it's also the cheapest). If there's a noticable performance differance between it an the TI200, then it's almost definatly the 64-bit version. Try to pick up a 128 bit card off of newegg.com, you can probably pick one up for around $70 shipped. Just remember, getting a video card with 256 megs of ram won't really help, 128 (hell, even 64) megs is more than enough for today's games.

But yeah, ram is your main concern. You're probably noticing a lot of pauses and such in the game, and that's because it's using virtual memory like mad. Try to get more ram on sale, I've seen 512 meg chips go for $70 or so after rebates, so you should be able to pick up both the ram and a decent FX5200 card on your budget (if you need to buy the ram first and then get the video card when you get your rebate back). Kinda funny though, you have a video card with as much ram as your computer :p


And you shouldn't have any problem returning it to Best Buy, as long as you have the original packaging and reciept (and it's within 30 days of the purchase price).

[tecate428766]

well, good news everyone. i was able to return my sucky gffx5200. and i just picked up some ram. 512 ddr2100 for 50 bucks after i mail in a rebate. i would have got a Gig, but 512 is decent for now.
now, next step. find a my self a faster video card other then my geforce3ti200. i found a gf4ti4600 made by HP oddly enough. its $96 shipped. i beleive its 128mb also. as far as speed is conserned. i think that is a winner. next, about my cpu. its a Celeron 2.0Ghz. what i want to do is get a p4. but my motherboard only supports a 533fsb for the p4. does anyone know if you can pick up a p4 533fsb that also has HT with it? my bios has a un-selectible option for HT support. so im halfway confused. because i've never seen a p4 with HT other then the 800mhz fsb's. only reason im asking this is because i've been dealing with AMD cpu's for the better half of 3 years. i never really payed much attention to intel.

[Gator]

GF4TI4600 for only $96 is an excellent deal! It's a great card, definetly WAY faster than your old FX5200. But be warned that it doesn't support DX9, so for newer games like Doom3 you may be forced to lower the resolution to 800x600 for decent framerates, just a warning

As for your motherboard, there are plenty of P4 cpu's that support 533fsb:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-139&catalog=343&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-147&catalog=343&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-154&catalog=343&depa=0

[Malfunction]

Originally posted by tecate428766
well, good news everyone. i was able to return my sucky gffx5200. and i just picked up some ram. 512 ddr2100 for 50 bucks after i mail in a rebate. i would have got a Gig, but 512 is decent for now.
now, next step. find a my self a faster video card other then my geforce3ti200. i found a gf4ti4600 made by HP oddly enough. its $96 shipped. i beleive its 128mb also. as far as speed is conserned. i think that is a winner. next, about my cpu. its a Celeron 2.0Ghz. what i want to do is get a p4. but my motherboard only supports a 533fsb for the p4. does anyone know if you can pick up a p4 533fsb that also has HT with it? my bios has a un-selectible option for HT support. so im halfway confused. because i've never seen a p4 with HT other then the 800mhz fsb's. only reason im asking this is because i've been dealing with AMD cpu's for the better half of 3 years. i never really payed much attention to intel.

The only Intel P4 w/533Mhz bus that has HT is the 3.06Ghz. The reason the option is greyed out is because you don't have this CPU which is capable of HT is all. :)

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-154&catalog=343&depa=0

Peace,

:afro:

[Edge]

Hmm, well the TI4600 is definatly an improvement, but it's not going to be leaps and bounds above the GF3 (maybe 50% faster or so, which certainly isn't bad but I'm not sure if it's worth getting a new card over), and doesn't support any additional features. It's definatly a great card, but I think it might be a good idea to skip every other videocard generation (i.e. GF3 to GFFX/9x00, GF4 to R4x0/GFFX2, etc). I just think you'd be better off saving that $100 and waiting for an FX5900 or even a 9700 to come down in price a bit, THEN you'd definatly notice the difference between the cards (since the FX and 9x00 support better/faster AA modes and have DX9 support). But it's you're call, if you think that the $100 is worth it for the performance increase (or if you're just impatient :p), go for it.

Also 512 megs of ram is plenty for most modern games. Only a few MMORPGs really use more, and so far I haven't seen a game that's even remotely unplayable at 512 megs of ram.

Anyway, nice to hear your comp is getting a much-needed upgrade. Even with a GF3, it'll be great for playing almost any game at 800x600 resolution with good framerates, some even a bit higher (I play Natural Selection at 1024x768 with 2xaa/lvl8aniso).