Nvidia Card

[Henke]

Hello all,

Sorry if this post isn't in the correct place but it was the closest I could find for my needs.

Anyway......I have had a Creative 3D Blaster 4 MX420 (which is nVidia-based, I believe) lying about for some time awaiting to be put into my computer, so I am finally getting around to doing so.

I wish to seek your advice as to whether I should:

a. consider purchasing a new graphics card as the MX420 is way past

it's sell by date.

b. not bother purchasing any graphics card as my computer is from 2003, so only think about buying a graphics card once a new computer has been purchased, after which I will get value from any new card.

c. fit the MX420 as the computer is still perfectly adequate for my needs and the improvement in graphics from the manufacturer's card will still be noticeable.

My system at present:

Dell Dimension 2400

MS Windows XP SP2

Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.66GHZ

512MB RAM

Intel(R) 82845 G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller

34.40 GB Hard Drive free space

Bus Clock 533 MHZ

BIOS DELL Corp. A00 05/23/2003

510MB Installed Memory

Whilst I appreciate the vast majority of you folk will be serious gamers, thus requiring the very latest and most powerful cards, I will only be using my system for flight simulation, most notably 'Flying Club' before moving on to jet simulation, so I don't believe I need that great a graphics card. However, after seeing some of the 'VFR Real Scenery' screenshots, I think I may be tempted to get as good a card as possible.

I'd like as much feedback as possible on this as I don't want to waste money needlessly, but at the same time, I am willing to spend a reasonable amount if it does get me a good return on performance and graphics. If any of you are experienced in flight simming I'd appreciate your thoughts also.

Many thanks

Henke

 

[Ham]

MX420 is a pretty dam old card. Id say get a lower end modern card like the 8500. Cheap and will do the job no end. Maybe even a 7300 would do the job if you can find them in AGP.

 

[nunzio]

Aye upgrade it.

Unless you have plans of upgrading your computer in the coming weeks that is.

 

[Rastalovich]

MX420 is a pretty dam old card. Id say get a lower end modern card like the 8500. Cheap and will do the job no end. Maybe even a 7300 would do the job if you can find them in AGP.

Agreed, the MX cards were solid media card all them years ago, but the media/desktop ranged cards are from as little as £15-20 for the 7xxxx range.

 

[llwyd]

Yep I would get a cheap mid range graphics card and maybe, if you can stretch to it, another 512mb of ram

 

[FarFarAway]

As has been said the MX card is very old

Add 512mb of RAM and as new a card as you can get for AGP and you're set

 

[Rastalovich]

Yeah I kinda skipped over that. Another 512m would be a system boost in general.

My fear with the Dell tho is that it may well be 2x256 in a 2 slot machine. Perhaps take a look at the memory u physically have in the machine atm and report the slots available.