PCI graphics?

Question

Right now I have a Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 graphics card with 128 mb in my graphics card slot. I have a PCI slot. NOT A PCI EXPRESS SLOT. What is the best PCI graphics card I can buy? Do they sell ones with 512mb video ram?

Answer 1

I have a PC with PCI slots only as well, so I did a lot of research before buying a graphics card.

Apparently, there is almost no PCI video card equipped with 512 RAM because the PCI bus would never be able to use that much memory. The most I've seen is 256MB.

As for the BEST PCI card: it depends on which brand you like, your needs, the price, and your current system (whether or not it can support it).

Here are some you might want to consider:

1) Geforce FX 5500 PCI 256MB
2) Geforce 6200 PCI 256MB
3) ATI Radeon 9550 PCI 256MB
4) ATI Radeon X1300 PCI 256MB
5) ATI Radeon X1550 PCI 256MB

All of the above cards can boost your visual experience significantly (except maybe the FX5500; a small boost in performance), and cost roughly around $60-$100 USD. Most of them come with Shader Model 2.0 or 3.0 and DirectX 9.0c.

Also, make sure your system can handle the new card. Check the box at the shop if you have enough memory and a sufficient power supply unit because these cards can be very demanding.

Hopes this helps.

Answer 2

Almost all of the PCI cards still available are workstation cards which are very fast with CAD but far slower than current cards for anything else. You can get some with 512MB but unless you are working with CAD it will probably be slower than your FX5200.

Answer 3

The Nvidia has many products:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce8.html
The GeForce 8 gives you good size of RAM options

Answer 4

Pricewatch.com has lots of video cards to look at--also good prices.