Graphics Card for Phoenix

[Guest]

Hi,

I need to improve the performance of Phoenix. I have a PC which originally was a basic server. I cant remember what processor it has but its only a year or so old. It has 4Gb RAM and a PNY Verto 128Mb NVidia GeForce FX 5200 graphics card - PCI, not PCI-E.

Is the 128Mb the limiting factor causing me to have to run it on the lowest graphics settings? I have the latest Vista OS drivers for it from Nvidia.
I can get a 256Mb PCI card for about £40 - would it make a big difference?

How might it work on a MacBook running Boot Camp:

with Intel GMA 950 graphics processor using 64MB (64MiB) of DDR2 SDRAM shared by main memory (up to 224MB in Windows through Boot Camp)

The motherboard is fairly basic - there are only 2 normal PCI slots and PCI-E x1, x2 and x8 - most current graphics cards are PCI-E x16.

Many thanks,
Jack

[Made2Fade]

I think you'll be struggled to find a descent pci card these days. Unless you purchase a second hand job or possibly ebay. Ideally you should at least have an agp slot. Mattydred uses a geforce 8500 256mb agp card and his runs with everything turned on. Aim for a card with lots of ram either way. Im currently running an 8800 640mb pci-e card and graphics wise its flawless. Ideally you wanna be running something like that but they aint the cheapest. Your gonna be very limited with pci or even agp nowadays.
Good luck
Cheers
Lee

[Guest]

Thanks Lee,

I am going to double check but I dont think it has an AGP slot. It was hard enough getting a non express pci graphics card about 8 months ago just so Windows Movie Maker would run. There are a few on eBay and Dabs.co.uk.

I will look at the motherboard of a different PC i have spare and see what that can offer.

[Made2Fade]

I tell a lie mate, just double checked and mattys is this card and is 256mb pci not agp. So looks like you may be fine. Matty says his system reports his card as 512mb though so either it partly shares memory or they gave him a 512mb version by mistake lol. This is teh card anyways... its only a sparkle:-
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Top-end-pci-gr...QQcmdZViewItem
Either way IMO if you can somehow change the motherboard or even purchase a cheap one with a 16x pci-e or an agp slot then you can get very cheap 512mb cards these days and they should all play phoenix rc very easily.
cheers
Lee

[shotgun]

Graphics card for phoenix

Hi Jack

I run Phoenix on my iMAC via bootcamp and it works fine with no problems - try it and see how you get on.

[Guest]

Nice one Lee, I may just do that. Il go up to Computer Exchange in a bit and see what they have there.

Jack

[Guest]

Hi Jack

I run Phoenix on my iMAC via bootcamp and it works fine with no problems - try it and see how you get on.

Ah, good to know. Which graphics card do you have in an iMac?

[cambs flyer]

Lee would the card mentioned above require at least a 400Watt PSU do you think?

[Made2Fade]

hmmm well it would probably be fine on 350watt but only if he wasnt running much to be honest. Ideally you should go 400+ like. It all depends what other gear hes running and how much of it really. Maybe Matty can chip in here and tell us what hes currently using? Matt?
Alot of people forget about the PSU and its one of the most important things really. Good question Wayne i like ur style.
The card i suggested isnt really a high powered card so as i say depending on whats already being run in the system then he may be fine. He might even already have a psu larger than 400w? Jack?
Cheers
Lee

[cambs flyer]

Thanks mate, it's like my Dell Desktop, that came with a 300W PSU so later on I changed it to a 450W, I always think the cooler you can make a PC run the better it works.

Which reminds me I must purchase another 2GB of DDR2, trouble is my present memory runs at 533mhz, and the modules I'm looking at run closer to 800mhz, still the extra open space will be of benefit anyway.

[Made2Fade]

Yip the bigger the better really, will take the load off and make things run cooler/better and more efficient If it was me though id ditch the board and even get a cheap one with a pci-e slot. Its always gonna be difficult to source pci stuff as its fast becoming obsolete for graphics. And the ones you can get for them are not that good really. Most will only just do the job. Just as well phoenix isnt a graphics eater then.
Nice to see you posting again Wayne, ill get that phone call made to ya one night mate lol Its all this bloody running around for xmas. Its over rated if ya ask me. Bah humbug!
cheers
Lee

[mattydred]

hi, i got win xp, a 2.8proccessor, 1gig ram, 8500gt 256mb pci card, 750wpsu

the graphics card shows up in the bios/system settings as being 512mb.
i bought the 750w psu because i thought i had an agp slot and was going to get a card that needed 700w but then i found out it was pci.

the 8500gt 256mb is the best card you can get for pci.

my phoenix runs fine in single player with all the settings on high.

matty

[Guest]

Thanks guys. I will have a look at the PSU on this PC but I have just found that an unused PC I have has an Asus A8N-VM CSM Motherboard which has a spare PCI-E x16 slot and a 450W PSU.

Should be problem solved when I get a decent card for it

[cambs flyer]

Yip the bigger the better really, will take the load off and make things run cooler/better and more efficient If it was me though id ditch the board and even get a cheap one with a pci-e slot. Its always gonna be difficult to source pci stuff as its fast becoming obsolete for graphics. And the ones you can get for them are not that good really. Most will only just do the job. Just as well phoenix isnt a graphics eater then.
Nice to see you posting again Wayne, ill get that phone call made to ya one night mate lol Its all this bloody running around for xmas. Its over rated if ya ask me. Bah humbug!
cheers
Lee

Yea it's amazing how quickly parts go out of fashion.

TBH my Dell P4 3.0GHZ 2GB DDR2 RAM, 256MB Graphics card does as good a job as the day I brought it four years next Feb, I'm not into Video Games of any kind, it's used for the Net, Phoenix, this forum and general purpose usage purchasing stuff, etc

Plus its download rate is Porntatsic (Just getting that one in there before one of you buggers do, lol)

And in all honesty the software I use now even though it's been updated countless times requires very little extra performance possibly 3%, It's like a Demon with Adobe PS CS2 & Bridge, and if she can manage that then I can't see any point of upgrading soon.

I used to build my own systems and my Dell 5000 was the first prebuilt system I swore I'd never buy, but I couldn't build it cheaper then they were selling them with a 17" TFT.

My Cousin has just brought a £400 Dell set up with 2gb ram, 18.5 widescreen, 250gb hdd etc and again the build is blinding as is the speed.

MY Dell Inspiron 1520 runs Phoenix with no probs and that has a Intel mobile Celeron CPU and just 1gb of RAM, for me mate so long as the hardware does the job and doesn't start causing slowing down issues I'll run them until they die a natural death, so to speak.

I know someone who still uses he's P3 1GHZ Lappy with a Gig of RAM and is quite happy with it's performance, I think PC's from five years upwards have so much power that the "its useless from the point of purchase" myth is just that.

I'd be interested what anyone else might have to say on this subject, it's always good for some healthy opinions.

PS thanks mate, it's a struggle, but at least the tears don't flow as fast or easy now, I still feel like B@ll@cks in all honesty but trying to stay focused is quite demanding, but I'm accepting the situation that if it didn't happen now it would have done sometime next year as you know, the pit holes were becoming ever so much wider, but like anything you try and make excuses for it being other things.

Apart from you chaps who have been great I've been amazed how many mates I haven't seen in a while have come to see me, and in the new year do some stuff, every little bit helps.

Shit.....sorry mate didn't mean to hijack your thread.....