5700LE, Looking for more info!

[ekloot1978]

bodomite,
typically you either hit the "delete" key or the F2 key at a certain point when the computer is first booting up...I don't think it is the F8 key...because that is the key that you hit at another certain point that will allow you to boot windows into safe mode. Your computer manual might say what key to hit for sure...Or you can just keep pressing either the F2 key or the Delete key every second while the computer is booting up to see which one takes you into bios. Many times there will be a quick note on the screen that says something like "press F2 to enter setup" or something like that. You might have to check your computer manual to figure this one out if what I said doesn't work. And when you get into the bios be careful not to change anything else that you don't know about because its easy to mess things up in there. I'm fairly certain there has to be an option to disable the onboard video though...its just a good idea to make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you get the new card. And of course don't actually disable the onboard video until you get the new card because you might not be able to see anything on the screen if you don't have the new card. Hope this all helps.

[bodomite]

Thanks, lemme check.

[bodomite]

Alright i did it, f2. I went to tthe tab on Video or whatever. It said the following...
AGP aperture size : 128
primary video adapter PCI
Frame Buffer Size 8mb

Does the AGP referring to m,y intergrated card?

[ekloot1978]

hmm, I think that you are right and the AGP aperature size might be referring to your integrated card...but I'm not 100% positive...I thought they only gave you this setting in bios if you had an AGP slot but maybe I'm wrong. You are 100% sure you don't have an agp slot, correct?

And I also think that the setting that says: "Primary Video Adapter PCI" is the setting that will allow the motherboard to use the new pci card as the primary card...but this means that the integrated one might technically still be enabled...just not active...so you might still have to disable it in the windows device manager (this is exactly what my friend with the dell had to do because his bios gave him the same option and only let you pick a primary video adapter).

And I'm not exactly sure what that "framebuffer size 8MB" option is for...is it an option you can change?...it might be for the integrated graphics card.
Edit: I think this option has to be for the integrated graphics card actually, so it probably won't mean anything once you install the new card.

[ekloot1978]

And the way I would install the pci video card would be as follows:
1. I would not change anything in the bios because it looks like they have it set correctly for you by default (since PCI is the Primary Video Adapter setting already).
2. Go to nvidia.com and download the latest video card drivers for the new video card but do not install them yet.
3. Turn off the computer and put the new pci video card in the top pci slot if it is still open...otherwise you might have to use a different slot. But keep the monitor cord plugged into the old integrated video card for now.
4. Turn on the computer and boot into windows. When the computer boots up it will probably say "new hardware found" and it will search for drivers by itself. I would hit cancel and not let it install any drivers.
5. Now, in the device manager select to disable the onboard video card...and remember disable it...do not uninstall it because if you uninstall it then it will try to re-detect and re-install itself when rebooting the computer.
6. It might prompt you to reboot the computer but whether it does or not...turn off the computer and plug the monitor cord into the new video card.
7. Turn the computer back on and boot into windows...if it searches for drivers again for the new video card then cancel that.
8. Now you can install those nvidia drivers you downloaded earlier and hopefully everything should work fine now.

Some people say that you should go to add/remove programs and uninstall anything that has to do with the old video card but I don't know if this is necessary since the old video card would already be disabled in windows anyways...and I don't think my friend uninstalled any of that old stuff but I can't remember. I would just leave it if everything is fine with the new card.

However, one thing I would check after all this is to make sure in the device manager that the new pci video card isn't sharing any IRQ's with any other devices or cards. It is preferrable to have your video card on its own IRQ and not sharing any resources. On some computers it isn't a problem if it is sharing, but on others it is...just depends. If it is sharing IRQ's but all your games and everything are working fine then it may be best to just leave it be. But if the new card is sharing an IRQ with another device and you are having trouble with it and you want to try to get it onto its own IRQ then you can try to uninstall the nvidia drivers in the add remove programs list and then turn off the computer and move the card to a different PCI slot and then turn it back on and install the nvidia drivers again. That will change its IRQ because because different pci slots usually have different IRQ's.

Whew, that's a lot of info.

[bodomite]

wow, thanks so much, newegg is out of stock of the card i was going to order the Apollo, its the only one i can afford, im a 91.50 dollar budget, unless i can find the jaton one somewhere else. anyways, yeah im printing out your directions now to make sure everything is kosher. Happy new year by the way.

[Baracade980]

Ok man... seeing as it looks as if you're goin to get the same card I did (Jaton 5700le low-profile) I thought I'd say a bit about proformance and give a little previews of it.

Heres a few screens of Half-Life 2 (one of the best damn games ever) which is one of the most popular and graphics intense today:

http://www.freewebs.com/rageagainstxbox/fx5700le_hl2_ss1.JPG

That first one just shows expansiveness you'll get... if I got one that looked more at the water, you'd see some sweet effects.

http://www.freewebs.com/rageagainstxbox/fx5700le_hl2_ss2.JPG

More expansiveness and detail. (BTW- I uped the settings from the last one)

http://www.freewebs.com/rageagainstxbox/fx5700le_hl2_ss3.JPG

The last level of HL2. This one shows some reflections, glassy stuff, the sky, and some other stuff. Again, if I had a picture of water or something metal, it'd look so sweet you might just cry (can you tell I love this game?). One issue with graphics in this game though... as I've heard many a time, FX cards seem to have difficulty with the water reflections, I had to tone my settings down on one level to get though with a good frame rate. Usually though, all my settings are on High, Trilinear, and 1024*768. Runs smooth almost all the time. A plesant suprise to me being that on this board I was told, and I quote: "There is no PCI card out there that will be able to run games like HL2... it just isn't possible." Glad to prove that post wrong!


And now for another kick butt game... Halo for PC.

http://www.freewebs.com/rageagainstxbox/fx5700le_halo_ss1.JPG

This first picture is one that literally put me out of my seat the first time I played it. Let me tell you the story... I wanted Halo for PC (being that I don't have a fancy X-Box) but I only had Intel Integrated graphics on my MB. I had the demo of this level and it looked like a POS... literally like someone took a big one on the game and called it "graphics." I never played the X-Box version but I tried my demo with the new card and I was out of my seat. Water, particles, shadowing, metals, EVERYTHING blew me away. I tell my friends I wish I had before and after photos... it was THAT extreme.

http://www.freewebs.com/rageagainstxbox/fx5700le_halo_ss2.JPG

Picture of a banshee... nice wide open space... plays like butter, smooth and fattening.

Usually I run Halo with everything on (except "specular" which I didn't notice when 'on' anyways) and at a res of 800*600... framerate at a constant 30+/sec. I haven't had any trouble graphics wise there. I run at a lower res to ensure I get a constant frame rate all the time.

Some other games...

Call of Duty: runs great... has trouble with fire though (same in HL2 too). Everything high, 1024*768.

Red Faction (whaa! I know its old): only one thing to say, smooth as a baby's butt. Everything high. 1024*768.

Sim City 3K Unlimited (ok, I have a soft spot for sims): Everything on... yep, high at the usual res.


So there you go! Got anymore questions about the card and how it runs, give me a PM! For now, I'm gonna hit the sack and wish you all a happy new year.

[ekloot1978]

Baracade980,
Those were some sweet screenshots and some great info for anyone looking to get a good pci video card. You have a happy new year too. Bodomite, you have a happy new year as well...as well as everyone else here!

[bodomite]

Thank you so much for those pics baracade! thanks a bunch for the info on the card loot. You guys are some new friends. Happy New Year.

[ekloot1978]

Bodomite,
I think new egg does have the jaton one in stock (its the same one Baracade980 has). http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-139-166&depa=0
It shows "in stock" anyways. And they show the Apollo Monster one in stock too. Maybe they just got some more in or maybe their "in stock" statuses aren't up to date. Not sure. Just thought I'd give you a heads up. Oh and I'm glad we could be of help to you. Its always nice helping someone else avoid tons of headaches when possible. Other people on here have done it for me so I try to help others out as well when possible. This is a pretty helpful forum with a lot of great people.

[Baracade980]

Yep, no problem. I know what its like trying to find a PCI card, and all I ever got was bs when I asked for help, so its my way of balancing out the universe. And I did check if they were in stock as well, and its cheaper than when I bought it, so buy it now (or very soon)!

Remember, you got any q's give me a PM.

[kerios]

I'm using the AGP version of the 5700 LE. It's made by Inno3d.

Anyway, the card runs games released before 2003 quite well. Newer games like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 experiences lag and running at low detail is the only way to solve the problem.

My version of the card has 256mb of 128-bit memory. I overclocked it from 225Mhz to 310Mhz, and it ran quite fine. The only complaint is Half-Life 2, because it forces the game to run with low-detail graphics. I need more RAM for my PC, that's it.

[jAkUp]

Nice :) 5700 LE looks like a nice card for the money... Although I think an ATI 9550 can out perform it in most cases..

[Daneel Olivaw]

tis usually a 64bit card.

[ekloot1978]

Is there a radeon 9550 pci card out there?...pci is what Bodomite is looking for because he has no agp slot. I did try to check if there was a 9550 pci card because I thought I heard one existed but I couldn't find any. If he wasn't limited to pci then of course we'd be telling him to wait for an agp 6600 or something else :) And from what I've seen typically the 5700LE is not a 64bit card...some are...but from what I've seen most are 128bit...you just have to make sure you get the right one. Fortunately we already pointed Bodomite to a couple different 5700LE pci cards that are 128bit.

[Baracade980]

If there is a 9550 with a PCI give us a link man! But far as AGP, if I had had one I sure would've went with a 6800 or 6600OC before I went with a FX5700LE... that was my plan before I found out I had no AGP slots.

[jAkUp]

I looked and I couldn't find it... I thought I remember reading that their was a PCI version of the 9550...

[bodomite]

word! I would most likely prefer the 9550 over the 5700LE, well, first id do some research

[bodomite]

Should i take the Refurbished version? http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-139-166R&depa=1
The Apollo just sold out AGAIN!! god, its only been a day, my mom didnt leave her password to paypal so i couldnt do anyhting till she got home. OR
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-139-166&depa=1
Same thing right, 128 bits?

[Baracade980]

It is the same thing, so you'd only be saving some green.

[ekloot1978]

I'd buy the brand new one because the refurbished one says its barebones so you probably won't get the tv out adapters or anything else that might come with the brand new one. Plus the refurbished one saves you less than 5 dollars versus the new one so if I were you I'd rather be safe and go with the brand new one.

[bodomite]

This is a 128 bit right, it doesnt say http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-140-041&depa=0

[bodomite]

Yay!!! Just ordered the new card. Its the Jaton 128bit, 128MB!

[ekloot1978]

Cool Bodomite,
That's the exact one I would have got if I were you...and its the same one Baracade980 already has and he seems pretty happy with it. You'll have to let us know how everything turns out when you get the card installed and try some games.

[bodomite]

For sure! it should be here by saturday