Video cards

[Fng]

I am primarily a console gamer, I use my PC to play an alt character as well as email / surf the web / some light word processing, it's no gaming rig, but it works for now sans my Nvidia lag....

I have an old Nvidia card that I have about had it with the fire spell lag >.> I don't think it's even supported anymore.. and while I am sure I can install any hardware, I am just not sure how to tell which version of video card I need to buy...

My current card is an NVidia GeforceFX 5200

1. Most of my research says this was offered with both AGP and PCI connections, how can I tell what sort of connection I have to the motherboard, I am pretty sure it's PCI but how do I tell for sure?

1a. Do I need to be concerned with which version of PCI the new card is?

2. Any suggestion for a modest video card to replace this one? My budget is probably $100- $150

My current PC specs.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ystemspecs.jpg

[Cephius]

AGP slots are brown, PCI slots are white, and on newer nvidia motherboards that have SLI-compatible PCI-e (you probably don't have this, so stay away from PCI-e cards) slots, their slots are green. If you have white slots, which you should, I would go with a 6 or 7 series Nvidia card, which are old but will work on your motherboard. I doubt the 8 line of cards would work.

Furthermore, realize that graphics cards are very easily bottlenecked by the processors. You may have a super graphics card, but if you're running a P4 you won't get the maximum use out of it. There are many technical reasons why, but more or less the reason is that the graphics card can only process data as fast as the processor sends it.

However, you're running FFXI which uses almost all processor and hardly any GPU, so its a moot point anyway. Double check what slot you have available, and go for a budget card. I wouldn't spend over $100 or it's just going to go to waste. If you want to play more current games you'll need to upgrade many more components.

[Osede]

http://computers.pricegrabber.com/video ... /sv=title/

how about this? Ati 2600 will run fines, and also allows you to play some new pc games too.

[Stellar]

I know the general consensus is that ffxi relies more on the processor, but I have an AMD 3500+ and with the stock vid card (something integrated, can't even remember what it was) it ran pretty horribly. I put an ATI x1600 pro on it and now it runs pretty damn well. I can get decent frame rates at 2048 background res...

[Shuemue]

I know the general consensus is that ffxi relies more on the processor, but I have an AMD 3500+ and with the stock vid card (something integrated, can't even remember what it was) it ran pretty horribly. I put an ATI x1600 pro on it and now it runs pretty damn well. I can get decent frame rates at 2048 background res...

Yeah it's far from just the processor you need to worry about, sure it's CPU hungry but any system is limited by its slowest part.

[Avanarius]

I noticed a pretty big improvement going from a geforce 4 to a fx5600 back in the day on a p4, but I dunno about fx5200 to anything higher...I would just get an ati equivilant if you're just worried about ballad/firaga lag