GeForce 2 MX200 AGP, or GeForce FX5700LE PCI?

[CoonDawg]

This is probably a weird question, so let me explain:

I have a dell 2400 with onboard graphics, with only PCI slots. I found an old AGP lying around, and looked it up. Decent in it's age, yes, but is it better then a (possibly) newer PCI? I could always buy a new Mobo for the the AGP, so just curious which would be better. I will be making money this summer (I'm 14) for a gaming machine, but like I said, I'm 14! I'm impatient, so I need a temporary solution.

I know that PCI's haven't been reproduced in some time, but I wasn't sure which was newer. If they gave around the same performance, then I would go with the PCI, mainly because of it's basic plug and play in my situation, but I need a new mobo anyways.

Sorry for such an ignorant question, but not only am I very new to hardcore gaming, I wasn't into computers at all un till about a year ago, so I have no idea about older cards.

[GroundZero3]

i think the pci would be alot better.


As for your upgrading motherboard desires, if you have a dell pc you will have to buy a new case and powersupply to get the new motherboard. Just and FYI.

[mjolnir1134]

Just save for a mobo and AGP card. Trust me, it will be worth the wait. Same decision happened to me. I have the ATI Radeon 9250 256mb PCI and it plays games okay enough. On the graphic intensive games, I usually set it to 800x600 resolution and medium settings. (Half-life 2, CS:source, Halo).

If you want a PCI card that'll serve as a temporary solution, get the ATI Radeon 9250. Don't get a PCI under 256mb, otherwise, its not good. I wouldn't recommend a PCI anyways because of the choppy performance fpr the newest games.

An AGP card is like 5 times better than a PCI. PCI has little bandwidth for extreme graphic video scenes, which you are obviously going to face in some parts of a game. A drawback in getting PCI is that nobody has made it's graphics higher than DirectX 8.1. So that means that some things like invisible characters that look like "invisible but shiny goo" will not look right.

So, just SAVE money for the mobo, an AGP card, and possibly a NEW PSU!!!!!!! Don't forget, since your dell diemension has no AGP when you bought it, they probably made the PSU with little wattage. A decent PSU to run a good AGP IMO is 350W minimum. Your PSU is probably 300W or less. Look off newegg for any ATX PSU 350W or better. Using an AGP card on a PSU smaller than 300W will probably fry all the components inside your computer and that would suck badly.

[CoonDawg]

I know that saving for a huge mobo, and new PSU, and brand new AGP would be considered a "good" idea, but I want to save for a new computer. All I need is to be able to play battle for middle earth for a couple of months. I really don't feel like spending more then 100$. And since it sounds like I'll need a PSU and all, I think I'll just go with the PCI card. Afterwards I won't be using this computer at all for gaming, so I don't want to invest.

[coolguy1986]

5700LE supports Dx9, thats a pretty good card, i bought one for my little cousin so he could play Coh with me. It ran CoD on 800x600 on high. And Doom3 on medium.