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Video Card Question

Started by Myra Mains Oct 17, 2004 at 1:32 AM 10 replies 1.4k views

Original Post

Oct 17, 2004 at 1:32 AM

I am in the process of rebuilding one of my older PCs for my wife to play the Sims 2 on... basically I just want her off my PC and out of my way :) I am building this PC out of spare parts I have laying around because as much as I want her off my PC I also don’t want to put any money in to the project. Anyway my problem is this. I have two video cards to choose from. Both are Geforce 2 cards. One is an ISA card with 64mb of ram. The other is an AGP card with 32mb of ram. I'm looking for opinions on which of the two would perform better. I realize that the AGP card will be much faster than ISA but is it enough to make up for half the ram? Thanks for any help you can offer! BTW yes it is an ISA card not a PCI.

nts

Oct 17, 2004 at 1:36 AM

AGP will be much faster, ISA video cards didn't even know they had anything close the gf2 line for them. In your case it wont matter if the ISA card has 64mb of RAM, it will be too slow to use it. Check the minimum requirements for the game, if it is 64 then you will experience slow downs/lag at 32. You can get video cards with 64 or 128 ram pretty cheap now, under the 100 mark and they will perform better then the gf2 you have (unless you buy a gf4mx).

Ravuya

Oct 17, 2004 at 2:09 AM

I cannot possibly believe an ISA graphics card was produced with 64MB of RAM. I couldn't imagine using all of the fast RAM on the board without running into gigantic performance delays.

Perhaps it is one of those "workstation" cards meant to drive those ridiculously large VGA monitors for CAD work.

But, yeah, you will notice a massive speed difference with the AGP card even considering the lower amount of fast RAM.

zer0wolf

Oct 17, 2004 at 2:55 AM

According to this link, it'll run on a 32MB Geforce2. I'll have to agree with the others and say definately use the AGP card.

Drevay

Oct 17, 2004 at 3:44 AM

ISA? Good god. ISA is insanely slow.

It's like PCI's retarded cousin they lock up in the basement only to take out on holidays and beat for a family activity.

etothex

Oct 17, 2004 at 5:03 AM

Are you _sure_ it's an ISA? Because I also seriously doubt there was ever a consumer level card produced using the ISA interface which had more than 2MB of ram, and that was cards like the S3 Number Nine. Could it be an early AGP(the one with the different voltage, the name escapes me now)?

My suggestion? Go with the AGP one, because if it doesn't work with the Sims 2, then you can spend the $60US to get at least like a Geforce FX 5600 or GF4 Ti, or even a Geforce FX 5200. How much does the Sims 2 sell for? $40-$50? You(or your wife) might as well get to play it on high quality.

vNistelrooy

Oct 17, 2004 at 8:26 AM

No way, it is a PCI card.

vNistelrooy

Oct 17, 2004 at 8:28 AM

Quote:
Original post by etothex
Are you _sure_ it's an ISA? Because I also seriously doubt there was ever a consumer level card produced using the ISA interface which had more than 2MB of ram, and that was cards like the S3 Number Nine. Could it be an early AGP(the one with the different voltage, the name escapes me now)?

AGP 2x - 3.3v
AGP 4x - 1.6v
AGP 8x - 0.8v

The connectors are very similiar and nearly all cards (including the GF2s) use a universal connector. Works on all AGPs. The other one is PCI. Use the AGP version.

vNistelrooy

Oct 17, 2004 at 8:30 AM

Quote:
Original post by Myra Mains
BTW yes it is an ISA card not a PCI.

Can't be. Post pics. I want to see the card, especially the core and the connector.

benryves

Oct 17, 2004 at 8:36 AM

Seeing an ISA GF2 64MB card is like seeing bigfoot.
ISA is slow, old, and crap. I've only got one thing that uses it; an old full-length SB16.

Eelco

Oct 17, 2004 at 9:03 AM

grab a cheap new (newer anyway, can be secondhand) card, a gf2 will play teh sims 2 like donkeypoo.

just guessing btw, but i have this nasty feeling im damned right.

you can get something 10x better than a gf2 and still be so far away from the current top of the line it will be dirt cheap.

vNistelrooy

Oct 17, 2004 at 9:20 AM

Yep, like a Radeon9600 pro or a GeForce FX 5700U. Or a far better GeForce FX 6600, which is a mainstream new generation card.

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