Video Card Upgrade - Dimension 4100

What's ur price range?

R/
Don I

D4400
XP Home SP2
Bios A06
P4 2.8 GHz 400 FSB (Finally!!)
1024MB RAM
BFG 6200 OC 256 MB AGP

 

I'm looking to minimize my investment in this machine.  So, my first priority is to meet the minimum specs.  If a $50 card will work and play that game consistently, I'll be happy.  If it takes more to make it work properly, then I just need to know that.

For 50 the lowest card I would go is a Geforce FX 5500.  Heres a link for 5500 cards.  Pick one, they all vary in prices and dont worry about memory.  Dont bother getting a 256 just get a 128.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Go&DEPA=0&type=&description=5500+agp&Category=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

(These cards will play ur game with no problem.  It will also play the newer games.)

R/
Don I

D4400
XP Home SP2
Bios A06
P4 2.8 GHz 400 FSB (Finally!!)
1024MB RAM
BFG 6200 OC 256 MB AGP

Message Edited by Don I on 07-12-2005 01:55 PM

Answer for ur other question

Transform & Lighting (T&L)
Two separate engines on the GPU that provide for a powerful, balanced PC platform and enable extremely high polygon count scenes. Transform performance determines how complex objects can be and how many can appear in a scene without sacrificing frame rate. Lighting techniques add to a scene's realism by changing the appearance of objects based on light sources.

R/
Don I

D4400
XP Home SP2
Bios A06
P4 2.8 GHz 400 FSB (Finally!!)
1024MB RAM
BFG 6200 OC 256 MB AGP

 

A Geforce FX5200 is OK but the 5500 is better sometimes by 100 percent or more due to some Geforce FX5200'S having 64 bit vs 128 bit video ram interface.


Here is a compare with a 4100 and TUALTIN 1.2GHZ update. Your results with a 5200 ULTRA card or a 5500 should be close if not Exactly the same. The OS here is XP SP2 with 256 megs of ram and NVIDIA drivers 56.72 directX 9.0C. The only thing that changed was the VIDEO card. The system stayed the same.



3DMARK2001 PROJECT FILE

PROJECT
Name My Benchmark
Description
Registration Name
Registration Key
3DMark Version 330

DISPLAY
Platform NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro (Microsoft Corporation)
CPU Optimization D3D Software T&L
Width 1024
Height 768
Depth 32 bit
Z-Buffering 24 bit
Texture Format 32 bit
Buffering Double
Refresh Rate 60 Hz
FSAA Mode None

RESULTS
3DMark Score 894
Game 1 - Car Chase - Low Detail 16.6 fps
Game 1 - Car Chase - High Detail 8.5 fps
Game 2 - Dragothic - Low Detail 12.6 fps
Game 2 - Dragothic - High Detail 7.2 fps
Game 3 - Lobby - Low Detail 12.7 fps
Game 3 - Lobby - High Detail 8.0 fps
Game 4 - Nature Not supported by hardware
Fill Rate (Single-Texturing) 96.2 MTexels/s
Fill Rate (Multi-Texturing) 110.6 MTexels/s
High Polygon Count (1 Light) 2.8 MTriangles/s
High Polygon Count (8 Lights) 1.9 MTriangles/s
Environment Bump Mapping Not supported by hardware
DOT3 Bump Mapping Not supported by hardware
Vertex Shader 13.1 fps
Pixel Shader Not supported by hardware
Advanced Pixel Shader Not supported by hardware
Point Sprites 0.9 MSprites/s


************************************************
3DMARK2001 PROJECT FILE

PROJECT
Name My Benchmark
Description
Registration Name
Registration Key
3DMark Version 330

DISPLAY
Platform NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (Microsoft Corporation)
CPU Optimization D3D Pure Hardware T&L
Width 1024
Height 768
Depth 32 bit
Z-Buffering 24 bit
Texture Format Compressed
Buffering Double
Refresh Rate 60 Hz
FSAA Mode None


RESULTS
3DMark Score 4409
Game 1 - Car Chase - Low Detail 69.9 fps
Game 1 - Car Chase - High Detail 22.4 fps
Game 2 - Dragothic - Low Detail 68.8 fps
Game 2 - Dragothic - High Detail 43.8 fps
Game 3 - Lobby - Low Detail 70.0 fps
Game 3 - Lobby - High Detail 33.1 fps
Game 4 - Nature 16.8 fps
Fill Rate (Single-Texturing) 330.6 MTexels/s
Fill Rate (Multi-Texturing) 700.2 MTexels/s
High Polygon Count (1 Light) 25.2 MTriangles/s
High Polygon Count (8 Lights) 4.7 MTriangles/s
Environment Bump Mapping 61.6 fps
DOT3 Bump Mapping 41.2 fps
Vertex Shader 36.5 fps
Pixel Shader 44.0 fps
Advanced Pixel Shader 24.6 fps
Point Sprites 8.8 MSprites/s

I dont think Fx5500 is worth for 50 bucks. try Asus Radeon 9550
trust me its much better than a 5500. heres the link.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121511

Nvidia FX5200 < FX5200 ULTRA < FX5500 > Radeon 9550.

skip FX5XXX they r not good based on my exp. For example
in Half-life 2 Im getting 30FPS with a 5200 while 60FPS
with a 9550 btw I got a 3dmarkscore of 8200 smething with a radeon 9550.