PCMech Forums - View Single Post - Integrated Graphics or ATI Rage 128 32MB?

***glc*** · 05-03-2004, 10:39 AM

Duke, if it's a *new* economy Dell, it has Intel Extreme Graphics with no AGP slot. This onboard video is comparable to something like a GF2 MX, and is better than a Rage 128 any day. There really is no point in spending the bucks required to get a PCI card that's a significant upgrade - he's looking at close to 100 bucks. The 7500 you have might be better, but that's only a DirectX 7 card. The only PCI cards that have DirectX 9 support are Nvidia FX5200-based, and the DX9 support is pretty bad. There are no ATI PCI cards stronger than a 9200 yet, and that's only a DX 8.1 card.

I run into this frequently - people buy the cheapest computer they can find, then want to game with it. It's just not feasible with most cheapies - they invariably are micro-ATX with onboard everything and no AGP slot. Had a customer a couple years ago that wanted a computer for his business, so we did a Celeron 950 on a micro Intel i815 board. It ran his business apps very well. He then sold the business and took the computer home - and guess what - he wanted to game with it. At the time the strongest PCI card was a GF4 MX420, and it was 95 bucks. We stuck one in, and he's sorta happy, but wants and needs a lot more horsepower - both video and processor wise.

05-03-2004, 10:39 AM	#9
*glc* Forum Administrator Staff Premium Member Join Date: May 2000 Location: Joplin MO Posts: 37,733	Duke, if it's a new economy Dell, it has Intel Extreme Graphics with no AGP slot. This onboard video is comparable to something like a GF2 MX, and is better than a Rage 128 any day. There really is no point in spending the bucks required to get a PCI card that's a significant upgrade - he's looking at close to 100 bucks. The 7500 you have might be better, but that's only a DirectX 7 card. The only PCI cards that have DirectX 9 support are Nvidia FX5200-based, and the DX9 support is pretty bad. There are no ATI PCI cards stronger than a 9200 yet, and that's only a DX 8.1 card. I run into this frequently - people buy the cheapest computer they can find, then want to game with it. It's just not feasible with most cheapies - they invariably are micro-ATX with onboard everything and no AGP slot. Had a customer a couple years ago that wanted a computer for his business, so we did a Celeron 950 on a micro Intel i815 board. It ran his business apps very well. He then sold the business and took the computer home - and guess what - he wanted to game with it. At the time the strongest PCI card was a GF4 MX420, and it was 95 bucks. We stuck one in, and he's sorta happy, but wants and needs a lot more horsepower - both video and processor wise. Last edited by glc; 05-03-2004 at 10:44 AM.