video card suggestions

[john_waldrum]

The system in question is a Hewlett Packard Pavilion 6343 specs: AMD k6-2 366 processor with 3d now, and 40 gig maxtor hard drive, and 128 meg sdram. Those were all upgrades. Anyway would like to play some games on this computer, however screen comes up saying something about 3d graphics not suitable for the games. Viper Racing is one of the games in question. What would be the most economical upgrade on the video card.

 

[AtreideS]

I suggest you go for a Geforce 2 of some sort. If you want to be economical i'd go for a Geforce 2 MX. They are quite a bit slower than the new Geforce 2 Titanium, but they still do a good job for games (and their dirt cheap). There are many different brands to choose from. It doesn't really matter which brand, as they all are following the guidelines from nVidia. However most cards from smaller companies are significantly cheaper than the cards from Hercules and ASUS.
If you have a little extra cash then a Geforce 2 Titanium is a great investment. The Geforce 2 MX, has been around for quite sometime, and will soon be outdated by the Geforce2 Ti and the even better (yet incredibly expensive) Geforce3.
I hope I've kinda hope I helped you solve your question. But really there is so many cards to choose from, you want to buy a god value for money board, which has a nice framerate and good techincal support (if there is a problem). I also suggest looking at various hardware review websites. As they help you find a nice card. Goodluck!
Oh, I forgot to mention I have just purchased a new Hercules Geforce 2 Ti for my Athlon Xp 1.33ghz. If it arrives in the next few days I'll post here and tell you if it's any good (from the reviews of read, its a great card).

 

[john_waldrum]

Appreciate your suggestions, I also was wanting to know how to disable onboard video. Probably jumpers or something like that.

 

[lavigne]

Before you shell out some of your hard-earner cash for a new video card, I strongly suggest that you look into whether or not you CAN disable your onboard video. Some machine from notoriously proprietary manufacturers are so restrictive that you can't upgrade the video at all. A chum of mine had a Packard Bell with onboard video and 2 different tech shops tried to disable it to install a TNT2 card last year. He ended up buying a new machine, since he;'d have had to have replaced the mobo, which isn't easy in a proprietary box, plus the video and processor...ticked him off royally, but at least he's happy with the new machine. ANYWAY....

Double check your mobo's manual, the manufacturer's website, here, wherever you can find info to make sure you can disable to video, and how to do it. That way you'll be all set to go when you finally decide on which card to buy.

For my 2 cents, I have to agree with AtreideS, the GeForce2 MX is a gr8 buy right now. I've seen them for about $125 Cdn ($80 U.S.). Since your system isn't top of the line (no offence intended) you really won't gain much by shelling out hundreds for video processing capacity that your machine can't use.

Good Luck.