Video Card advice

[akanah]

I upgraded to XP and still had a measily Voodoo3 3000 in my computer and I'd try updating drivers that people made and none of them would work/install (since there are no offical drivers for XP). I bought a ATI Raedeon 7500 'cause I really don't want to spend over a $100 on a card, but now even if I'm just moving a window across the screen, or scrolling on a webpage, my CPU usage jumps up to 100%. Does this card usually have problems? Should I take it back and get a different card? The ones I saw for $100 or less were PNY Verto, 3D Prophet, ATI, or some other cheapy brands. Any advice would be great, thanks!

[adowding]

What are your system specs?

Processor/Mobo/Ram?

[sbp]

I've read that ATI enables GUI stuff {for want of a better term} under XP. Saw this at either nv News.net ATI forum (http://www.nvnews.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=28) or Rage3D's forum

The problem of how ATI renders the windows gui is mentioned in this 3dgpu thread: (http://www.3dgpu.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=graphics;action=display;num=1011654619)

[akanah]

Oh, my specs are Athlon 1Ghz, not sure on the motherboard, but I know the BIOS is Award, I have 256 MB RAM, and I'm running XP professional. I hope that's enough info.

[xsiled2]

what ver of directx ya running?

[Hoser]

It's kind of funny your situation was the same as mine. I had a VooDoo card (4500 upgraded from a 3000) with XP. I eventually found drivers that worked with XP. I had no problems with any games, although I had to make some concessions. I couldn't have every visual option on if I wanted to run at the higher resolutions.

I now have the ATI Radeon 7500 and I don't have the problems that you have. I'm running the newest drivers from ATI, although I wasn't having problems before this. I do know that if you don't have the video drivers loaded correctly, your video performance sucks. If you're in a web page and scroll up and down, you can see it 'ripple'. I'd recommend uninstalling your current driver and loading the new one. I'm not sure if you have to set your graphics to standard VGA before you install the new drivers.

[aglio412]

check the deals page...the geforce4 might be your answer

[akanah]

I'm pretty sure directx 8.1 comes with XP, so I think that's what I'm running.

Anyone have any thoughts on the card that is listed on the deal's page? I know GeForce is supposed to be good, but I know the maker of the card matters too. It's a little over my price range.. but if it's a really good buy, then I'll do it.

[sbp]

Visiontek makes fine cards.

The GeForce 4 series of videocards is not out yet so we don't know how they perform and what their specs are.

Apparently there is going to be 3 GeForce 4 MX cards: MX460, MX440, and MX420. MX420 will be the slowest of the three.

[Heihachi]

if you're willing to fork out $75.20 shipped.. newegg selld the Geforce 2 GTS-V for that much. I'm runniing that and it's quite fast... not compared to the geforce 3 models.. but I don't want to pay that much.. when I can still play games w/ this card.

[sbp]

I highly suggest that you go over to rage3d's forum (http://www.rage3d.com/board/index.php?s=) and do a search akanah to see if you can come up with a solution before spending money. The Radeon 7500 is a good card.

[adowding]

You should be running fine with those system spec's. Something software/driver is messed up

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by akanah
I'm pretty sure directx 8.1 comes with XP, so I think that's what I'm running.

The directx might be fine, but what some of the people in this thread are trying to say is that you need to reload the 7500's drivers. Either that, or download the newer drivers and load them instead.

[akanah]

I downloaded new drivers.. and I think that helped. I see my CPU usuage only going up to almost 50%... still seems a little high though...