To the enlightent ones: greetings

Hey, I posted a question about beefing up an i915 Intel on-board "graphics card" - well, I was given the wise advice to install a card...anything would be better than this.

Okay, so, I've only got a PCI (one!!) slot, and that's where the video card should go, an nvidia geforce 8400gs. Driver should come from nVidia's themselves...

Any thoughts? The card is kinda ... not cheap, so a little over-and-tru about this would be nice.

Admitted, it may not be the best card...but it should be better than intel's masterpiece, that is good for a biz-PC as this one is...

Thanks Programs!

Thor

Yes, but. . .
Your selection is poor with pci. Performance will not be great. Maybe go for a new motherboard to put your cpu & ram into? Some of them even have graphics onboard. As long as it's ati or nvidia graphics, you should be ok.

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It depends what you want to achieve with that system. For multimedia and older games that card will be sufficient, but not for newer games. By the way, nice little machine you have there.

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Thanks for the replies...and the complements on my machine . A new machine is not yet an option. I'd like to smoothen Runescape...that's basically it. Oh, it runs, but with all the textures off and roughened edges (grass/roads and such)...

So...yeah, just that, and some Blendering (3d modelling and such)...but for the rest, whatever I throw at this little box, it gobbles it up nicely.

Sadly, there's only ONE slot...and it's PCI. ...

So the range of possible cards is somewhat limited...

According to the Runescape wiki it needs minimum a Geforce 3 with 64MB RAM, so a 8400 GS should be more than sufficient.

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Hmmm, o dear, me as a Runescape Affectionado have not even been to the wiki...shame on me...

Thanks! So...this'll be the card, then!

I tip my hat to the gurus and Wise Ones!

Thor

Good luck I have a 8400 gs based video card in my Ubuntu desktop and had some problems getting it going. This was an existing install where the 6200 based card was replaced by a 8400 based card.

Depending on the kernel version, you might have to apply the nomodeset parameter, else the system will not even get to X due to nouveau. If you have grub, remove the quiet splash (not sure if this applies exactly to lilo) till you have a system that will boot. Seems to be solved with later kernel versions; I recently remov3ed the nomodeset and the system booted without an issue.

The Ubunutu recommended driver did not work; I'm currently using the 260 dot something from the nVidia website (it was the latest at that stage if I remember correctly) and have no problems. The Ubuntu recommended driver might now work; I haven't tried it recently as I have better things to do.

Just sharing the experience, might all be much simpler in Arch

Thanks Wim, now I'm a bit better "armed" against mishaps. I'd use the drivers from the Arch repo, after a firm backup, and setting te system in init 3. From there on, I'll tiptoe towards a graphical environment. Reason is that the updates and (if needd) removal can happen tru the built-in systems. But, a trip to nVidia's site may be needed, dunnow. There's nothing yet on the system as far as things nVidia are concerned, so no conflicts to be expected...

I just sent a mail ordering the card. I expect a reply as soon as the "goods have arrived"...

I'm exited, though.

Thor

From what I see online the Geforce 8400GS is a PCIE card. Do you really have only a regular PCI port ? Because I don't know of any (good) graphics card that works with that.

There are PCI versions of the 8400GS, even as low profile version.

Interesting, but I cannot imagine what terrible performance it must have.

Well, you made me curious, too. The only benchmark I found for a that card I could find was this one, where that card is tested in comparison to the Intel 945GC onboard-chip of an Atom 330 board. At least it should give Thor_2.0 a good performance gain in his game (IIRC he is using the Intel 865G currently, which is way slower), and it is totally OK for multimedia.

...yes ... sadly, it's all I've got. I even took a picture and mailed it to the shop where I ordered the card. it's PCI (see attachement). But, as TobiSGD mentioned: it'll be an improvement over what I've got now, and I can keep using my current box for some more years as everything else pretty much...works.

I think the card may just extend the lifespan as the rest of the stuff does'nt have to stretch this far anymore in terms of grapgical work...

But...yes, I'm aware PCI is not the best way to go, but it's the better wat than what's on now...

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Just a little note that I forgot; mine is not a PCI.

Yeah, it is a PCI port, and it will be better than an Intel card. From the benchmarks it looks like you might just be able to play CS on it.