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Spec me a PCI (not Express) graphics card for Windows Aero

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lum
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Lum

Lum

Lum

Soldato
Joined
23 Nov 2008
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Putting together a secondhand PC for my mum. She only really uses it for email and web browsing any gaming she does will most likely be some Flash thing but since I'm doing this it'd be nice to do it properly with Aero on so it looks nice. The onboard Intel 845 "Extreme Graphics" chip just can't cut it. The next lowest score on the "Windows Experience Rating" is 2.8 to give you an idea.

Problem is, being an older Dell, no AGP slot, just two full-height PCI slots and one low profile PCI slot. It'd be nice if the card were low profile but not essential.

OcUK don't sell anything like this, but what card should I be looking for.

Current spec:

i845 chipset, P4 2.4GHz, 1GB PC3200 DDR memory, 160GB Maxtor 7200 RPM drive, Philips 8x DVD+-RW burner flashed to 16x Liteon firmware
 
Anything should do really. A quick google gave me a list of PCI cards, with some low profile ones, around £30, any of them should work.

I would also be tempted to pick up another 1GB of RAM for that system :p
 
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You need 64mb dedicated graphics memory or more (128+ mb recommended),
DirectX9
Pixel Shader 2.0 support.

So I think you will be struggling to find a pci video card that has directX 9 or pixel shader 2.0 support.
 
Yes I know that. I also know that the ATI 9250 I have sat in front of me isn't suitable.

A quick google, for me, came up with lots of PCI-E cards, which are no good.
 
Found one, PNY verto GeForce FX 5500 Video Card, PCI, 128MB DDR DirectX9.

EDIT: Where you will get one I have no idea, best off trawling through the bay.
 
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Nevermind, the ones I found say PCI but looking at the images, and the specification, they aren't :mad:

Found one anyway. £40 for a PNY 8400GS.

It's a competitor so I can't post it (although I might as well be, since I'm giving directions, and OCUK don't stock these cards anyway)

"pci graphics card"

5th result (not including sponsors or shopping links)

Wikipedia says anything better than a GeForce FX or a Radeon 9500 is enough, so this should definitely do the trick.
 
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After further digging, it appears there is a number of pci cards still available.

Sparkle do the following in pci flavour linky

GeForce 9500
GeForce 9400
GeForce 8500
GeForce 8400
GeForce FX 5200
 
Think I may have found the same one. Competitors name starts with something that sounds a bit like "kicker"

Looks like a decent option. GeForce FX not so good due to too many bad memories.

Wonder if that thing can do cuda (and thus accelerated H264 playback via CoreAVC) too?
 
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