Video card and monitor question

I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome.

Sorry forgot to add other system specs: Pentium 3 600 mhz CPU 128 MB RAM not sure what kind of motherboard I have, but it's an HP Pavilion 8670C machine I bought 2 (or was it 3,whatever year System Shock 2 came out) years ago. I currently run 800x600x32 res but have to turn the brightness almost to max for games (software controlled brightness, as the knob is already maxed out) or else the games are to dark to see, unless in game res is dropped to 640x480 Brad Larocque wrote:

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> I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. >

First you might want to check your motherboard to see if you have an actual agp slot. I had an HP before and with onboard graphics they sometimes don't even bother to give you the actual agp slot because the graphics chip is soldered right on the board. I think you might find that a graphics card upgrade might be impossible if this is the case.(unless you go to a pci card which I don't recommend.) As far as monitors go I just picked up a Samsung Syncmaster 955 DF 19" flat screen. $299 from BestBuy with $30 mail in rebate. I highly recommend this monitor. "Brad Larocque" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Sorry forgot to add other system specs: > > Pentium 3 600 mhz CPU > 128 MB RAM > not sure what kind of motherboard I have, but it's an HP Pavilion 8670C > machine I bought 2 (or was it 3,whatever year System Shock 2 came out) > years ago. > > I currently run 800x600x32 res but have to turn the brightness almost to > max for games (software controlled brightness, as the knob is already > maxed out) or else the games are to dark to see, unless in game res is > dropped to 640x480 > > Brad Larocque wrote: > > > I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > > > > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. > > >

Brad for the very new games your entire system is toooo slow. Upgrading is kinda like racing, how fast you go depends on how much you can afford. (first nvidia cards, even the newer ones, run very dark. My son has one<so do I...> and can barely see some of his games, there are brightness controls in the desktop properties that should brighten your display some so that you don't burn out your new monitor with full brightness settings) 2nd, any new card is going to be faster than the one you have. However, the absolute bare minumum should be a card with 32 megs of memory....64 would be better and there are even several cards out now with 128megs...these are price tho. 3rd. upping your memory to at least 256 will give your games room to breathe and not bog down while windows does its housekeeping. 4th...Compaq and/or any other brand are notoriously hard to upgrade since they use custom cases and oem parts. 5th Get as MUCH CPU as you can afford. This probably mean replacing your motherboard and your memory as well unfortunately, and there is where the Compaq name gets in the way...but if possible get yourself a chip that is well above the one gigahertz level. Good luck... dave henrie "Brad Larocque" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Sorry forgot to add other system specs: > > Pentium 3 600 mhz CPU > 128 MB RAM > not sure what kind of motherboard I have, but it's an HP Pavilion 8670C > machine I bought 2 (or was it 3,whatever year System Shock 2 came out) > years ago. > > I currently run 800x600x32 res but have to turn the brightness almost to > max for games (software controlled brightness, as the knob is already > maxed out) or else the games are to dark to see, unless in game res is > dropped to 640x480 > > Brad Larocque wrote: > > > I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > > > > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. > > >

Not sure what you are looking to spend, but the Geforce 3 Ti200 is probably the best value for the dollar in Video cards. If you choose the Gainward model, some say they run at the same clock speeds as the Ti500, which means you get the same performance. Then there is the Radeon 8500. The card performs well, but there are lots of instances where Geforce users have no problems and Radeon users do. Course, there are probably instances the other way also. Your CPU is a huge bottle neck now though. A quick check on pricewatch shows: ECS K7S5A w/ AMD XP 1500 CPU - 147.00 256 M of PC2100 DDR memory - 50.00 Ti200 Video Card - 120.00 So it looks like about 320.00 + shipping would get you a pretty decent upgrade for your PC. Of course, for a little more, you can really step up the performance. www.pricewatch.com Glen Pittman "Brad Larocque" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. >

"Dave Henrie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:4v0n8.99633$702.21528@sccrnsc02... > 4th...Compaq and/or any other brand are notoriously hard to upgradesince > they use custom cases and oem parts. I think those days were over many years ago. They all use standard ATX, micro ATX cases and motherboards. Even if it's a slim PC, it follows the NLX, SFX and whatever-it's-called standards. You will be able to find OEM motherboard's to fit these slim cases, but it might be more expensive and harder to find than ATX mb's. Jone.

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says... > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. > Just last week, I got the Gainward GeForce3 Ti200 (Gainward calls it the Ti450) and I couldn't be more pleased. I went from a Voodoo3/3000 to this card and the difference is amazing. Not only are my games much faster but the GeForce graphics are so much prettier than the Voodoo. There is a lot of detail in my games that I never knew was there because the Voodoo3 simply wasn't capable of displaying them. My system is a P3/1Ghz with 256 megs and I get 4900 on 3DMark2001 at 1024x768, 32-bit color, no AA. I HIGHLY recommend the GF3. -- ______________________ Todd Walker http://twalker.d2g.com Canon Pro90IS ______________________

Doug, I was going to go with the Samsung. It was right next tho the NEC model on the shelf and there was no comparison. The Samsung flickered too much, and the NEC had a MUCH sharper picture. The only problem is the NEC is $120 (Cdn) more. I think thats the biggest problem for me is being in Canada, everything cost up to 50% more than in the States. AUGH!!! Doug Hook wrote:

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> First you might want to check your motherboard to see if you have an actual > agp slot. I had an HP before and with onboard graphics they sometimes don't > even bother to give you the actual agp slot because the graphics chip is > soldered right on the board. I think you might find that a graphics card > upgrade might be impossible if this is the case.(unless you go to a pci card > which I don't recommend.) > > As far as monitors go I just picked up a Samsung Syncmaster 955 DF 19" flat > screen. $299 from BestBuy with $30 mail in rebate. I highly recommend this > monitor. > > "Brad Larocque" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... > >>Sorry forgot to add other system specs: >> >>Pentium 3 600 mhz CPU >>128 MB RAM >>not sure what kind of motherboard I have, but it's an HP Pavilion 8670C >>machine I bought 2 (or was it 3,whatever year System Shock 2 came out) >>years ago. >> >>I currently run 800x600x32 res but have to turn the brightness almost to >>max for games (software controlled brightness, as the knob is already >>maxed out) or else the games are to dark to see, unless in game res is >>dropped to 640x480 >> >>Brad Larocque wrote: >> >> >>>I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I >>>think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta >>>lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store >>>comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. >>> >>>I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an >>>NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the >>>system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones >>>too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon >>>8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. >>> >>> > >

Thanks for all the help guys. My only hold up with all these improvements is price. As proud as I am to be Canadian (oops asking for trouble there lol) it sucks when our prices are up to 50% higher than down south. The NEC monitor I'm considering is $550 here, and I always see it about $320-350 US in various websites. Cripes! Brad Larocque wrote:

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> I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. >

Ummm, am I missing someting here? When you do the currency conversion, isn't it the same? If there weren't currency exchange rates most Americans might buy stuff from the UK, since an item maybe $15 US but 10 pounds or less in the UK. Think about it and you'll see that its not more expensive.... -- Biz "Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand alloys and compositions and,......things with molecular structures,....and the....." - Ash Brad Larocque <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Thanks for all the help guys. My only hold up with all these > improvements is price. As proud as I am to be Canadian (oops asking for > trouble there lol) it sucks when our prices are up to 50% higher than > down south. The NEC monitor I'm considering is $550 here, and I always > see it about $320-350 US in various websites. Cripes! > > Brad Larocque wrote: > > > I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > > > > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. > > >

No, maybe not more expensive, but either way it's still $550 bucks Cdn (about $320 US) and thats a lot of dough! Biz wrote:

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> Ummm, am I missing someting here? When you do the currency conversion, isn't it the same? If there > weren't currency exchange rates most Americans might buy stuff from the UK, since an item maybe $15 > US but 10 pounds or less in the UK. Think about it and you'll see that its not more expensive.... > -- > Biz > > "Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand > alloys and compositions and,......things with molecular structures,....and > the....." - Ash > > > Brad Larocque <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > >>Thanks for all the help guys. My only hold up with all these >>improvements is price. As proud as I am to be Canadian (oops asking for >>trouble there lol) it sucks when our prices are up to 50% higher than >>down south. The NEC monitor I'm considering is $550 here, and I always >>see it about $320-350 US in various websites. Cripes! >> >>Brad Larocque wrote: >> >> >>>I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I >>>think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta >>>lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store >>>comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. >>> >>>I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an >>>NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the >>>system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones >>>too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon >>>8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. >>> >>> > >

So what you're saying is that monitor is just too much money for your wallet? Try choosing one that does fit your wallet. -- Biz "Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand alloys and compositions and,......things with molecular structures,....and the....." - Ash Brad Larocque <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > No, maybe not more expensive, but either way it's still $550 bucks Cdn > (about $320 US) and thats a lot of dough! > > Biz wrote: > > > Ummm, am I missing someting here? When you do the currency conversion, isn't it the same? If there > > weren't currency exchange rates most Americans might buy stuff from the UK, since an item maybe $15 > > US but 10 pounds or less in the UK. Think about it and you'll see that its not more expensive.... > > -- > > Biz > > > > "Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand > > alloys and compositions and,......things with molecular structures,....and > > the....." - Ash > > > > > > Brad Larocque <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > > > >>Thanks for all the help guys. My only hold up with all these > >>improvements is price. As proud as I am to be Canadian (oops asking for > >>trouble there lol) it sucks when our prices are up to 50% higher than > >>down south. The NEC monitor I'm considering is $550 here, and I always > >>see it about $320-350 US in various websites. Cripes! > >> > >>Brad Larocque wrote: > >> > >> > >>>I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > >>>think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > >>>lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > >>>comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > >>> > >>>I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > >>>NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > >>>system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > >>>too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > >>>8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. > >>> > >>> > > > > >

You should add a case for about $50 with a 300-400w PS to run all that stuff. I seriously doubt his old Compaq case will be AMD approved/capable. I wouldn't be surprised if there was only a 140w ps in that machine. -- Joe Marques "Glen Pittman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Not sure what you are looking to spend, but the Geforce 3 Ti200 is probably > the best value for the dollar in Video cards. If you choose the Gainward > model, some say they run at the same clock speeds as the Ti500, which means > you get the same performance. Then there is the Radeon 8500. The card > performs well, but there are lots of instances where Geforce users have no > problems and Radeon users do. Course, there are probably instances the > other way also. > > Your CPU is a huge bottle neck now though. > > A quick check on pricewatch shows: > > ECS K7S5A w/ AMD XP 1500 CPU - 147.00 > 256 M of PC2100 DDR memory - 50.00 > Ti200 Video Card - 120.00 > > So it looks like about 320.00 + shipping would get you a pretty decent > upgrade for your PC. Of course, for a little more, you can really step up > the performance. > > www.pricewatch.com > > > Glen Pittman > > > > > > "Brad Larocque" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... > > I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > > > > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please) an > > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. > > > > >

Very true. I had completely forgotten that one. "Joe Marques" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:0q8n8.58833$[email hidden]... > You should add a case for about $50 with a 300-400w PS to run all that > stuff. I seriously doubt his old Compaq case will be AMDapproved/capable.

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> I wouldn't be surprised if there was only a 140w ps in that machine. > > -- > Joe Marques > > > "Glen Pittman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... > > Not sure what you are looking to spend, but the Geforce 3 Ti200 is > probably > > the best value for the dollar in Video cards. If you choose the

Gainward > > model, some say they run at the same clock speeds as the Ti500, which > means > > you get the same performance. Then there is the Radeon 8500. The card > > performs well, but there are lots of instances where Geforce users haveno

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> > problems and Radeon users do. Course, there are probably instances the > > other way also. > > > > Your CPU is a huge bottle neck now though. > > > > A quick check on pricewatch shows: > > > > ECS K7S5A w/ AMD XP 1500 CPU - 147.00 > > 256 M of PC2100 DDR memory - 50.00 > > Ti200 Video Card - 120.00 > > > > So it looks like about 320.00 + shipping would get you a pretty decent > > upgrade for your PC. Of course, for a little more, you can really step

up

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> > the performance. > > > > www.pricewatch.com > > > > > > Glen Pittman > > > > > > > > > > > > "Brad Larocque" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > > news:[email hidden]... > > > I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards.

I > > > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > > > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > > > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. > > > > > > I'm stumped on a vid card though. I currently have (laughter please)an

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> > > NVIDIA TNT2 Vanta with 8MB on-borad (orig card that came with the > > > system) I run N4, GPL, and a bunch of older sims (want some newer ones > > > too) and would like to know what would be the best card to get. Radeon > > > 8500? GF4? Any advice would be greatly welcome. > > > > > > > > > > >

"Gentleman Jim" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Sat, 23 Mar 2002 21:38:31 GMT, Brad Larocque <[email hidden]> > wrote: > > >No, maybe not more expensive, but either way it's still $550 bucks Cdn > >(about $320 US) and thats a lot of dough! > > > > One thing about when checking monitors in the store, they usually use > one PC and have all the monitors running in a chain so you are not > always seeing the true quality anyway as this degrades the monitor > picture quality. Also, you said the other monitor was flickering and > the NEC wasn't. They probably had the chepaer monitor set to a lower > refresh rate, maybe they want you to think the NEC is much better so > you will buy it when it really isn't.

Very insightful Jim! I bet you're right!

Brad Larocque says... > I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I > think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta > lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store > comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. I have this monitor. No complaints here, and don't feel bad at the price. It has come down quite a bit since I bought mine for $700(CDN) just last year.

Thanks Scott, it makes feel a bit better. No offence. Scott Flynn wrote:

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> Brad Larocque says... > >>I am finally breaking down and looking at new monitors and vid cards. I >>think I'm going to go with a NEC MultiSync FE 950+ 19" monitor (gotta >>lose this old 14" POS). Is this a good one to get. From the in-store >>comparisons it seemed to have the shapest pictures at 1024x768. >> > > I have this monitor. No complaints here, and don't feel bad at the > price. It has come down quite a bit since I bought mine for $700(CDN) > just last year. >