Advice on possible upgrade sought...

External Since: Apr 29, 2005 Posts: 10

Greetings gentles all...

Following the death of my old 17-inch CRT monitor, I've just
replaced it with a new 19-inch flat-screen model. This has a DVI
connector but my current graphics card is d-sub only.

So - as I'm out of touch with AGP specs and compatibilities, I
need advice regarding a possible upgrade of the graphics card.

My system:

Mobo - MSI K7T Turbo (MS6030 v. 3, last BIOS update issued by MSI
installed)
AMD Athlon 1.3ghz Thunderbird CPU
GeForce2 MX graphics card
512MB system RAM
450 watt Enermax PSU

I can't find much about the AGP slot on the mobo either in the
manual, on MSI's website or in any of the tech websites I've
checked out. All I *do* know is that it's stated to be AGP 2.0
compliant, 1x/2x/4x rated. I know there's been a change in the
voltage spec for AGP cards and that mobo slots can be either
3.3v, 1.5v or 'universal'... Sad

Can anyone give me advice on the following:-

Is it worth upgrading the graphics card only? I'd like the
increased clarity afforded by a DVI connection, not to mention
the hope of even a slightly better experience playing Quake 3...

If it *is* worth an upgrade, to what? Will the mobo accept any of
the cards currently on the market? I can pick up something like
this card:

MSI Fx5200-TD128 8xAGP 128MB TV-Out DVI

from Ebuyer for around GBP 25 (which I'd be happy to spend) or do
I need to look for a second-hand GeForce 4 Ti card, which I know
would be compatible (if I could find such a thing these days!)

And please don't suggest that I upgrade the whole system - that
simply isn't going to happen for at least a year (maybe 18
months), so I'm looking at something for that year-to-18 month
period...

Thanks in advance

Martin D. Pay
In search of clarification...

External Since: Jan 03, 2004 Posts: 7693

On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 00:01:51 +0100, Martin D. Pay
wrote:

>Greetings gentles all...
>
>Following the death of my old 17-inch CRT monitor, I've just
>replaced it with a new 19-inch flat-screen model. This has a DVI
>connector but my current graphics card is d-sub only.
>
>So - as I'm out of touch with AGP specs and compatibilities, I
>need advice regarding a possible upgrade of the graphics card.
>
>My system:
>
>Mobo - MSI K7T Turbo (MS6030 v. 3, last BIOS update issued by MSI
>installed)
>AMD Athlon 1.3ghz Thunderbird CPU
>GeForce2 MX graphics card
>512MB system RAM
>450 watt Enermax PSU
>
>I can't find much about the AGP slot on the mobo either in the
>manual, on MSI's website or in any of the tech websites I've
>checked out. All I *do* know is that it's stated to be AGP 2.0
>compliant, 1x/2x/4x rated. I know there's been a change in the
>voltage spec for AGP cards and that mobo slots can be either
>3.3v, 1.5v or 'universal'... Sad

>
>Can anyone give me advice on the following:-
>
>Is it worth upgrading the graphics card only? I'd like the
>increased clarity afforded by a DVI connection, not to mention
>the hope of even a slightly better experience playing Quake 3...
>
>If it *is* worth an upgrade, to what? Will the mobo accept any of
>the cards currently on the market? I can pick up something like
>this card:
>
>MSI Fx5200-TD128 8xAGP 128MB TV-Out DVI
>
>from Ebuyer for around GBP 25 (which I'd be happy to spend) or do
>I need to look for a second-hand GeForce 4 Ti card, which I know
>would be compatible (if I could find such a thing these days!)
>
>And please don't suggest that I upgrade the whole system - that
>simply isn't going to happen for at least a year (maybe 18
>months), so I'm looking at something for that year-to-18 month
>period...
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>Martin D. Pay
>In search of clarification...

The newer video card will play 3D games better but because a
19" LCD uses only 1280x1024 or 1440x900 resolution and needs
no more than 60Hz refresh rate, the return from moving to
DVI is very very slight... if your monitor has an onscreen
sharpness adjustment that alone might make the difference
between analog and DVI almost completely disappear.

Personally I wouldn't do that upgrade. "IF" you want better
gaming, then I'd tend towards an FX5700 rather than 5200, as
there are different versions of the 5200 with the lower cost
(slower core and halved memory bus) version being much
slower, but the faster 5200 being too close in price to the
FX5700 but not in performance. Plus, the 5700 moved to a
smaller core process so it runs cooler, except for the
higher-end 5700 version but IMO, you'd be better off moving
to the 6xxx series if the budget allows it rather than
top-of-class 5xxx series. I dislike ATI drivers but a
Radeon 9600 is another card to look at, though I've heard
scattered reports that some cards won't do DVI with some
monitors but I don't recall why.

You could use a GF4TI card of course, but you don't need it,
a newer card will work on your board.