Griffin Bain on 23/5/2009 at 19:58
just a question. I have a nvidia FX 5200 card that, in my opinion is still an awesome card. I am using the original drivers for it that came with my computer (because I customed ordered a stock computer with a ((at the time) a good graphics card). Anyhow the card and gams work good but in situations were I need to upgrade the drivers, the card actually performs worse and I get the patches at the actual nvidia site, so I end up going back to my original drivers.
For example, I have scorched 3d 42.1 on my computer, with the orginal drivers it works grand, put the newest ones on there from the nvidia site and it works like @$$.
About a year ago I needed to upgrade the drivers to play thief 3, i did but thief 3 ran like $h!t even though my computer should have blown away my other computer which was playing it just fine!!!
my other specs are
Dell 4600 with XP service pack 2 and 2.6GHZ and lots of ram
any ideas or people have gone through this?
bikerdude on 24/5/2009 at 12:33
Quote Posted by Griffin Bain
* with the orginal drivers it works grand, put the newest ones on there from the nvidia site and it works like @$$.
* About a year ago I needed to upgrade the drivers to play thief 3, i did but thief 3 ran like $h!t even though my computer should have blown away my other computer which was playing it just fine!!!
* Dell 4600 with XP service pack 2 and 2.6GHZ and lots of ram
* Thats because the newer drivers ARE NOT optomized for that card.
* Thief 3 needs far more powerful card, the FX5200 is a £20 card these days
* whats lots of ram and what cpu is that
bikerdude on 24/5/2009 at 18:13
Quote Posted by Ostriig
If you're looking to upgrade just the graphics card you'll be limited to AGP, For instance, I did a quick search on Aria for an AGP and this popped up a 512MB Radeon HD 3650 for £60. It won't rock your world, but it should do. As more powerful alternatives, GeForce 7800GS was also made in AGP
The most powerful card for agp atm is the (
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?sap-38505a) HD3850 @ £72 which is about the same as a 8800GTS 320/640 - youll be able to play most of the latest games @ 1280*1024 with medium details.
fyi. the HD3650 would be the same Geforce 7800GS in DX9 games, but would be far better in modern games.
Ostriig on 24/5/2009 at 18:23
Ah, my mistake, I didn't know the 3650 and the 7800 were in about the same league.
MaxDZ8 on 1/6/2009 at 09:47
Quote Posted by Griffin Bain
any ideas or people have gone through this?
I am sorry to inform you that the 5200 has been a cheap card since the beginning so no wonder T3 ran badly, if you've been told otherwise, you've been screwed.
My best bet is that the new driver tricks the game in thinking it is a fast card with high-end functionalities, while in fact, it is not. There are plenty of things that can go wrong, 42.1 is the last version, I believe it probably went for a different rendering mode with the previous driver. Does it look much different? Does it look ok? Is it shiny? Etc etc...
As Bikerdude said, the drivers are no more optimized for AGP systems. AGP makes uploading data extremely slower than PCIex: if the game streams data to the card incrementally, odds are it will suffer alot.
And no, I don't think upgrading is economically viable for this system... because I have one as well.
TBE on 2/6/2009 at 03:14
I've got a system similar to yours, and there is a bit of functionality left in them for gaming. I've got the (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102730) Sapphire Radeon 3850 video card. It has done wonders to improve gaming. I play most games with no stutter. I run S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with object dynamic lighting and it looks great. Haven't tried Thief 3 on this system since I've got this new video card, but I'd imagine it would be good, as other games I'm playing have higher video recommendations than T3. This is a cheap upgrade to your aging system. I'd highly recommend this video card.
