Best PCI Video Card for Trainz?

[myxomatosis]

I took too long posting so the pics came up before my post. :b That is most definitely a PCI only motherboard. Stock powersupply is only 250 watts. Max memory is 2GB. Memory type is DDR.

As far as upgrading to a newer system, to do it in stages you'd need a motherboard with an LGA775 socket to use the old processor. (2004/2005 is probably when I built my first system, replacing my aging Compaq. PCI-Express and DDR2 were new back then.)

To get a system with decent upgradability, you'd need to replace the motherboard, memory, (DDR motherboards are almost extinct) possibly power supply, and would probably need an IDE/PATA card. (I counted at least 3 drives, 2 optical and at least 1 harddrive. Most modern motherboards only support 2 IDE/PATA devices and instead have a bunch of SATA ports.)

So a full upgrade would probably cost more then $100.

Yes, I have 3 drives in there; 1 DVD Drive, the stock CD Drive and 1 HD.

Thank you for your help.

 

[SuperFudd]

Yep, PCI only. Judging from the suported CPUs, I would guess 2004 or 2005, yet no AGP. Wierd. It has "intergrated" video. If that is what you have now it is a wonder Trainz works at all. Any PCI video card Geforce 2 MX400 or newer would be a big improvement.

 

[myxomatosis]

Yep, PCI only. Judging from the suported CPUs, I would guess 2004 or 2005, yet no AGP. Wierd. It has "intergrated" video. If that is what you have now it is a wonder Trainz works at all. Any PCI video card Geforce 2 MX400 or newer would be a big improvement.

I will look into that. Thanks.


And also, Trainz is not the only graphics intensive game I have played on the thing. I have also played Microsoft Flight Simulator with some high quality aircraft and it ran pretty well for a computer like mine. Strange.

 

[evan123]

Now are you talking about just a regular PCI? Or a PCI x16?

 

[Gandalf0444]

Now are you talking about just a regular PCI? Or a PCI x16?

Regular PCI, what you refer to PCI x16 is PCI-E not PCI. PCI came first, then AGP 4x, 8x. Then PCI-E x1, x16. PCI-E 2.0 x16, and lastly PCI-E 2.1 x16.

So in short we are referring to the oldest of the old.

 

[evan123]

Regular PCI, what you refer to PCI x16 is PCI-E not PCI. PCI came first, then AGP 4x, 8x. Then PCI-E x1, x16. PCI-E 2.0 x16, and lastly PCI-E 2.1 x16.

So in short we are referring to the oldest of the old.

Out of all the years that I have been working with computers, I'v never had to deal with a flat out PCI. I'm impressed.

 

[EdrickV]

One thing that could further confuse things is that both Conventional PCI and PCI Express (offical abbreviation: PCIe) both have multiple versions with version numbers. PCI has various versions from 1.0 to 3.0, while PCIe is currently at 2.1. (PCIe 3.0 is not finalized yet.) And I'm not even going to get into talking about PCI-X.

So, when looking for a PCI card online (video card or not) it's a good idea to take a good look at the connectors if there are pics of the card. Wouldn't surprise me if a PCIe card got listed as PCI or vice versa. (All the PCI graphics cards I looked at on Newegg earlier were Conventional PCI, though I didn't check any ATI cards.)