So I ordered a new graphics card.... is it any good?

by **Axel** on Tue May 30, 2006 2:42 pm

Well, I felt the need for an upgrade as I just started playing a new online game called Second Life. In all honesty, I was completely clueless on purchasing a graphics card until my friend helped me out on finding one and how to install it. I'm curious if anyone else here has this card and what do you think of it? If you dont have it, it would still be helpful if you're keen on the subject...

Here's the specs

BFG Tech BFGR55256OCP Geforce FX5500 256MB DDR PCI Video Card - Retail

Chipset Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Core clock: 290MHz (vs. 270MHz standard)
D-SUB: 1
DirectX: DirectX 9
Memory Interface: 128-bit
OpenGL: OpenGL 1.5
PixelPipelines: 4
Tuner: None
TV-Out: S-Video Out
VIVO: No

Model #: BFGR55256OCP
Item #: N82E16814143059

by **Fitzy** on Tue May 30, 2006 7:46 pm

it will give you okay performance but not if you wanna play doom3 or anything

by **eisfeld** on Tue May 30, 2006 8:36 pm

I'd rather go with a newer version of the Geforce, Pixel Shader 2.0 and at least 256 MB Ram and maybe if your motherboard supports it, a PCIe card. For newer Games like Oblivion the card you ordered is quite ok, but don't expect a good performance if you play at high settings.

by **Axel** on Tue May 30, 2006 9:21 pm

I looked into those... it doesnt support PCIe cards.

by **benji** on Wed May 31, 2006 4:36 am

You don't have an AGP slot at least?

by **BIG GREEN** on Wed May 31, 2006 4:53 am

Big mistake there..that card sucks ass. The entire FX series sucked. You should've gotten a radeon 9800 pro...or geforce 6600 GT from amazon.com for $129.

by **Donatello** on Wed May 31, 2006 4:58 am

I personally think the card will work fine for what you want to do. I have an FX similar to yours on our second computer, it worked beatifully for World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, etc. (Y)

by **R.J.** on Wed May 31, 2006 6:21 am

Yohance Bailey wrote:Big mistake there..that card sucks ass. The entire FX series sucked. You should've gotten a radeon 9800 pro...or geforce 6600 GT from amazon.com for $129.

That's what I've got, great card...

by **Silas** on Wed May 31, 2006 8:10 am

5500 is already out of date, if you want PCIe you can get some great cards, like the 6600, 7600, 6800, or 7800. Or the ATI counterparts, 9800, x800, etc.

by **MetalHead** on Wed May 31, 2006 8:41 am

You're friend clearly doesn't know that much. You got ripped off. The FX series wont keep up with Live 07. Not only that, but the PCI edition runs like a terrorist with a leg wound; you'll be happy to crank out 15 fps in Doom 3.

by **Ruff Ryder** on Wed May 31, 2006 9:22 am

Lol, my old graphics card that I've had for the past 3 years is a geforce 5600. How much did you pay for this one? $20?

by **benji** on Wed May 31, 2006 10:28 am

Thug, and others, you bring good points. But, I don't think he has a PCIe slot, let alone an AGP slot. The 5500 is close to as good as you can get for a PCI slot, maybe a Raedon 9250 might be better, but I think it may only be DX8.

PCI does get big bottlenecks, so you have to turn texture details lower reducing the effectiveness of 256MB of RAM, but the rest of the stuff it can do fine for a game like Live. Hell, you can play Vice City at 26fps on a GeForce MX 420 PCI at 1024x768, I'm sure a 5500 could keep it consistant.

As long as you aren't wanting to play graphic intensive new games it's fine for $60. (That was hours ago I looked them up on newegg so I don't remember) Especially when you factor in how you're limited to PCI.

by **Axel** on Wed May 31, 2006 11:02 am

Thanks benji. PCI is the only type of card I can get on my computer, I checked for an AGP slot and it doesn't have one. Getting this card was pretty much to last me till next year when I'll spend a lot more on a nice laptop for college.

I'm not going to play anything much more intense than World of Warcraft or Second Life... problem I have with the game I just got is all the content has to be rendered on the fly, so with my current card it's pretty slow despite having decent ram and processor speeds.

by **Unrestrict3D** on Wed May 31, 2006 2:28 pm

Donatello wrote:I personally think the card will work fine for what you want to do. I have an FX similar to yours on our second computer, it worked beatifully for World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, etc.

Guild Wars? :shock:

I played that game as well. 500+ hours on that beast.

So I ordered a new graphics card.... is it any good?

So I ordered a new graphics card.... is it any good?

Who is online