Suggestions on Video Card

[mvanhoy]

I am looking to upgrade my card to run this incredible program. Any suggestions on a good card that will run this program well and be inexpensive. Thanks.

[MERC]

It probably depends on your budget, but here is my experience from a PC perspective:

ATI cards will not show fog (on a PC). I have now went to a 3D Prophet II Mx which does not have any limitations and have not had any problems with it.

[Chupacabra]

What are your current system specs? If you have an older machine, you'll probably get better mileage out of upgrading your processor and/or adding RAM than you would by adding a new video card.

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Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

[mvanhoy]

I have a Dell Dimension XPS D233 (PII).

I have 64Meg of ram.

I believe the bus speed on the processor is 60Mhz.

I have an STB velocity 128 with 4Meg RAM (I believe)

For starters, I was going to get a 300MHz processor.

Help and thanks,

MikeV

[Schrullenhaft]

Both a CPU upgrade and a video upgrade should improve your CM experience (if you can afford both).

Your computer is a bit older, so some of the newer video cards on the market are probably going to be unusuable in your Dell. It's based on an older chipset that will most likely have problems with some of the latest AGP cards.

ATI video cards on the PC don't display fog in CM. The Voodoo 3 series has some texture problems at high resolution. Newer Voodoos and GeForces are too powerful to use with your system (your CPU wouldn't be able to keep up - so it would be a waste of money).

My suggestion would be to purchase an NVidia TNT2 based video card in either PCI or AGP. If you purchase a 32Mb AGP version there is a possibility that you may have problems trying to use it in your machine. If you get the PCI version (16 or 32Mb) it may be less likely to have a problem. Wherever you purchase your video card check to make sure you can return it for credit, etc. if you have a compatibility problem.

I'd also suggest updating your system to the latest driver versions you can find. CM has excellent sound effects, so you'll want to be sure that your sound card is up to snuff in playback.

The latest BIOS is A09 (which you should see on the screen when the memory is being counted). If you're several versions behind this I would suggest updating your BIOS, but be careful and follow the instructions carefully.

Dell Dimension XPS D series BIOS (v. A09, dated 9-20-99):

http://support.dell.com/us/en/filelib/system.asp?sid=DIM_PNT_PII_XPS_D___&m=l&p=1

Dell doesn't necessarily have the latest version of the drivers for your hardware, so you may want to look at the OEM sites (i.e. Creative for Sound Blasters, etc.).

Dell Dimension XPS Dxxx Drivers (you'll need to know exactly what hardware you have since Dell offered several configurations):

http://support.dell.com/us/en/filelib/system.asp?sid=DIM_PNT_PII_XPS_D___

[mvanhoy]

Thanks for the advice. I flashed the BIOS to version 9 which took some time. I updated to version 8 of direct X. That seemed to really help with "shift" scrolling around the screen.

Along the lines of the AGP card, that is what I have now. What parameters do I need to look out for? Bus speeed (i have 66MHz)? Multiplier on card, that is, 1X, 2X or 4X. I imagine as old as my computer is that I could only do 1X.

It looked like the Creative Labs 3D blaster Riva TNT2 M64 32MB Nvidia might work. Anyone have any good or bad experiences with that card?

Thanks

[Schrullenhaft]

The AGP multiplier shouldn't be much of a big deal. The TNT M64 only supports 1X & 2X (your chipset probably only supports 1X - an Intel LX chipset).

One problem with AGP cards with a lot of memory is the electrical current requirements from the AGP slot. Some motherboards and power supplies are unable to provide the needed amount of current to power the cards properly. This results in either lockups or your computer not booting. This happened to many Super Socket 7 and LX chipset-based motherboards.

The Creative Labs NVidia cards have worked fine for me in the past (I have a TNT2 Ultra that hasn't given me any problems in CM). Again, make sure that there is a generous return/exchange policy when you purchase the video card in case of compatibility problems. I'm not sure if Dell tech support can be more informative on video card compatibility with your particular system. They may recommend some of the cards that they sell (or the higher end of the cards that they originally offered with that particular system) - which may not be as high performance as you're looking for.