New Geforce

Games
41

I’m absolutely happy with my Geforce 4 4600. To express this, let me show my 3d card history:

Rendition V1000 Dec 96 - September 1997
Voodoo 1 Sept 97 - June 98
Voodoo2 June 98 - June 99
TNT2 ultra June 99- March 2000
Geforce 256 March 2000 - Jan 2001
Radeon All in Wonder Jan 2001 - Jan 2002 | Feb 2002
Radeon 8500 Jan 2002 (the only card I’ve ever returned)
Geforce 4 ti 4600 March 2002 - current

As you can see, its like Logan’s Run in my computer. Videocards bearly make it to the year mark when its send off to be “renewed” Right now I have no desire to replace my GF4. I imagine come this fall I will be changing my tune. I hope by then a semi affordable FX2 will be available. Might go for a Radeon again, just whatever mood strikes me.

42

And DirectX9 games? Please. I’m still waiting for significant DX8 titles to arrive. Remember that Half-Life 2 runs on DX6 class hardware minimum.

The engine is also scalable all the way up to DX9.

43

Yeah. If you have the right video card, the water will be shiny instead of opaque. Kick ass.

44

Here’s a question… my current system is Athlon 1500+, Gf3 ti200 (64 mb), 512 ddr. I’d like to be able to play Half-Life 2 at reasonable resolution/frame-rate but I don’t have the money for a major upgrade at the moment. What one unit, if upgraded, would provide the biggest performance boost? I’m assuming the graphics card, although I have also heard CPUs can still be a bottleneck and it wouldn’t hurt to switch up to a 2100+ or whatever my old motherboard can still handle.

45

I think your biggest bang for the buck will be with a CPU upgrade. Figure out the max your board supports. I’m guessing it is probably up to the 2400+, which is the last of the 133mhz fsb chips. 1500+ to 2400+, though, would be HUGE.

46

I have an old shuttle AK31 mobo… not sure what the highest Athlon it can handle is. It’s a 266 mhz bus though. From the website:

CPU Socket A AMD Athlon XP, Duron CPU, with 200/266 MHz FSB

Chipsets VIA KT266A + VIA VT8233

Form Factor ATX

Memory DDR266/200
Compliant 4 GB DRAMs 4 x 184-pin DIMM

The manual’s section for CPU support says “AMD Athlon Processor 600-1.33+ Ghz.” Ok, but “+” how much?

I’m also wondering what a CPU switch entails. Do I do nothing more than change the CPU physically, and then reboot, or do I have to muck around in BIOS?..

47

Bios mucking involved.

48

Generally you can check the BIOS revision sheet for your board; it will often say when a particular BIOS version added support for a processor that came out after the mobo release. Of course, you would have to flash to that new BIOS to recognize the chip correctly.

49

Definitely flash your motherboard to the latest BIOS prior to the CPU upgrade. It’s pretty easy; just boot from a generic DOS boot floppy with the flash EXE and the new BIOS file.

If your mobo supports 133mhz FSB it’s virtually certain to support up to the 2400+. Unfortunately there are different “versions” of the AK31:

http://www.spacewalker.com/english/product.htm#SocketA

Figure out what version you have. Check the manual or check the version # that is usually silkscreneed on the motherboard itself.

50

Do the athlon chips change depending on when they’re released? I priced a 2400+ at Newegg and the specs say:

Specifications:
CPU: 2.0 GHz
Type: XP 2400 Thoroughbred
Cache: 256K
BUS: 266MHz
Socket A

It may not matter as my mobo (which I believe is the AK31 v.3.1) has a 266 mhz bus anyway, but the 2400+ specs seem confusing in light of what wumpus said…

51

Well according to this CPU support list I downloaded from shuttle, it says it will only support up to an XP2100+. However, I still don’t get this FSB discrepancy. The support list says “FSB 133 mhz” but the listing on Newegg for a 2100+ says “Bus: 266mhz.” Have they changed the chips or am I confusing buses or what?

52

Word of warning. If the 2100+ is the limit for your MB, you also need to see if it is a Palomino or Thoroughbred 2100+. My MB is an ASUS A7M266 that can’t run the Thoroughbred 2100+. I just upgraded my CPU this weekend. Palomino 2100+s are getting very hard to find if not impossible. I bought the last one listed on pricewatch that was verified to be a Palomino CPU. Good luck on your upgrade.

-DavidCPA

53

Eh, I may just forget about it and get a new mobo/CPU in a year or so. As long as I can play Half Life 2 at 640x480 I’ll deal. :)

54

DavidCPA is right:

http://www.shuttle.com/new/support/faq/mbsupport/mbsupans/AMDXPsupport.PDF

You need a Palomino (0.18 micron) and cannot use a Thoroughbred (0.13 micron). Probably a voltage issue where the mobo can’t generate low enough voltages. Although some mobos will work with chips they have no “official” support for:

http://www.aceshardware.com/read_news.jsp?id=55000512

55

Not bad. They are starting at about $260 on pricewatch, so $266 from a dealer you have bought from before or whatever should be wang.

56

Well, I picked that one due to the fact that it’s actually an ATI manufactured card and not a knock off

also: I had a very unfortunate encounter with a Wang Computers 14.4 when I was younger. That word still makes me cringe.

57

Jason, what were you thinking? The only way to go with a 14.4 was to get one of those Practical Peripherals full tower modems (I saved up for months to get one of those things – $250 or something crazy like that is a lot of newspaper deliveries!) The damn thing was awesome, including that cool LCD display on the front. I ran my BBS off it for several years before that dang ol’ Internet thing made my poor little fidonet connection look pathetic. I still have that modem sitting around here somewhere…

58

Whew. Thank goodness you got that on the record.

-Vede

59

I was young and naive, and it was a 14.4 which was so blazingly fast back then.

60

“Body thetans just hold one back.”