• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Graphics card for older motherboard?

ad441

ad441

ad441

Associate
Joined
27 May 2008
Posts
17
Hello,
Wondered if anyone can advise me on a graphics card upgrade, I've currently got a ATI Radeon X800 and need something faster, partly for video editing for work, but partly because I'd like to be able to play bioshock...

The problem is, I've got an older motherboard - an ASRock 939Dual-SATA2
which I believe (though I'm not sure - I'm pretty clueless about all this) isn't compatible with a lot of newer cards.

I know the sensible solution would be to change the motherboard and everything, but for the moment I'm just looking for one card I can buy quickly - I can't face reinstalling windows, software, etc, so was hoping someone could just suggest a card that would do for a while until I get round to upgrading everything properly.

More details below, can provide more if useful.
Cheers

DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2000 MHz (10 x 200) 3800+

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 62-172-0000010-00101111-041906-ALI$939M2172_939DUAL-SATA2 BIOS P1.80
Motherboard Name ASRock 939Dual-SATA2

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type AMD Hammer
Real Clock 200 MHz
Effective Clock 200 MHz
HyperTransport Clock 800 MHz

Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 167 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 333 MHz
Bandwidth 2665 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties:
Bus Type HyperTransport
Bus Width 8-bit

Motherboard Physical Info:
CPU Sockets/Slots 1 Socket 939
Expansion Slots 3 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 1 AGP, 1 Future CPU Port
RAM Slots 4 DDR DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio, LAN
Form Factor ATX
Motherboard Size 190 mm x 300 mm
Motherboard Chipset ULi1695
Extra Features Hybrid Booster

Motherboard Manufacturer:
Company Name ASRock Inc.
Product Information http://www.asrock.com/product/index.htm
BIOS Download http://www.asrock.com/support/index_BIOS.htm
 
Around 100ish maximum I suppose, less is good as it's only a temporary solution, but if it stop After Effects crashing then I can justify getting it for work.
 
Welcome to the forums :)

As you have a PCI-E slot, you are only limited by your PSU (how powerful it is) and you wallet :D

Around 100 notes you are looking at a 8800 GT or a 9600 GT. Both will be a huge boost from your current card :D
 
I am a little concerned that you think After Effects crashing is because of your graphics card. Could be other hardware (e.g. hard drive, RAM) or more likely software (e.g. driver) issue.
 
Thanks,

I'm actually not completely sure it's the graphics card crashing AE, it's coming up with errors to do with OpenGl.

I'm maybe convincing myself it's that to justify buying it when bioshock's more the real reason...

But I presume a better graphics card can't do any harm with video stuff.

Anyway, I'm now really confused because I got told that as my motherboard was AGP I was limited in what cards I could get, but it sounds like that isn't the case.

I'm really clueless about all this...
 
ad441 said:
Anyway, I'm now really confused because I got told that as my motherboard was AGP I was limited in what cards I could get, but it sounds like that isn't the case.
Click to expand...

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=939Dual-SATA2

You've got PCI-E *and* AGP.

You might be limited by what your PCI-E slot can support. Perhaps google for people running an 8800GT/9600GT on your board to check that people don't have problems.
 
melbourne720 said:
It's got a 16x PCI-E express slot. He should be able to put in whatever card fits in his case, and can be powered by his PSU.
Click to expand...

It's advertised as x16 but I recall that some of the hybrid AGP/PCI-E boards only had 8x slots electrically, despite being a 16x size slot. There were also general compatibility issues.

Better to be safe and research it rather than buy a component that doesn't work.
 
According to ad441's link, it's only a 4x slot. Even so, it'd probably still be a vast improvement over the current card.

Perhaps try to get a cheap 8800GTS320/640 second-hand? Probably half the price of an 8800GT and faster than half the performance by a long way. (edit: I only suggest this because I presume they wouldn't suffer from the same gen1/gen2 issues (assuming it means pci-e version))
 
ACESHIGH said:
OP if you can go a little over youre budget you could get the best AGP card arround ...Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (AGP) - Retail

Arround 8800GTS 320 speed, so plenty fast still.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...2MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (AGP) - Retail
Click to expand...

Really? I thought the 3850 was faster than that.

If it *is* only as fast as an 8800GTS320 and the 320's are less than half the price second-hand (and they actually work with your PCI-E slot) then it seems an easy choice...
 
The OP is talking about a 939Dual-SATA2 , ad441's link above is a 4CoreDual-SATA2 which is a different m/b with a different chipset.

I have a 939Dual-SATA2 (with an AM2 Board) running a x1950pro PCIe which is running at x16.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Just trying to work through them... a lot of information to take in. Sorry I posted the wrong link. The info in the OP is definitely more accurate (ASRock 939Dual-SATA2) as I ran a system info thing.
 
Ok, I've tried to understand... but I'm still confused - do I go for an AGP card, or are there PCI-E ones that will reliably work with my motherboard?

Or, I could put it like this - what card could I get that would most fit the following:

(a) be unlikely to cause problems with my system
(b) run Bioshock
(c) is £50-100ish?

(and thanks again for all the help)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom