On Mon, 10 May 2004 13:09:37 +0200, "Skybuck Flying"
wrote:

Hi,

My short story/question is:

Is FX5200 AGP 8x backwards compatible with AGP 4x ?

Yes

My long story/question is:

I have a Pentium III 450 mhz and 256 mb ram.

Motherboard is asus P3V4X ( AGP 4X ).

The video card was TNT2 32 mb ram.

The problem was that the video card had a cooling fan.

The cooling fan attracted ASSLOADS of DUST !

The cooling fan was making a very annoying sound.

First I blowed many times to blow off the dust.

I reinstalled it the sound got worse...

I decide to run cold water over it to clean away the dust. ( now black paint
stuff leaking from it )

I also tried to open the cooling fan... but one screw was jammed I could not
open it.

Damn, I wanted to re-oil it

I let the card dry... I placed it back into my computer after 2 hours of
drying.

I wondered what would happen... it worked but some lines were blinking.

So I knew something was wrong but I didn't care.

I knew the card was probably still wet and would probably die if I started a
heavy gpu intensive application.

Umm, you're joking, right?
You'll plug in a WET video card and figure it'll only be a problem if used
in a "heavy gpu intensive application"?

I don't mean to be offensive, rather helpful when I suggest that you are
your PC's worst enemy and ought to take it to a shop from now on.


So I then started a 3D game to see what would happen it started blinking
even more.

Did it not occur to turn off the pc and let video card dry?


Then during loading of the game the computer crashed/rebooted.

From that point on it seemed the card had died !

The computer made one long beep and three short beeps indicating bad video
card memory or video card not found.

I could not see anything... I could only hold the power button for a few
seconds to reboot the computer...

But holding the power button is dangerous... that's how I fried my last
gigabyte motherboard... stupid power button switches !

Umm, generally speaking there is NEVER a reason to hold a power switch
down for more than 4 seconds, no matter what... and a board will not die
after 4 seconds of it.


Then after accidently rebooting a few times my PC made no sound at all so I
got scared and stopped rebooting... I was scarried my harddisk had die or
would die.

So that was a scary moment...

So I assume it is now dead... I am now using a ET6000 card with a special
made windows xp driver.

You're lucky it was only the video card.



But I need the ET6000 for my old pentium... it's an PCI card you know... and
my old p166 needs it it doesn't have agp

So I started browsing for a new card... since the TNT2 can no longer play
any new games since it doesn't have T&L.

Also I hate these stupid ****ing fans

They're really not a big deal, you just need a better screwdriver to get
the screws out. Personally I lube 'em when new, never letting the bearing
get so dried out that the fan starts making noise.


So I came across this card which seems the perfect deal for me ! =D

The NVidia GeForce FX 5200.

It doesn't have a stupid ****ing fan ! so that means no dust ! no sound ! no
cleaning ! no oiling ! no nothing ! =D

It also has T&L and probably some other new features =D

The best thing is it is cheap as well and will probably even play doom 3
lol... even if it is a 1 fps per second on my PIII I would still like it
lol.

yeah, your pc is pretty limited by the CPU, even an FX5200 is going to be
cripplied by the rest of the system, and because of that you might find it
a better value to buy an (even cheaper) card than the FX5200. Even an old
TNT2 is severely bottlenecked by your CPU, the main issue would be 2d
display quality and if it has enough memory for your preferred monitor
resolution.



Anyway maybe I can play homeworld 2 with it or so... I think I could... or
maybe something else

Anyway... I really do need a new card anyway so the cheapest card will do...
but I don't want a TNT2 replacement like the radeon 7000... because that's
lame... So buying a DirectX 9 card seems best... maybe some games aren't
that slow... I see no reason to buy a DX8 card unlesssss...

Forget about "lame" and Direct X versions, your system is so slow there's
no point in worrying about it. If you really intend to play games then
perhaps a DX8 card will be slightly better but beyond that it's pointless
to consider what DX9 would do for your system.


Anyway.... to make a long story short...

My big doubt is AGP 8x

My computer only supports AGP 4x

Will FX 5200 card still work in my PIII 450 mhz with AGP 4x ?????

( the exact card is: asus v9520 Magic/T )

It even has a video in !!! the 5700 doesn't even have that ?!

( Since a family member if mine has a video thingy she cames around once a
year or so and I would like
to record any video stuff or I am even playing on buying a digital photo (?)
camera... that probably works different or maybe
it needs a video in as well.. I dont know... I played around with a video in
once and it s fun and a must have
once you used it, you just can't go without it.. just in case ! unless it
has some other form of input and a converter plug )

Generally a modern digital camera will use USB or the flash memory card
is removed and read with a memory reader (also usually attached via USB
interface). VIdeo-in on a video card is more useful for capturing from an
analog source like a vcr or older camcorder.


http://www.asus.com/products/vga/v9520m/overview.htm

I am hoping I can buy it for about 90 euro's at a local shop.

It's still quite expensive for just a replacement... my pc is starting to
die... after 6 years of use

I will soon buy a new pc... as soon as doom III is out

But I still want my old pc to work.

Frankly I"d spend as little as possible on video card and upgrade the CPU,
assuming the motherboard will take a P3 up to 1.1GHz or possibly even a
Tualatin up to 1.4GHz with the right slotket adapter.


In case AGP 8x is not compatible with AGP 4x..

It is, it'll run in 4X mode.


The next cheapest card I can buy as

Sapphire Radeon 7000 agp 4x or pci... for 40 euro's or so.

I haven't really checked it out yet.

The FX 5200 seems the perfect card for me ! =DDDD

Also I like asus

Though I don't like Via chipsets anymore =D

Makes no difference in your situation, actually your Via chipset is the
fastest and fullest featured chipset made that could run a P450... you are
fortunate to even have AGP4X support.


So please enlighten me about this :P =D

Skybuccckkkk

I can also ask the salesman if nobody knows... but I first try this
newsgroup


Frankly, considering your desire to upgrade later anyway, you ought to
just spend the $ on the beginnings of a new system. You might get a
motherboard with integrated video and low-end CPU, memory, and go from
there, upgrading it a little at a time. Something like an Athlon XP2200
on an nForce2 motherboard with integrated video would be at least 4X as
fast at gaming as your present system would be with the fastest video card
on earth installed. If you really need a different video card for that
box just buy the cheapest thing on ebay, possibly something along the
lines of a Geforce2 MX for $15 USD.