Video Cards

[IAIHMB]

The problem: I just discovered my video card, a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200, is terrible. I just got "Far Cry" and my video card can barely handle the "Low" video settings without lag.

The Question: A friend referred me to this video card. Will this handle alot of the newer games to come, such as Doom3 and Half-Life 2?

Also, is overclocking video cards really worth it? I've hear it puts alot of stress on your system and voids all warranties. After the Circuit City people conned my parents into an extra 2 year warranty I don' want to go voiding that any time soon.

Thank again.

[thecoalman]

I had that card and was able to run Raven Shield with everthing on full and it would nearly work at 1600x1200. If I turned off high shadow detail it would. Should have no problem running the new games at a good quality.

Hehe the waranty plan, funny thing is card will cost as much as warranty plan in two years. I wouldn't overclock it if you want to get a lot of lifew out of it, if you smoke it your screwed.

[IAIHMB]

The card runs fine on Unreal Tournament 2004, Hitman Contracts, and Painkiller. When I am playing Far Cry at the lowest quality it is as good as any of my other games, just the fact that it can be way better and I cannot use those settings bothers me.

[Ripper2860]

9800 Pro is Leaps and Bounds better than the 5200. Hell, a GF3 Ti200 and an NV440MX were both better than the 5200 !!!

[b1tchm4gn3t]

To IAIHMB,

I just bought that same card the other day and Im not too impressed with it either. I didnt know you couldnt hook up a vcr/dvd combo inbetween the card and the tv and the BRAND NEW TV I just bought almost caught fire!! Had to take the TV back and now I have no vcr hooked up to it and things seem to be getting better. Do you know if that card will capture also? I understand it will. If you know...please let me know. But as far as options I do kinda like the options with it.

[thecoalman]

That specific card linked above won't capture. You need a AIW or one with VIVO.

[Treebeard]

LOL, the 5200 is one of the most pathetic cards around, its only positive is hardware support for dx9. even the 5600 is not huge of an advantage. My g4 ti4200 will keep up with and beat the 5600 which is sad considering the newness of those cards. If I was to buy a new card today I would get a 9800 pro or gforce 5900.

[mujahid7ia]

LOL, the 5200 is one of the most pathetic cards around, its only positive is hardware support for dx9. even the 5600 is not huge of an advantage. My g4 ti4200 will keep up with and beat the 5600 which is sad considering the newness of those cards. If I was to buy a new card today I would get a 9800 pro or gforce 5900.

Damn, wish I heard all this stuff before I got my FX 5200....

[rallynavvie]

I haven't had problems running FarCry on the 5200 PCI or AGP cards I have. I also run a 5600 in my workstation and haven't seen anything I didn't like. Maybe you guys are getting bad brands or what? I only buy PNY nVidia cards. I have a 4400 in the Tyan which is a great card, two 5200s in my internet machine (one AGP and one PCI) for running lots of displays, and then the 5600 Ultra in the current workstation (though softmodded to a Quadro). I'll be getting a 6800 Ultra from PNY in the fall just because I need faster OpenGL effects.

The 9800 Pro is a great card, and a pretty good value right now with the 9800XTs and the X800 cards out there now. I'd personally hold onto your current card if you can and save up for either an X800 or a 6800. Even the mid-grade X600 is a step up from the 9800 Pro or XT.

[mujahid7ia]

I haven't had problems running FarCry on the 5200 PCI or AGP cards I have. I also run a 5600 in my workstation and haven't seen anything I didn't like. Maybe you guys are getting bad brands or what? I only buy PNY nVidia cards. I have a 4400 in the Tyan which is a great card, two 5200s in my internet machine (one AGP and one PCI) for running lots of displays, and then the 5600 Ultra in the current workstation (though softmodded to a Quadro). I'll be getting a 6800 Ultra from PNY in the fall just because I need faster OpenGL effects.

The 9800 Pro is a great card, and a pretty good value right now with the 9800XTs and the X800 cards out there now. I'd personally hold onto your current card if you can and save up for either an X800 or a 6800. Even the mid-grade X600 is a step up from the 9800 Pro or XT.

What settings are you running in Far Cry, and what FPS are you getting? My 5200 is Mad Dog but is highly clocked at 250 Core and 500 RAM, 128MB RAM, AGP 8X.

[Treebeard]

Check out these graphs of comparison under the benchmark section. they dont include the newest ati (x800)or nvidia(6800) but they show how the rest fare. And I dont see how you could play far cry at a decent resolution w/ good graphics. Im sure you can play the game but then your missing all the eye candy.

[rallynavvie]

I wouldn't take a Mad Dog card if someone gave one to me for free. My friend actually had one burn on him while it was installed. Fortunately it didn't hurt any other components in the machine. I also knew someone with a Mad Dog sound card or something and it never worked with other PCI cards in his machine. They sell their products on the cheap for a reason.

[b1tchm4gn3t]

Well all I bought this card for was because it had TV out via S-VIDEO. but what I didnt know was no putting a vcr inline between the card and the TV. Do I have any options for this? As I would like to record from puter to vcr via this card. Dont mean to hijack but it just seems all the knowledgable people are already in this thread!

[thecoalman]

Well all I bought this card for was because it had TV out via S-VIDEO. but what I didnt know was no putting a vcr inline between the card and the TV. Do I have any options for this? As I would like to record from puter to vcr via this card. Dont mean to hijack but it just seems all the knowledgable people are already in this thread!

Why can't you a VCR will receive a signal just as well as TV, there's no difference. If you can see the video on your TV you can record it on your VCR.

To view on your TV, one or the other will need to pass the signal onto the next. It has nothing to do with your card. Or you can purchase something that will split the signal to two outputs. I haven't seen them for s-video but I'm sure they are available.

[b1tchm4gn3t]

So my brand new TV may have just been bad right from the start?

[rallynavvie]

You won't get sound from the video card either. Are you trying to record of the sound card's output?

[b1tchm4gn3t]

Yes....there is the 3.5 mm jack on the sound card...I have a splitter .....one to my puter speakers, and the other to my VCR via an adapter (3.5 mm to dual RCA jacks) and it runs in stereo and not mono. I actually made one vhs tape before that tv went bad and the sound worked great, as did the picture.

[thecoalman]

So my brand new TV may have just been bad right from the start?

Well I remember reading a post where putting the incorrect signal (ntsc,pal) could possibly do this???? Not sure it was a while ago, maybe you could start a new thread discussing that.

FYI you don't need the TV hooked up to record just if you want to preview on the TV what you are recording.

[mujahid7ia]

I wouldn't take a Mad Dog card if someone gave one to me for free. My friend actually had one burn on him while it was installed. Fortunately it didn't hurt any other components in the machine. I also knew someone with a Mad Dog sound card or something and it never worked with other PCI cards in his machine. They sell their products on the cheap for a reason.

I hear you. But I haven't reallly had any problems with it... although my Mad Dog CD-RW/DVDROM combo driver refuses to recognize ANY blank CDs!!!! I hate that damned thing.

I was stupid to buy mad Dog stuff, but I didn't know any better half a year ago.