Graphics Cards

mostirreverent · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 4:29 am Post subject: Graphics Cards

Ok, i am going to up grade an old Dell P4 2Gig Optiplex 260 tower syestem. I need more video memory, and could always use some more power.

I Need Open GL, and not softwar emulated. this will be for CAD work and not gaming. i dont care about gaming at all!

i would just assume get more Ram then the next model up in a product line. something like 64 MB

So, questions:

1. the Dell has both a 4X APG and PCI slots. I am asuming the APG is a better option. Yes/No

2. Is 8X APG always compatible witth a 4x card.

3. what do i have to spend to get a card say 2X as fast as the onboard chip set of Intel's 845G chip set

any sugestions? nVidia seems to be the beter cad card. what are all thes companies that say they are nvidia. are they just using their chipsets.

monosodium · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:39 am Post subject:

AGP definitely better. AGP x anything will work in any AGP slot and the board or the system will drop to the top speed of the slowest component (ie an 8x AGP in a 4x slow will drop to 4x and vice-versa). The 845 chipset is ok, but any dedicated hardware will be massively faster.

For CAD work any low-end gaming card will do, try to get something with a DVI as well as VGA output and make the screen your next upgrade too (unless it can handle DVI already). The technology for gaming and CAD are essentially the same.

I don't keep up with hardware models etc so I can't recommend anything, but you shouldn't need to pay much to get what you need. 50 quid should be ample.

stavpal · Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:59 pm Post subject:

I was going to say nVidia Quadro but all the new ones are pci-x except one that is pci-32
Maybe search around

mostirreverent · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 6:03 am Post subject:

Why have they given up on the AGP? i can see it being a pain for motherborad makers. but bus speads of PCI seem to lag a bit in terms of evolution and if they up grade AGP, they can just keep the PCI as it is (once the express speed is exceeded by a new AGP).

oh well. i just was trying not to buy something that was slower than the intel chip set. ive also heard a lot of boards crash the dell for some reason.

the cheapest ive seen is Quadro4 700 XGL that Supports RealView

monosodium · Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:16 pm Post subject:

Mosti - I think you've misread stavpal there and I think stavpal missed the boat on what you need and what you have.

You don't have pci-x (PCI Express) on your machine which is actually way faster than AGP and can be used for lots of things. PCI Express is a whole different animal which happens to share the name.

stavpal is caught up in some kind of

There are still plenty of AGP cards around and most of the low-end gaming ones will do what you want, be way faster and not break a sweat doing it.

~ Mono

mostirreverent · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:49 pm Post subject:

i decided to try a refirbished 64MB PNY Quadro4 700 XGL AGP 4x Dual DVI/VGA DDR VCQ4700XGLBLK for 40 bucks. the 750 would have been nice with 128, but it was 200. i should be happy with the 64 for a while.

http://www.compuvest.com/Description.jsp?iid=189128