Yep, it's true. When I got my lovely new X800XT I thought, "I know, my mate has a PC that has an integrated graphics chip and is always complaining about how he can't play Tiger Woods GOlf or whatever - I'll give him my old ATI 9800 PRO!" So, today I downloaded the latest drivers from ATI, got Directx 9.0c, picked up the 9800 pro card and cables etc, dumped the kids and wife in the car and off we went. So, before going to the pub I said, "right then, let's open her up and get this thing installed". He couldn't wait after seeing Doom 3, Rome Total War, Far Cry etc. etc. on my PC (with the 9800 PRO that is) a few weeks before. So, I told him in my best "I know about **** like this" voice, all about earthing yourself as we opened up the case. To my horror - no AGP slots. "EH?" This PC is from PC WOrld not 1 year old and no f***** AGP slots - just a load of PCI slots - and I'm sure they're not PCI Express slots either! It's an emachines 210 that he's got and as he bought it from PC World not 12 months ago you'd think it would have an AGP slot or two - but no. So, sadly my 9800 PRO now goes to ebay (so don't bother asking for it!). Any ideas what he can actually put in this PC to play some games? Cheers
Yeah, what he said would've been the best thing to do, give it or sell it to him anyways, and help him find a new motherboard with an AGP slot......I've done given or sold my friends my old spare parts if they needed something.
I agree, I wouldve personally have invested in getting a new motherboard and just kept the card... Even if you would try to get the best PCI card, the performance wouldnt be as good even when playing games such as FarCry, Doom 3 etc.... You can look at a previous thread link: [here] for more info on getting an alternative PCI card, but like i said, they're not really that great for graphic intensive games...
A new motherboard seems to be the general opinion then though it's the most work (for me probably). Since I've never changed a mobo I'l have to talk to the local friendly PC shop to see what they'd charge to do that Thanks guys
a 5700LE is avaliable for PCI, its not 128-bit though. you should get anything thats 128-bit i.e. 9100 pci
As David said, the 9100pci is the best pci-card out there but they´re very rare. I can say that a 9200pci is somewhat useful though, managed to play ut2004 at 1024*764@lowsettings with , well , reasonable speed. But really, get a new mobo.
The fx 5200 and the radeon 9200 are out in PCI versions and I think the radeon 9200 would probably be the better choice of the two. Either one would put a smile on his face if he's been using on-board GPU. I had a ati made 9200 128mb for a while and for the price, its really not a bad card.
