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PCI madness

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First post, by Greywolf1

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Heya I recently got myself a dell dimension 3100c DV051 3ghz pentium 4 and I cannot figure out what graphics card can fit in there
I have 2 pci slots 32bit version 2.3 and 1 pci-e x1 all my searches don’t explain what I can install or say replace my pc 🤣
I’m intending to install xp and win 98 and I’ve seen older rigs with decent graphics cards
My other rig is a dell dimension 3000 with 3 pci slots

Any help is appreciated

Reply 1 of 27, by rasz_pl

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you can install any PCIE graphic card with the help of PCIE x1 riser(or cutting open pcie slot and modifying cpu cooler to make more room), but nothing will work at acceptable speed on this system due to
1 Pentium 4
2 pcie x1 bandwidth limitations

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Reply 2 of 27, by theelf

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Greywolf1 wrote on 2024-01-21, 18:43:
Heya I recently got myself a dell dimension 3100c DV051 3ghz pentium 4 and I cannot figure out what graphics card can fit in the […]
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Heya I recently got myself a dell dimension 3100c DV051 3ghz pentium 4 and I cannot figure out what graphics card can fit in there
I have 2 pci slots 32bit version 2.3 and 1 pci-e x1 all my searches don’t explain what I can install or say replace my pc 🤣
I’m intending to install xp and win 98 and I’ve seen older rigs with decent graphics cards
My other rig is a dell dimension 3000 with 3 pci slots

Any help is appreciated

Buy a regular pci-e to pci-e 1x in aliexpress or ebay and install whatever gpu you like, gf 5xx x or ati 9600-9800 still work fine in 98

Reply 3 of 27, by theelf

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rasz_pl wrote on 2024-01-21, 18:47:

you can install any PCIE graphic card with the help of PCIE x1 riser(or cutting open pcie slot and modifying cpu cooler to make more room), but nothing will work at acceptable speed on this system due to
1 Pentium 4
2 pcie x1 bandwidth limitations

I have a nvidia 730 running in a 1x slot and after made some test same card in a 16x slot the difference in games was small, 10-15% max

Reply 4 of 27, by Sphere478

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If I recall, the pins at the notch locations on the cards are gnd or NC

You may be able to notch a card edge connector without any ill effects.

Check the pcie pinout.

Edit:
https://pinoutguide.com/Slots/pci_express_pinout.shtml

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Reply 5 of 27, by Sphere478

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Please double check and analyze before doing that though if you look, that ssd doesn’t have a 1x notch. So might be important.

Sphere's PCB projects.
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Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
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SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
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Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 6 of 27, by Greywolf1

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Got more info these are the white pci slots 33mhz
Don’t have any of the longer ones
Will have to check up more on pci risers

Reply 8 of 27, by StriderTR

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They do make PCIe X1 video cards, but most are geared toward workstation use. Though I have seen X1 cards like the GeForce GT 710 and Radeon 4350.

However, you can use an X1 to X16 adapter like others have said, but your card will only run at X1 speeds obviously.

Also, get a riser cable, not a standard solid riser, so you can install the card in your case. A standard hard riser means the card wont slot into the case properly.

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Reply 9 of 27, by Greywolf1

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Will a pci to x16 conversion card work as well as I will be able to use it in both my computers and which graphics card would be suitable if it’s gonna get throttled anyway
It just needs to cope with games from dos to early xp

Reply 10 of 27, by ElectroSoldier

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Zotac did a couple of PCI video cards.
It very much depends on what games you will be playing as to their utility for you.

Reply 11 of 27, by Greywolf1

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I’ve found 8mb cards that don’t require messing around but I’m sure there’s better options available.
Games in my collection are half-life,Diablo 2 , StarCraft, Warcraft1+2,land of lore 2+3, heratec 1+2, dune ,c&c red alert,elder scrolls,etc

Reply 12 of 27, by demiurge

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For late model PCI or even PCIe graphics cards, try the filter on the site I contribute to https://vgamuseum.info/index.php/image-search and you will certainly find some hits.

As one of the other people mentioned Zotac is the last to drop the PCI bus and some later cards did run on the PCI bus.

Reply 13 of 27, by Errius

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I have a couple of Zotac GT 610 PCIe x1 cards that I use in situations like this. I also have another pair in conventional PCI, and several 520/610's in x16. The PCI cards have 512 MiB of memory and the others 1024 MiB.

Note that memory speed is very important with these cards. The PCI @ 1333 MHz scores higher in 3DMark11 than the PCIe x16 @ 1066 MHz.

Unsurprisingly, fastest of all is the PCIe x16 @ 1600 MHz

ETA: All these tests are using a regular 33 MHz PCI slot.

Last edited by Errius on 2024-01-25, 08:06. Edited 1 time in total.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 14 of 27, by lordmogul

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PCI cards are obviously an option
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAcMvJSMWIs

he also tested PCIe x1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNEge5r6-mg

The fastest card would either be a GT 710 (for PCI x1) or GT 520/610 (on both PCI and PCIe x1), and afaik someone even made a GT 640 on those old slots. If you want a Radeon, there is the HD 5450
Below that some 9500 GT also came in PCI

Any of them will be much better than the GMA 900 on the 915G chipset, which might have pixel shader 2, but no hardware T&L and no hardware vertex shaders. In theory DX9 capable, but no speed at anything DX7 and above.

I found some old review of the thing:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1413
Warcraft 3 will run okay, they got 47.8 fps in 640x480 with a Pentium 4 3 GHz, UT2004 in 640x480 on lowest settings gets 37.5 fps
Here is another one:
https://www.computerbase.de/2005-05/test-turb … hypermemory/15/
Half Life 2 runs just below 20 fps in 800x600, Max Payne 2 pushes at least close to 40

Then obviously opening up the back of a x1 slot and putting a bigger card in.
Mechanically supported, but x1 only offers 25 W, while x16 offers 66 W on the 12 V rail and allows for 75 W total, so a full card will most likely go out of spec there.

The biggest issue is the lack of both, PCIe x16 and AGP.

But if it's just for properly old games, any card will do. Could grab some old TNT2 or Mach 64 or ET4000 for that kind of stuff. Some of it would probably even run better on them.

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Reply 15 of 27, by Greywolf1

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I don’t know if I’m misunderstanding things being said here,

I’ve got one pc with 3 pci 32bit33mhz 3.3 v version 2.3
And the other pc 1 pci-e x1 and 2 pci 32bit 33mhz 3.3v version 2.3
My google searches and replies keep confusing me 🤣
Will pci graphic cards fit in the pci 32 bit slot and run at a diminished capacity
I’ve seen solutions for the pci-e x1 slot but not available in other computers
I feel I lucked out on the two desktops I bought not being as flexible for my needs

Reply 16 of 27, by StriderTR

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Greywolf1 wrote on 2024-01-23, 12:28:
I don’t know if I’m misunderstanding things being said here, […]
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I don’t know if I’m misunderstanding things being said here,

I’ve got one pc with 3 pci 32bit33mhz 3.3 v version 2.3
And the other pc 1 pci-e x1 and 2 pci 32bit 33mhz 3.3v version 2.3
My google searches and replies keep confusing me 🤣
Will pci graphic cards fit in the pci 32 bit slot and run at a diminished capacity
I’ve seen solutions for the pci-e x1 slot but not available in other computers
I feel I lucked out on the two desktops I bought not being as flexible for my needs

The short answer on using your 3.3V 64-bit PCI GFX card in a 3.3V 32-bit slot, in most cases is.... "it should" be compatible since the PCI versions match.

As far as how it will perform or if it will actually work, I can't personally say since I've never done it. =/

If I'm mistaken, someone please correct me.

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Reply 17 of 27, by Sphere478

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For the pci computer a gt 720 or gt 610 is about as fast as pci gets. Hopefully it works with your pci though. It may not. Hard to say without trying

The pcie one, any pcie card will do.

Sphere's PCB projects.
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Sphere’s socket 5/7 cpu collection.
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SUCCESSFUL K6-2+ to K6-3+ Full Cache Enable Mod
-
Tyan S1564S to S1564D single to dual processor conversion (also s1563 and s1562)

Reply 18 of 27, by Errius

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lordmogul wrote on 2024-01-23, 10:34:

Below that some 9500 GT also came in PCI

I also have Jaton 9500 GT, Sparkle 8500 GT and PNY 8400 GS PCI cards. Performance rank is as you would expect. None of them can compete with the Zotac GT 610 PCI, which scores nearly 4x higher in 3D Mark Vantage than the 9500 GT.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 19 of 27, by Greywolf1

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Now my challenge is finding the bloody cards eBay can’t seem to tell the difference between pci and pci-e or agp,
I’ve found a 5500 for £50 but most available are $200 -$500 from America
My best bet would be getting a pci-e card for the dell dimension 3100c but I’m unable to install any operating system on it it refuses the pain in the ass sata drive even with tutorials it keeps asking for the bloody floppy’s for the drivers