Thinkin on buyin a Nvidia graphics card ?

dannymay86

Geek Trainee
Hey people, i have got an VIA/S3G UniChrome IGP video card and cannot play any recent game at all. So i am considering buyin an Nvidia card but dont know which one. I also dont know what card would be compatible with my computer. So this is some infomation about my computer,wat do you guys think would be best? Sorry if there is too much infomation..

CPU Properties
CPU Type AMD Athlon XP, 2166 MHz (6.5 x 333) 2700+
CPU Alias Thoroughbred-B
CPU Stepping B0
L1 Code Cache 64 KB
L1 Data Cache 64 KB
L2 Cache 256 KB (On-Die, Full-Speed)


Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 06/26/2003-KM400-8235-6A6LYM4BC-00
Motherboard Name MSI MS-6786

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type DEC Alpha EV6
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 167 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 333 MHz
Bandwidth 2666 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 167 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 333 MHz
Bandwidth 2666 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties
Bus Type VIA V-Link
Bus Width 8-bit
Real Clock 67 MHz (ODR)
Effective Clock 533 MHz
Bandwidth 533 MB/s

Motherboard Physical Info
CPU Sockets/Slots 1
Expansion Slots 3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR
RAM Slots 2 DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio, Video, LAN
Form Factor Micro ATX
Motherboard Chipset KM400

Motherboard Manufacturer
Company Name Micro-Star International
Product Information MSI -- MICRO-STAR INT'L CO.,LTD.
BIOS Download http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_list.php
Physical Memory
Total 447 MB
Used 297 MB
Free 150 MB
Utilization 66 %

Swap Space
Total 1604 MB
Used 270 MB
Free 1333 MB
Utilization 17 %

Virtual Memory
Total 2051 MB
Used 567 MB
Free 1483 MB
Utilization 28 %

Chipset Properties
Motherboard Chipset VIA VT8378 UniChrome KM400
In-Order Queue Depth 4
CAS Latency 2.5T

Integrated Graphics Controller
Graphics Controller Type VIA/S3 UniChrome
Graphics Controller Status Enabled
Graphics Frame Buffer Size 64 MB

Memory Slots
DRAM Slot #1 512 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)

AGP Properties
AGP Version 3.05
AGP Status Enabled
AGP Aperture Size 128 MB
Supported AGP Speeds 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x
Current AGP Speed 4x
Fast-Write Not Supported
Side Band Addressing Supported, Enabled
 
You'll need to get a card in AGP format. PCI simply doesn't offer the bandwidth, and PCI Express (PCIe, completely different from PCI) isn't an option.

What kind of games are you looking to play?
How much are you looking to spend?
 
Anythin up till about £100 really. I have downloaded a couple of games that dont work. The new Scarface game, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life 2. basically all the decent 3D games. I got told it that my card is only 32mb and not directx supported or something. But I use to have a computer before this one, same make (Packard Bell), with an Nvidia graphics card. So I just thought id go and buy another one of them. Whats the different between AGP and PCI? Thanks
 
AGP is a dedicated graphics slot and bus on the motherboard, it is much faster than plain PCI, PCI isn't an option for good graphics performance.

PCI Express (PCIe) is a totally different bus, it is the successor to AGP and you don't have a PCIe slot on your motherboard. You should be able to get a decent AGP card for that price.

This looks like a good deal: ebuyer.com - Graphics Cards » Graphics Cards Nvidia » nVIDIA PCI-Express Range » Product details

That's an AGP card, so it should just install into your motherboard, assuming you have a good quality power supply.
 
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