Hi, problem with FX series cards

[raveolution]

I'm new here :)

What is the highest class of GeForce FX card I can buy that does not need an extra open PCI slot next to the AGP slot that it uses?

This is maddening. My computer uses all its PCI slots and I'm not about to sacrifice major functionality for these new cards. My other alternative is to go out and get a whole new motherboard with some feature onboard. In addition to the fact that I'm not a millionaire, that means locking me into some feature that is inherently not upgradeable. :(

Thanks!

[minibubba]

Welcome to TweakTown :)

is there a reason that it must be an nvidia card? none of the high end ati cards require extra space and perform better than their nvidia competition. The highest nvidia card that doesn't require the extra space is the 5600 line and possible the 5700 (although I'm not sure about the 5700)
:cheers:

[raveolution]

You're right about the Radeons being so powerful.

I'd be open to the Radeon series cards if I could trust them with Linux. I use Slackware 9.0+XFree 4.3.0 currently, but even a supported ATI Radeon card (the 7500 was the last one I had) was a nightmare to install on my system with just the very previous version of XFree.

I use Linux mostly, and then sometimes I use 98/XP for games.

Come to think of it if Linux had drivers for the latest All In Wonder that would enable me to use the video capture feature, I'd chuck my extra video capture card and throw in a good USB+Firewire combo card in that PCI slot............................. :D

[Beefy]

Just out of curiosity, what have you got filling up the PCI slots, if you don't mind me asking...?

[raveolution]

Just out of curiosity, what have you got filling up the PCI slots, if you don't mind me asking...?

I have a video capture card, a NIC card, an Audigy sound card, and a SCSI card for my SCSI CD-Roms, then an AWE64 sound card. (When I upgrade to a board that has no ISA slot and I can't have sound cards with on board memory, I'll probably just throw out sound cards, period and use that one as a server machine...)

[Wiggo]

1/ Why 2 sound cards? :confused:

2/ What motherboard and CPU do ya have? :?:

[The__tweaker]

If your running a board with ISA slots then I suggest upgrading mobo/cpu/mem before buying any new modern 3d accelerator. :2cents:

[raveolution]

1/ Why 2 sound cards? :confused:

2/ What motherboard and CPU do ya have? :?:

1) Multitrack music editing. Plus the AWE64 plays the resulting Midi tracks using on board RAM instead of sucking off CPU RAM. Not a big issue at my level but when you get into majorly multi-track stuff with the 16mb sample set I use? That on-card RAM is such a great asset ...

Oh yeah and I love playing MOD files (I have gigabytes of those) and they sound way better on an AWE64 (and use less CPU). You'd have to know the Tracking scene to understand :)

2) That's simpler to explain... Chaintech 7aja2. :)

[Beefy]

That helps a bit. As was mentioned, if you've got ISA slots still, then chances are you might not be able to use the current day AGP cards, as they require different voltage to the old ones, so you might need a new motherboard... Which will do two things:

1/ You'll probably lose ISA support.

2/ Most of your cards will be on board features, freeing up many PCI slots.

EDIT: you beat me. :)

I have some idea of where you are coming from now with the AWE issue, but I thought that the Audigy would have had a more realistic sound bank to listen to MID / MOD files?

EDIT 2: Oops, missed the 16mb sample size. Looks like you'd probably want to go for a semi-pro sound card...

[raveolution]

oh yeah I know I could swap out the Audigy for the on board video... I've been debating that, too.
^^^ er, I meant on board audio. Man that looks stupid. :(

[Wiggo]

Yep stickin' a new video card (AGP ver. 3.0) into that mobo maybe dangerous to hardware as it carries the old universal version 2.0 AGP slot.

[raveolution]

Yep stickin' a new video card (AGP ver. 3.0) into that mobo maybe dangerous to hardware as it carries the old universal version 2.0 AGP slot.

Ah rats, voltage issues! That makes the whole point of my original question irrelevant. I shouldn't grab a better card because it could fry this box. :steam:

A new Mobo would probably require a new processor, and new (DDR) RAM. That's almost as expensive as the new high end cards.. either would boost my performance into the stratosphere but it would also wreck my budget. Would be nice tho. I could get a 2nd machine with a mobo with a NIC built in and add a combo Firewire/USB/SATA/EIDE card (fear the possibilities).

Anyone need their old VHS home movies/wedding videos converted to VCD or DVD? :D <----- needs some extra $$$ NOW, lol...

[Wiggo]

Most likely fry the video card but ya old Athlon/Duron will still work in moderm mobo's though yes ya will need DDR memory but those alone will give the old processor a new lease of life as the SDRAM is stranglin' the CPU's bandwidth still.

[raveolution]

Most likely fry the video card but ya old Athlon/Duron will still work in moderm mobo's though yes ya will need DDR memory but those alone will give the old processor a new lease of life as the SDRAM is stranglin' the CPU's bandwidth still.

Money's a major issue. When I get some, I'll be upgrading the CPU anyways. Heck, at that point I'm going Athlon-64.

If anyone knows of a "high end" sound card with on board memory that works with Linux, that would be a plus, too. :)

[Beefy]

Not really a 'high end' card, but there's plenty of onboard RAM - http://www.theworldwide.org/tek9.asp...cific=jnnogrm8