GeForce 6200 is a good cheap common option. I put one in an elderly friends XP box for her a couple years back. 240p video was painful on the Intel igp, ended up playing 1080p videos on it after that. My advice would also be to get it up to 2gb. XP is just so much better with 2+gb of ram.

getting a pci version that is NOT 64bit will be tough though - I think only PNY has made one. x1300pci would also be a good choice - again, if you can get your hands on the 128bit version.

OK thanks, Not having a lot of luck with either, either AGP only or expensive. Would an FX 5200 or 5500 be better than P4 by much? Can see the 5200's for around £15.

if price is of concern, I'd go for the cheapest 6200 you can find (should be about £30 on ebay), even when 64bit, it's performance will be much better than the integrated intel or a fx5200/5500 (which I'm pretty sure will be 64bit as well). but fx5200 will do in a pinch, or if you are on a tight budget - just don't expect miracles when playing games.

or go nuts with a 9500GT, it should be 128bit, and the fastest thing ever released for pci.

I'll see what I can find, thanks.

I did have an 8600GT from EVGA, that ran Crysis semi OK 😀

My main PC has an i5, and a Gigabyte 1080ti (upgraded from a 980ti) at launch so that's where the money has gone.

voodoo47 wrote:

or go nuts with a 9500GT, it should be 128bit, and the fastest thing ever released for pci.

or go supper nuts with a 610 pci
https://www.zotac.com/kh/product/graphics_card/gt-610-pci

less cuda cores and 64bit memory bus - I would be really surprised if it were faster than 9500gt.

also one thing that should be pointed out - DX10+ gpus tend to be not too great at DX6/7 games, so in this case, sticking to the 6200 or 5200 would most likely be preferable.

voodoo47 wrote:

less cuda cores and 64bit memory bus - I would be really surprised if it were faster than 9500gt.

also one thing that should be pointed out - DX10+ gpus tend to be not too great at DX6/7 games, so in this case, sticking to the 6200 or 5200 would most likely be preferable.

But its 1333mhz ddr3 ram vs. 800mhz or 1000mzh ddr2, some 9500gt did have 1600mhz gddr3 but I don't see a pci card having it

and It has 48 cores vs. the 32 the 9500 has.

Ether way I'd go for a FX5200 ultra or 128bit version and call it a day. They go for like 10-15$ on ebay.

Can't find any low profile ultras on ebay here. I have found this and been in contact: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NVidia-GeForce-FX-5 … AQAAOSwz71ZXJG1 I think this is as good as I'm gonna get.

if you need the card to be low profile then yeah.

Jade Falcon wrote:

and It has 48 cores vs. the 32 the 9500 has

seems like you are right, was under the impression it had 64 cores for some reason. in that case yeah, 610 would probably be faster.

digitalx wrote:

Can't find any low profile ultras on ebay here. I have found this and been in contact: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NVidia-GeForce-FX-5 … AQAAOSwz71ZXJG1 I think this is as good as I'm gonna get.

I found this 8400GS from your region.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PNY-NVIDIA-GEFORCE- … qIAAOSwQ59ZaKFK

You can get that and pick up this low-profile bracket for it. A major improvement from a 5200 or 6200.

Unfortunately newer cards like the 9500GT or GT 520/610 (same card) are rare and expensive on PCI. Unless you can get lucky with this one.

Thanks for the bracket, but you linked it twice. 😉

How easy is it to remove and replace? I only use VGA, unless a DVI to VGA adapter is possible?

Many thanks.

digitalx wrote:

Thanks for the bracket, but you linked it twice. 😉

How easy is it to remove and replace? I only use VGA, unless a DVI to VGA adapter is possible?

Many thanks.

Oh wow. I must be losing my mind. Here you go.

Brackets are mostly held in by the standoffs on the display ports. Here:

Plus the screw in the middle. It's very easy to do with either small pliers or a socket wrench. The ones around the VGA port aren't even necessary to remove, in this case.

DVI to VGA adapters are very common.

That 8400GS looks perfect. Would it be ok on a 250/275w PSU?

Thank you so much. That card looks great.

I see a few DVI to VGA. As it goes: Card connection>DVI to VGA> VGA Cable, do I need male dvi to female vga or what?

digitalx wrote:

That 8400GS looks perfect. Would it be ok on a 250/275w PSU?

Thank you so much. That card looks great.

You shouldn't have any issues with power delivery.

Careful.

This guy http://www.flaterco.com/kb/DFIP4/index.html reported terrible 2D (software rendering) performance for the 8400, even under DOS. If that's at all important - and it should be for older games - then I'd stick to the 6200 or earlier.

By the way, you did not mention what type of integrated graphics you have - some might be as good as the 6200.

digitalx wrote:

That 8400GS looks perfect. Would it be ok on a 250/275w PSU?

In case of 2000 era games, it would definitely be better to have native PCI cards(6200 and such) in comparison to 'modern' PCI cards (8400GS/520/610) due to performance penalty of those onboard PCI-e to PCI bridges. A good amount of research has already been done on this and you can find a lot of related materials and detailed benchmarks on these modern PCI graphics cards in this forum and of course on the net.

For relatively modernish games like NFS:MW(2005) that you mentioned, the performance offered by a modern 8400GS/520/610 PCI paired with a fast enough CPU would be better in comparison to that of native PCI graphics cards. You would be able to turn on the eye-candy without much hit but one has to be wary about intermediate slowdowns probably due to poor non-native PCI implementations and/or lack of software optimizations. All-in-all, these modern PCI graphics cards are more suited for HTPC purposes rather than gaming.

Hope the above advice didn't turn up late for you.

Edit: Why not play NFS:MW in all its glory on your main PC?

8400gs is most likely also just 64bit, but for £14.95, I'd go for it - should be fine for xp era games, hdmi might come useful, and is passively cooled - not having to tolerate one of those annoying tiny little fans is nice. and if it won't be suitable for whatever reason, it can always be sold again for pretty much the same price and swapped for the 5200/6200.

Yeah you definitely have to make peace with the fact that a PCI card is going to be VERY inconsistent in games. Most game engines expect a lot more bandwidth to talk to the graphics card, and while some games like HL2, Painkiller, and Serious Sam: SE work just fine with the PCI cards I've tested, others may not. If my copy of NFS:MW wasn't packed away in a box right now I'd test it with the 8400GS PCI and give you a definitive answer on how it performs with that game.