> ----- Original Message -----
> >My old video card isn't up to some of the newer games, so I'd like to
> >replace it.
snipped for brevity
> Michael Wurster replied:
> Al,
> About the only thing you really need to look at is what AGP version the
> motherboard supports...ie 2X, 4X, etc. Once you know how fast the AGP port
> is, start looking for a good deal. I favor ATI cards, but that's really a
> personal opinion and I'm sure that statement will cause a big stir....LOL.
> Make sure you have the latest drivers for the card (not always included
> with the card unfortunately), and if running Windows, make sure you have
> the latest DirectX installed. I personally wouldn't pay more than about a
> hundred bucks for a video card, but then I'm not a hard core gamer. You can
> easily drop four hundred bucks or more on a top line card, but you have to
> play the really sophisticated games to see a difference.
Thanks for your advice. Price was not a huge concern because I wanted something that wouldn't be outdated too soon.
I ended up with a Radeon 9600 128 meg 4x/8x AGP card for $260. So far, I'm impressed with its performance, but
there were some installation issues - you were correct in that the best drivers were not on the disc. After many
errors, I finally managed to get the proper drivers from www.ati.com
This was my first installation of an AGP card, which was not quite as easy as a PCI. Surprisingly, the manual that
came with the card was not very helpful. It was a 'general' manual, which didn't even show the correct card
anywhere. It also had me pulling my hair out trying to find a non-existant pin-out on the card - there's a heatsink
but no fan - what else could need power? ) I could be wrong, but I think it assumes one is upgrading from a PCI
card, so it makes it very clear as to the importance of installing non-intel-based AGP drivers. After some thought,
it occurred to me that I probably didn't need to worry about that since the old card was already using the AGP slot
on an AMD. ( Or did I just get lucky with the driver download from ATI? ) Either way, I'm hooked - even my older
games look and perform much better! Thanks again...
Al Thompson
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