Wal-Mart Video Cards - Opinions?

[leeave96]

Wal-Mart Video Cards - Opinions?

I happened by Walmart today and noticed they carry several "game" cards, that I assume are DirectX. I say I assume because it I gather that "games" are generally run on DirectX stuff?

Some of these cards had 256 mb of ram (I think I saw MB vs K - it's been a long day

Price, just over $100.

Anyone bought their video cards from Walmart, what did you choose and how's it working.

I ask because I assume that Alibre went with DirectX to allow buy a decent video card for less than the price of the Alibre itself.

If this is an OK route, I might invest in one to speed-up this old machine a bit.

Thanks!
Bill

 

[macinc]

A card with a faster GPU and less VRAM will yeild better results than a slower GPU and more VRAM. An example would be an nVidia 6600 w/256 will end up bogging easier than an nVidia 6600GT w/128. However it is a good idea to have at least 128 meg of VRAM. Wal-Mart carries PNY and XFX which are both good names. I have an XFX 6600GT from MWave.com and smoked it (after overclocking it too far :twisted
XFX replaced it for free with no hassle.

If they have it in stock and you have only a PCI slot I would go with this:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=4087778

You can probably get it from Best Buy as well.

If you have an AGP 4x/8x slot you could get the AGP version, but I would spend a little more and go with this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814133137

When you get into the +$100 range, often the selection and prices on a site like Newegg is better than a Best Buy or Circuit City.

The 6600GT is much faster than the 5500. You will notice this difference in larger assemblies or with parts like springs. There is a 6800GT as well, but it is twice the price of the 6600GT, but only about 10% faster. I wouldn't bother with a regular 6600 as the performance loss from the GT is quite a bit.

Both the PNY flavor of the 5500 and all the 6600GTs are DX9 compatable which you now need for Alibre 8.2.

All of these are nVidia chips, ATI has a compatable range as well, but I have had better luck with Alibre using the nVidia chips. You usually won't find much current ATI at Wal-Mart, and stay away from "All-In-Wonder"

ATI Radeon 9550 = nVidia 5500
ATI Radeon 9600 = nVidia 6600
ATI 9000 series #s are AGP
ATI Xxxx series #s are PCI xpress (newest computers)

Tommorows class -- "Do we really need SLI?"

Matt

 

[leeave96]

Matt,

Much thinks for your reply!

I am reading and researching this video card upgrade and am learning better about what I have and what's out there and the limitations to my machine.

Firstly, I have a 200W power supply, soooo, that is a limit!

Secondly, I stopped by Walmart and here's what they have:

BFG Tech GForce FX 5500 OC (OC = over clocked), 256mb, both PCI & APG versions. $130 & 120 respectively. I haven't been able to find out the power requirements of this one yet.

ATI Radeon 9550 8X/4X 256 mb. It is $125. From what I can find, it requires a 250W power supply. Won't work.

BTW, my Dell has a 4X AGP slot. My guess is that limits the performance of cards like the 9550 in that it could never run at 8X.

Also, my current video card is a 32MB DDR nVidia GeForce2 GTS. Any opinions on this card?

Thanks again,
Bill

 

[bscott.arc-tech.com]

Re:

Firstly, I have a 200W power supply, soooo, that is a limit!

Ouch. You'll want to upgrade that before you upgrade anything else. Most PCs with a PSU that small tend to be right on the edge for power consumption. Indeed, most such PCs tend to be right on the edge for everything... you may find that your case is too small, or lacks enough cooling, to take a more powerful card.

Budget buying sometimes costs more in the long run...

 

[macinc]

Bill,

You are right, 200W is not going to work well with a newer card. This is what I would do with $120.

Power supply.....get a good one.....a cheap power supply may not regulate the voltages properly and can cause things like no boot, bsds, lock ups and crashes. Assuming your mobo is ATX, I would get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817103449

$39

For video I would get this: (Rosewill brand is fine, most are made by the same mfgs for different companies)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814164009

$63

or if you want ATI: (I haven't had much luck with ATI cards)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814131243

I wouldn't worry about 4x instead of 8x, you wouldn't notice any real difference, and Alibre is not going to saturate the 4x bus anyways. This artical may be helpful in explaining a little about AGP 4x/8x:

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/vi ... d=3&id=604

And if you were going to spend a little more ($100? much more is not worth it).....

1st RAM, the more the better...accessing the HD is always the slow road.
2nd CPU speed...put in the fastest cpu your board will take....CAD likes to make a lot of math and older cpus are quite inexpensive now.

Hope this helps,

Matt

p.s. -- The OC on the BFG card is a marketing gimmick, it is for benchmark frame rate watchers. You would not notice any difference in Alibre with or without the overclock, cpu speed is much more important with Alibre.