graphic card error purchase??

[lplover2k2]

hello,i have just bought a geforce 4 mx 440-8x a few days ago.By reading many threads ,i realised that i probably made an error.I have found that many people say that geforce 4 fx 5200 is far better than the geforce 4 mx.At the place where i bought the geforce mx,there was also geforce fx which was just a little more expensive than the geforce mx.I don't have much experience about graphic cards though as it's the first time i'm buying one.
Do you think i made an error?? i starting to regret my purchase now.

And another question (i know that this is not the right forum but please help).What does te ram found on the graphic card do(for my geforce 4 mx,it's 64mb ddr),does it actually acts as a normal 64mb ddr ram??

Another last question
i have a p3 450 and bought a 256 sdram "cartridge".But when inserting it in the ram slot together with a 64 sdram "cartridge" and when looking a system info,it only says 192mb ram instead of 310 mb ram.Do you think my motherboard does not support more than 192mb ram(weird no??).please help again.

THanks for your patience reading my long post and thanks for helping me in advance. (can someone tell me good forum where i can discuss about those stuff).

 

[loleoc]

hello,i have just bought a geforce 4 mx 440-8x a few days ago.By reading many threads ,i realised that i probably made an error.I have found that many people say that geforce 4 fx 5200 is far better than the geforce 4 mx.At the place where i bought the geforce mx,there was also geforce fx which was just a little more expensive than the geforce mx.I don't have much experience about graphic cards though as it's the first time i'm buying one.
Do you think i made an error?? i starting to regret my purchase now.

And another question (i know that this is not the right forum but please help).What does te ram found on the graphic card do(for my geforce 4 mx,it's 64mb ddr),does it actually acts as a normal 64mb ddr ram??

Another last question
i have a p3 450 and bought a 256 sdram "cartridge".But when inserting it in the ram slot together with a 64 sdram "cartridge" and when looking a system info,it only says 192mb ram instead of 310 mb ram.Do you think my motherboard does not support more than 192mb ram(weird no??).please help again.

THanks for your patience reading my long post and thanks for helping me in advance. (can someone tell me good forum where i can discuss about those stuff).

1ª)Geforce FX 5200 is a little better than your card.
2ª) Your motherboard doesn´t support 256 mb modules. It supports up 128 mb ram modules. Then if you put a 256 mb module, you mother recognizes it like a 128 mb module.
3ª) About ddr memory, enter to nvidia home page and look for products and geforce 4 mx and look at the speed of Core and Memory of Geforce 4 mx agp 8x, Then enter to video poperties of windows, advanced, and look at the speed of the clock of your card, if it is the same you have a card with ddr memory.

 

[Troublemaker]

for the motherboard and ram you should try changing the slots for your ram, put the 256 in 1st slot and 64mb in second, some motherboards have problems like that
my motherboard had the same problem and I just changed slots of my ram and then it recognised it like it should be recognised

 

[james.miller]

thats right thinking about it. i also had that problem with an old motherboard of mine.

 

[lplover2k2]

thanks very much for your help and time.Will try your solutions tomorrow as there(Mauritius)it's about 23:00

thnks again.

 

[jollyrancher]

At the place where i bought the geforce mx,there was also geforce fx which was just a little more expensive than the geforce mx.I don't have much experience about graphic cards though as it's the first time i'm buying one.
Do you think i made an error?? i starting to regret my purchase now.

It really depends on what kind of gaming you do. The mx is sorta like the "stock" car stereo that comes with a new car... if amazing audio performance is important to you, you'll go with the $1500 Alpine system. But the mx will get the job done with any game out there right now, you will just have to turn down the special graphics settings like antialiasing, anisotropic filtering and maybe lower the resolution to 800X600. Considering that the fx doesn't cost that much more it would be worthwhile to exchange for it, especially if you want to play games like Doom 3 and Half-life 2.

 

[sheik124]

the geforce 4's (every one of them) are startin to show their age, the fx 5200 if i am correct is indeed slower but offers dx9 support and someother junk, exhange it while you still can

 

[mainframe19]

well if you are into n64 emulation and ps1 games, like i am, than keep it! and later save up your cash for a faster card!

 

[Tagrineth]

The GeForce FX 5200 is generally WORSE than your MX440. Consider yourself lucky.

(Edit: What you were probably thinking of is the GeForce4 Ti4200, which is hands down better than the MX440 and FX5200... and still a respectable card today.)

And Sheik, DX9 is useless at single digit frame rates.

 

[jollyrancher]

The GeForce FX 5200 is generally WORSE than your MX440.

This has "video card debate" written all over it. I have only used a gf3 ti200, gf4 mx440 and a gf4 ti4200 and I agree that the ti4200 blows them all away... but the gf3 ti200 is better than the MX440 and I find it hard to believe that Nvidia would come out with a new card that's worse that a card that is 2 generations old and was released in 2001. I did a quick search and the first benchmark that compared only these two cards said that the fx is better.

http://www.ultimatehardware.net/xfx5200/xfx5200.htm

 

[lplover2k2]

i have tried to swap the 256mb ram and 64 sdram in all types of positions but it still shows 192mb ram.

 

[lplover2k2]

i don't think the vendor will exchange the mx for an fx

 

[jollyrancher]

Why can't you exchange it (pay the difference)? You just bought it a few days ago. Oh, and with the RAM it's likely that it only supports up to 192 MB... some P3's are like that. You never told us your model or motherboard... just that it's a P3.

 

[lplover2k2]

what can i tell the supplier so that he change my card(it's working well). don't know the model of my motherboard.

 

[vleespet]

I'll give a definite answer about your video-question:

Do NEVER buy a FX 5200. They are known to be noisy and the funny thing is that the cooler won't even work right and turns itself off at a moment that it's really needed. Don't buy it!

 

[loleoc]

i have tried to swap the 256mb ram and 64 sdram in all types of positions but it still shows 192mb ram.

Do you have the motherboard manual?? Look for what modules your card support (I think that your mother don´t support 256 mb ram modules, or maybe your 256 module does not work good). And I think that fx 5200 is better (a little) than mx 440 and the test show it.

 

[sheik124]

I'll give a definite answer about your video-question:

Do NEVER buy a FX 5200. They are known to be noisy and the funny thing is that the cooler won't even work right and turns itself off at a moment that it's really needed. Don't buy it!

what the hell are you talking about, the 5200 has a small heatsink on it, not a noisy cooler, and no cards do dumb things like that, shutting off the fans when needed, the 5200 ultra has fans on it but it works great

 

[NeTo]

If you sum up all opinions that have/would/and will be given you'll notice the upgrade to a 5200 isn't worth the effort. You could try to upgrade to somthing a step higher, like the 5600, in the future, when you see card isn't performing as you would want to. The risk is just too high (you can end up in the lovers side as well as in the haters side) for the little performance increase you may (or may not) get.

If your card has a good fan, you could try overclocking it after some time. Programs like PowerStrip let you set different clock speeds to different programs, so the speed rises only when necessary. You could try programs like Rivatuner to tweak driver settings, etc. You could always save your money for a better card later on.

PS: Strange, how come i agree with mainframe19? Beware! Doomsday is close!

 

[lplover2k2]

thanx a lot again guys for your precious advices.I will not change my card finally and for the ram,a technician of the shop where i have bought the ram will come at my place and see what's wrong with my pc.

 

[lplover2k2]

how do i know if my fan is a good one??? is it dangerous to overclock if the fan is not very good???

Does someone know how to overclock a p3 450mhz processor,i have put a good amd fan on it.