Video Card Upgrade

[susanc]

I would like to upgrade the video card in my old Dell PC (circa 1999), so that I can give it to my kids to finish destroying... Current specs are xpst500,windows 98, pentium iii, 500 Megahertz, 32 kb primry memory cache, 512 kb secondary memory cache, 128 mb memory. Current video card is a 16mb 3dfx voodoo 3000d agp card. I bought a Chaintech Volari V3 agp 8x 128 mb to replace current card. Upon install the machine appears to boot up, but I get no monitor display and then machine shuts down. User's guide for new card states system requirements are pentium ii or newer, support agp 4x/8x universal slot, vga monitor, 64 mb ram or higher, 15 mb hdd, cd rom or dvd rom, direct x 8 or 9 or lower, windows 9x/me/2000/xp operating system.

I am sure of everything except the 4x/8x requirement. Will my current machine truly handle this card, or do I have to buy something with a 2x requirement? What other changes are necessary to the PC to get this new card to work? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated since I would like to be able to let my kids have free reign with this machine soon and buy a "keep your hands off of it pc" for the adults!

Thanks.

[blue60007]

I am sure of everything except the 4x/8x requirement.

Yep, that's a 2x card in there now (the voodoo) and 2x cards are 3.3V (I believe) and the 4x/8x cards are 1.5V (I believe)

You may have just fried something, try putting the original card back in and see if it runs.

Unfortuneatly that's a dead end computer, there isn't much more you can do to it. I'm not sure if there are any better 2x cards you could throw in there.

[tomster2300]

Blue's right, if your kids are going to want to play any current games they won't be able to ... at all. That thing is unfortunately a dinosaur (gaming wise).

[blue60007]

But then again it'll be fine for older games, besides I don't think your kids'll be playing the latest and greatest shoot 'em up anyways. I'd put the original card back in and hope for the best.

[susanc]

Thanks. I have put the original card back in and the machine runs fine. I thought I had the expansion capabilities to handle the 8 x card. I know I checked it somewhere and now can't remember where to look again for it. Where can I double check that info again?
You are right, my kids aren't playing the shoot em up games, but I did want to get Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 working. When I bought that for my son, I didn't realize that the requirements were more than what I had in this PC. That game needs 32 min., not the 16 I have. I was just proud of the fact that I could remove and install the new card... I have learned a lot in this quest to get this game running. I will look for a better 2x card now if there is nothing else that I can do.

[Panama Red]

I think you're going to have trouble playing RCT3 with that machine regardless of the video card you buy. The best 2x/4x card I could find at Newegg is this 9250 with 128Mb of memory. However, it is only Dx 8 compatible and the came requires Dx 9 or higher. Here's a link to the card and the System Requirements from the game's site. These should be on the box too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814129045

Operating System: Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP (Windows® XP recommended)
Processor: Pentium® III 733 MHz or compatible (Pentium® 4 1.2 GHz or compatible recommended)
Memory: 128 MB RAM; 256 MB for XP (256 MB; 384 MB for XP recommended)
Hard Disk Space: 600 MB free
CD-ROM Drive: 4X CD-ROM or faster (8X or faster recommended)
Video:Any ATI Radeon™ or GeForce™ 2 with 32MB or higher; or other video card with 32MB and hardware T&L (ATI Radeon™ 64 MB SDR or GeForce™ 2 Pro or other video card with 64 MB or more memory and hardware T&L recommended)*
Sound: Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP-compatible 16-bit sound card*
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9 (included) or higher

[glc]

The video card isn't your only issue - your processor is below minimum requirements and that's going to cost you $120 to upgrade. Plus, 128mb ram is at minimums - you really need more to do it right.

http://www.powerleap.com/PL-iP3T.jsp
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=Dell%2BDimension+%2F+Dimension+XPS&mfr=Dell&tabid=AM&model=Dimension+XPS+T+Series&submit=Go


The game only requires DirectX9 be installed - it can run on a DX7 or better card, the card does not have to natively support DX9 hardware features, the software can take care of things. The 9250 will work fine.