Anybody remember the days of PCI video cards?

[PrObLy]

My friend recently received an HP pavilion for a graduation present to use at for college, and we all know college is where you get hooked up to the T3 lan and play things like Quake III to the wee-hours of the morning, and then on your off days ya go out and drink. I told him he should have built a computer like me, because it would cost less, be faster, have quality parts, and give you some sense of pride, but now he's stuck with onboard 32 meg graphics, no agp slot, and 3 pci slots...actually 2 because one is in use by the modem I think. It has a pentium 4 1.8 ghz and has ddr ram (yeah, I spank him around in benchmarks), but his integrated graphics are holding back his performance in games (especially medal of honor)...so I've started the search for 64meg PCI video cards and have come across the cheap but sensible Geforce4 mx series pci card....does anyone know if this would be much better than the integrated graphics (I'd sure hope so) or is there any other (sub 150 dollar) PCI video cards that will do a good job with a game such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault?

[Windsor]

Originally posted by PrObLy
My friend recently received an HP pavilion for a graduation present to use at for college, and we all know college is where you get hooked up to the T3 lan and play things like Quake III to the wee-hours of the morning, and then on your off days ya go out and drink. I told him he should have built a computer like me, because it would cost less, be faster, have quality parts, and give you some sense of pride, but now he's stuck with onboard 32 meg graphics, no agp slot, and 3 pci slots...actually 2 because one is in use by the modem I think. It has a pentium 4 1.8 ghz and has ddr ram (yeah, I spank him around in benchmarks), but his integrated graphics are holding back his performance in games (especially medal of honor)...so I've started the search for 64meg PCI video cards and have come across the cheap but sensible Geforce4 mx series pci card....does anyone know if this would be much better than the integrated graphics (I'd sure hope so) or is there any other (sub 150 dollar) PCI video cards that will do a good job with a game such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault?

I'm not too sure how good performance is, but Nvidia still has some PCI GF's floating around, the ones I've seen are all the MX variety, surely even THOSE are better than 32meg built in graphics.

[Bires]

First, the GeForce 4 MX is NOT a GeForce4 chip. It's closer to the GeForce2. With that aside, it will most likely not only be faster, it will allow you to play games with more OpenGL and DirectX 8 features turned on.

Do you know what the onboard chip is?

Another option:
I've seen some Radeon PCI cards on sites like compgeeks and computer-show for really cheap. These cards are no slouch and can be found for <$100.

[PrObLy]

thanks for the input....yep I know the mx is not the true geforce 4 chipset (no vertex shaders.etc...) thats why I got the ti 4600 hehe. but unfortunately as far as PCI options go I think that the mx is the closest I'll see. as for the chipset i ran sandra on the thing a while back and i remember seeing SIS and ASUSTEK on its mainboard information.

[Ladogaboy]

I wouldn't hold out hope for anything PCI...

It's a waste of money, imo. Are HP cases ATX compliant? If they are, you might suggest getting a different MoBo and an AGP videocard.

[Windsor]

Originally posted by Ladogaboy
I wouldn't hold out hope for anything PCI...

It's a waste of money, imo. Are HP cases ATX compliant? If they are, you might suggest getting a different MoBo and an AGP videocard.

It'll run him about 100 bucks or so for the card, and a new mobo and stuff might be too more trouble than its worth, depends on how much he's planning on gaming, i guess.