Hi all,

I'm debating getting a new graphics card for my pc, since the old one isn't too great in windows and seems to be even worse in linux.

Basically, can I get an affordable PCI card that will outperform my intel845, and if so, what?

Details:
I've got an emachines 370, with 1.8ghz celeron processor, 256mb DDR ram and a Intel Extreme Graphics AGP 82845G graphics card.

I'm running Mandrake 10.0 official, kde 3.2 and kernel 2.6.3-7.

Unfortunately this machine has no agp slots (the intel card is integrated), so I'm forced to buy a pci card. Is the difference between PCI and AGP sufficient to make this pointless? In other words, will I get better performance out of a PCI card than out of this intel one? (glxgears fetches 300-400fps if that helps.)


Basically I want to run some nice games on here, and windows seems to make do with the intel, at least on the games I've put on here recently (freelancer, counter-strike, neverwinter nights), although not at the highest settings (bearing in mind those games are old now too). Linux however, gish runs at about 1fps(!), and cube and the like also run very poorly.

Looking briefly at cards, I was thinking about the Hightech ATI Radeon 9200 128MB PCI TV-Out DVI (£50 on ebuyer), although something cheaper would be nicer. However, looking at:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...i+agp+graphics
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...i+agp+graphics
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...i+agp+graphics
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...sus+p4c800+ati

It seems that thats a bad idea, although
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...s&pagenumber=1
suggests otherwise, I think thats for an AGP card.


Anyone like to suggest whether its worthwhile, and if so, what I should get?

Thanks in advance,

Alex

You will get some increase in performance, especially with that radeon card, though it might be a bit overpriced if you're not going to use the tv out thingy.

You should be able to find a relatively good card somewhere which is still pci (I know Maplins sell some pci cards but they are a bit rubbish).

Freelancer should run well with the radeon (its a very good game!).

keep checking ebay.co.uk since people often shift old stuff on there.

Sorry I can't be any more help.....

Alex

I recommend something like a GeForce 4. Don't use ATi, they have very poor Linux support.

Ok,thanks for the help, I might well invest in a GEforce somewhere.

Alex