Doesn't anyone make a 128bit memory PCI graphics card anymore?

[ekloot1978]

I'm basically just desperately trying to find a pci video card with actual 128bit memory for my friend's dell which has no agp slot. We ordered the apollo 5700le pci but found out it only had 64bit memory with riva tuner. We also ordered and tried the Jaton 5700le pci and riva tuner reported that it only had 64bit memory too...even though it was advertised to have 128bit memory! We also ran a little benchmark too just to make sure the memory bandwidth on that Jaton was really 64bit and sure enough the benchmark showed about 3.2GB/s memory bandwidth. And a lot of the pci 5200's and 5500's seem to be 64bit now as well where I don't think all of them were before. What's the deal...are there any 128bit pci cards out there anymore?

[saturnotaku]

I think there might be a Radeon 9100 or something that is, but that's based on the 8500 which is DirectX 8.1 compatible only. Otherwise you may be SOL.

[ricercar]

Very strange. All NV36 (GeForce 5700 LE/5700/5700 Ultra) PCI cards should have a 128-bit memory bus, unless the card vendor changed the reference design to save money (fancy that...).

Makes me wonder about Jaton's dependability as never before. Is this the one you tested?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-139-166&depa=0
Memory Configuration 400MHz 128MB 128-bit DDR

Here's a NV34 (5200) PCI that says 128-bit...
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-087&depa=0
Memory Configuration 256MB DDR/128-bit

[ChrisRay]

Most all of 256 low end PCI cards are 128 Bit. But you almost have to have a 256 meg card for the 128 bit configuration and a PCI bus which kinda sucks. I have a 5200 PCI card layen around here with 256 megs of memory and 128 bit bus.

[TierMann]

Isn't LE for Lite Edition?
I just read somewhere here about someone buying a card from ebay and getting an LE that was 64-bit...
Lemme see if I can find it.

Not what I was looking for, but here's another example. http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=573063
No luck, but here's another suggestion that it's 64bit in which you posted, ekloot. http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44877

Anyways, I would try a plain 5700 and see how that works out.

[ekloot1978]

Yeah its getting really confusing on which models are 64bit or not these days...all the manufacturers seem to be changing their specs. Not all of the 5700LE's are 64 bit (yet)...but all the pci ones seem to be...and pci is the only way my friend can go since he has no agp slot and doesn't want to upgrade the whole system.

Ricercar, and yes Jaton seems to have switched their 5700LE to a 64bit memory bus as well...their whole website has changed within the last week and if you look at their pci 5700LE specs it now says its 64bit even though new egg still says 128 bit. When my friend got his Jaton pci 5700LE card we installed riva tuner and it said it was 64 bit and we also ran a little memory bandwidth utility which said it had a bandwidth of about 3.2GB/s which means 64bit so it looks like Jaton sucks now (at least for pci).

Also, I saw the link to the chaintech 5200 card...that might be a good option if it really is still 128bit...I'll check the chaintech site out to see their specs...although I did that with Jaton and it changed recently enough to where we still got screwed and had to return the card :(

I appreciate all the reponses though...this really does help. I wish the manufacturers would stop playing these games though and just use 128bit memory or at least all of them should post their real specs on their boxes and on their websites to be clear...its kind of shady of them to use the same model numbers and have some cards perform well and others castrated in performance by cheap memory.

[MustangSVT]

Wouldn't 128-bit memory on PCI card be useless since the PCI slot is so slow anyway?

My best advice is for your friend to go and buy an AGP motherboard. With the money you spend on the two FX5700LE's, he could've probably gotten one of those Infotek 9550GU for $95 which is basically a 9600 Pro or a used Ti4200 and a cheap AGP motherboard.

How much can a mobo be anyway?? If he's on Socket 462, it's like $40-$45 for a cheap KT600 mobo from like Epox, or like $50-$55 for a NF2 mobo. And if he's on P4, a cheap 865PE can be had for like $70. Pair that with a $50 SH Ti4200, and that Ti4200 would kill any of the cards mentioned by you. In fact, it'd be even faster than a real 128-bit FX5600U or FX5700 on AGP..

[ekloot1978]

No, 128bit on pci is still necessary...the 5700LE 64bit cards played everything even slower and choppier than his current geforce mx440 pci card (which is 128bit). And he returned both of the different geforce 5700LE pci cards so its not like he wasted any money since he was refunded.

And yes it would be nice if he could just upgrade his motherboard and everything but he has a dell and I don't know if he can just slap in some other motherboard (plus that powersupply on that thing probably wouldn't even power it). And that would mean that he might have to buy another case and powersupply then...but the new motherboard might not have onboard sound like he has now so then he'd have to buy a new sound card. And then I don't know if his backup copy of windows xp for his dell would activate correctly on the new system (since it wouldn't be a dell anymore) so there's always the slight chance he might need to buy that (but I'm not sure about that so that one might be a non-issue). So it could get fairly pricey and he's not looking to spend much money. I actually told him he might want to think about upgrading though...I think he wants to wait another year or year and a half before buying a whole new system...he wouldn't build one because he doesn't know how and he seems to like just purchasing the whole thing (and at the moment I don't think his fiancee wants him spending a bunch of money on a whole new computer just to be able to play a few games unfortunately). So that's why I'm trying to just find him a card that will play games decently even if its on low settings.

[Mehbody]

but the new motherboard might not have onboard sound like he has now so then he'd have to buy a new sound card. And then I don't know if his backup copy of windows xp for his dell would activate correctly on the new system (since it wouldn't be a dell anymore) so there's always the slight chance he might need to buy that (but I'm not sure about that so that one might be a non-issue). So it could get fairly pricey and he's not looking to spend much money. I actually told him he might want to think about upgrading though...I think he wants to wait another year or year and a half before buying a whole new system...he wouldn't build one because he doesn't know how and he seems to like just purchasing the whole thing (and at the moment I don't think his fiancee wants him spending a bunch of money on a whole new computer just to be able to play a few games unfortunately)

1. It's hard to find a motherboard that _doesn't_ have onboard sound these days. The AC'97 is so cheap to put on any board (i think) and nvidia has the nforce soundstorm, and there's many off-brands of onboard sound chips.
2. It should work, unless he totally junks the Dell computer, or the backup copy forces it's ugly software and driver configs to it. Once again, it depends if it's a Dell ghost copy (likely) or the OEM Dell version (unlikely, i think)
3. I will agree about the money. But tell him to start saving a small amount now, and in a year or so he would have built up enough money to build his own computer. Guides help at this part.

Otherwise, you know, just check Newegg, pricewatch, froogle and ebay for those cheap deals that come up every once in a awhile.

I got great fps with UT2003 at 320x240, just imagine a FX5200 128-bit at 640x480! :D

[ragejg]

Wouldn't 128-bit memory on PCI card be useless since the PCI slot is so slow anyway?

on a P4 2.8ghz rig or so, a radeon 9100 128 bit scores like 6500-8500 in '01, while the 64 bit version, and the 9000's and 9200's with 64 bit mem interface all get like 3.5-5k, IIRC...

[DrCR]

I believe there's a PCI version of the Inno3D (clueless on the rep. of this manf.) FX5600 and FX5700LE. Not sure either were trimmed down to 64bit either though.

The Inno3D FX5700LE 256MB is apparently 256bit as per this vendor.
http://www.amamax.com/amamax/gefx5712ddr1.html

Vendor rating: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2027.html

Hope this helps.

DrCR

_________

[ekloot1978]

Yeah, those Inno3d 256MB cards probably are the best option since they appear to be 128bit memory cards. I'll tell my friend about it. Thanks for the suggestion. Not sure if the 5600 version or 5700LE version would be faster but they can't be too much different. I think he is thinking about cheaping out and saving his money though (probably for a new system next year) because he saw some ati radeon 9250 pci's that were 128bit and refurbished on new egg and they were between like 60 and 80 dollars. I prefer nvidia myself but maybe if he just gets one of those cards he can keep most of his money for a real upgrade later on. Does anyone have any experiences with some of these refurbished cards from new egg? This whole thing basically started just because battlefield vietnam doesn't render quite right on his geforce mx440 card since it doesn't have pixel or vertex shaders. So he's basically just looking to play that and have it look correctly and maybe another game or two.

[ekloot1978]

oh, and which do you guys think would be faster anyways?...one of those refurbished ati 256MB 128bit 9250 pci cards or a geforce 5200 128bit pci card (if one could be found)?

[Baracade980]

ekloot... since I have the same Jaton 5700le card mentioned earlier I ran a few tests as well. It seems I also got the 64bit card that says its 128bit from Newegg. Nothing I can do about it now, but did you and your friend at least try it in a game or two? I know for me it plays wonderfully in Halo, Half-life 2, and in Call of Duty, all with high settings. Oh well, I think you said he already returned them. Personally, I'd say go with Mehbody's suggestion and get a new motherboard, or save up. Deffinately get him to BUILD his own, I regret not building my own when I had the chance. I'm sure theres a book or two out there that could help. As far as which of the cards could be faster, I have no idea, but I remember ppl saying the 9250 was ok.

[ekloot1978]

Baracade980,
Hello again...I remember talking with you when we tried to help out a guy named Bodomite who was in a similar situation. Did you install riva tuner to find out if that card was 64bit or did you run some memory bandwidth benchmark?...I found a good one but I can't remember the link right now...I have the link saved at home. My friend only has battlefield vietnam and he said that the game seemed a little more choppy than with his mx440 geforce with is 128bit I believe. At first I was thinking it might all be in his head but he said this before we found out the 5700Le was 64 bit. It seems kind of crappy that new egg is misinforming people. Jaton has just updated their own website with the correct information within the last week or two though so at least that's something. I'll definately try to convince him to save up and just build or buy a new system. I build my own computers so I can help him if he would be willing to go the non-storebought route. I think for now he doesn't want to spend much money at all and wait another year or so...which is why he is looking at some of those cheap 128bit refurbished radeon 9250 pci's to get by for now and then he can save the rest of the money and make a big upgrade at a later time. I hate this whole 128bit/64bit crap on the low end cards though. Between the million different model numbers, suffixes (se, le, xt, ect.), and memory games...its getting impossible for anyone to know exactly what they are buying these days...especially when they leave information off the box or spec sheet (such as memory bandwidth information). I appreciate all the help and info from everyone though.

[Baracade980]

I used the Riva Tuner like you mentioned above. Yes it turned out to be 64bit, after it said 128bit on newegg AND on the package! I was fairly annoyed as you can imagine. I looked at Jaton's site after seeing this thread and they don't list bits as far as I could tell (their site is also incomplete I think). I remember a long time ago someone found me a 5700LE with 256mb and 256bit but I can't recall the link now. But yes, this whole situation is quite annoying overall. But, I can't do anything about my situation now, maybe these guys will help u and your friend get a quality PCI card.

[ekloot1978]

Yeah, hopefully my friend will end up with something decent so he can play games for now. There was a 128bit 256MB pci card from Inno3d...maybe that was the card you can't remember the link to? DrCR posed the link to that card a few posts back in this thread. That is probably the best option since everything else seems to be 64bit or slow...although that card is something like $149 so I'm not sure if it is worthit for my friend. I guess it all depends on how good of a system it is going into. My friend's system is kind of slow so that was part of the reason he is probably going to try to find something cheap...but still 128bit hopefully...since he'll probably have to upgrade in about a year or so anyways.

[ekloot1978]

Well, just to give everybody an update...my friend got that ati radeon 9250 256MB 128bit pci card. Right after he got it installed he started up battlefield vietnam and he couldn't believe how well it ran compared to the 64bit 5700LE and especially compared to the mx440 (big surprise there haha). We installed Riva tuner and it said the radeon was 128bit as well...as it should be. So far he seems pretty happy. Hopefully any other game he ends up buying will run fine too...but so far so good. Thanks to everyone for the help...and tell everyone to stay away from those 64bit cards!!

[DrCR]

Glad it worked out well for you! :)