Video Card Suggestions?

[honkey]

I had been doing really well keeping down costs until today... I installed Service Pack 2 and 3 to my computer and it caused my video card to stop working. (I get the Blue Screen with Nvid4_DISP message). So now it looks like I will need to get a new video card and I do not have on laying around. I know I do not want to get a top of the line gamer video card, but I would like to be able to play mostly MAME games like Street Fighter, NeoGeo games, and maybe Gauntlet Legends in addition to the classics. I also want to run Atari, NES, SNES, and N64 emulators. I don't know if it makes much difference or not, but my CPU (Dell4600 Dimension) specs are:
-1.5 GB RAM
-2.66 GHz Pentium4 processor
-80 GB Hard drive

And I am using a 19" ViewSonic monitor. Most of the games I had been playing were working fine with a Nvidia FX5200, with the exception of Gauntlet Legends, (Although I have been informed that Gauntlet Legends is pretty hard to run correctly without an advanced computer, so I won't be too disappointed if I can't get it to work.)

ETA-
The card needs to have an AGP 8X interface.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Have you tried re-installing the drivers for your video card? Updating to the newer service packs cannot damage your videocard.

The video card has almost no impact in mame. Gauntlet Legends is best run as the Dreamcast version, where the 3D portion of the emulation is actually offloaded to the video card. It's possible that that 5200 might be sufficient for that, but I haven't tried it.

You would probably get the most bang for your buck by upgrading that CPU. Your Dimension 4600 only runs a 533Mhz FSB, so the fastest CPU you can get is a 3.06Ghz Northwood Pentium 4:

Here is one for sale at around $75 after shipping:
http://www.orbitmicro.com/global/pentium-3-06-512-533-p-15806.html?ref=base

You could probably find one cheaper on ebay or the like.


If re-installing the drivers for your video card does not fix the problem and you really want to buy a new card, you might look at something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187122
It's a GeForce 6200 for around $40.

[honkey]

I have read people say that the video card has little to no effect, but in order to use direct3D don't you need a video card?
I am not sure why this happened when I installed the service pack, but when I uninstalled the pack, the card started working again. Unfortunately, I reinstalled the service pack and then installed the next service pack, and now I can not uninstall both of them. (I can uninstall service pack 3, but not service pack 2). Would an upgraded processor make much difference or will it just be a small difference? Thank you for your help!

[codefenix]

but in order to use direct3D don't you need a video card?

Mame uses your video card for scaling only.  It's what allows you to get smooth images and high framerates in fullscreen mode.  The games' actual graphics are rendered entirely by the CPU.  This is why 3D games like Gauntlet Legends are slow and choppy in Mame no matter how good your video card is.

[honkey]

That makes sense. Once the card stopped working, Galaga spaceships looked like they were leaving streaks on the screen when they flew on, but looked normal when moving slowly.
Will a video card help a dreamcast emulator if I want to run Gauntlet Legends? I am not completely convinced that is worth it to download though, since I don't think I would play any other Dreamcast game on a regular basis.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I have read people say that the video card has little to no effect, but in order to use direct3D don't you need a video card?
I am not sure why this happened when I installed the service pack, but when I uninstalled the pack, the card started working again. Unfortunately, I reinstalled the service pack and then installed the next service pack, and now I can not uninstall both of them. (I can uninstall service pack 3, but not service pack 2). Would an upgraded processor make much difference or will it just be a small difference? Thank you for your help!

You really should probably update your video drivers.

This is the most recent version for your card:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/175.19/175.19_geforce_winxp_32bit_english_whql.exe

The processor I listed is 15% faster by clock speed. MAME does a pretty good job at exactly scaling linearly with clockspeed (within the same model of chip), which means games that are playable, but a little choppy, will become smooth. By those numbers, if your game runs at around 53FPS, when it's suppose to be doing 60, the upgrade would probably get you to 60fps.

The question of if that's worth it for the money is up to you.

I've seen several older posts on various forums suggesting that the 5200FX is at the bare minimum of what you'd want to run NullDC.

[Donkbaca]

If you want to run gauntlet legends, run the dreamcast version, it won't run well in MAME, there are still problems with the emulation, even on higher end rigs it has sound issues and slows down after a couple of levels.

The dreamcast actually has a TON of fun games on it, sould caliber, MvC2, Capcom v SNK2, some decent shmups, powerstone is fun.  None of these will run in MAME on your setup.

I wouldn't straight up upgrade my CPU without playing some games and seeing if its worth it.  You will probably find that most that you want to play is playable and that some of the things that you want to play won't be playabe, even with an upgrade.  Plus for 100-150 bucks you can get a used core 2 duo, which would be a lot better for mame, I would rather do that than upgrade a P4 processor, its not much more money and would give you more bang for your buck

In terms of a video card, it DOES matter for some emulators, but not for MAME.  Check out the M2 and Zinc emulators, and if you are interested in those, get a video card that supports Pixel Shader 3.

With the hardware you have, and like a 25 dollar video card, you will be able to play a surprising number of games if you venture out of mame and look at the dreamcast, m2 and zinc emulators.

[honkey]

You really should probably update your video drivers.

This is the most recent version for your card:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/175.19/175.19_geforce_winxp_32bit_english_whql.exe

The processor I listed is 15% faster by clock speed. MAME does a pretty good job at exactly scaling linearly with clockspeed (within the same model of chip), which means games that are playable, but a little choppy, will become smooth. By those numbers, if your game runs at around 53FPS, when it's suppose to be doing 60, the upgrade would probably get you to 60fps.

The question of if that's worth it for the money is up to you.

I've seen several older posts on various forums suggesting that the 5200FX is at the bare minimum of what you'd want to run NullDC.

Thank you for your help! I did try to update the drivers, but I still have the same problem. I will look into the processor upgrade in addition to a new video card. I didn't notice choppiness before with the games once I press F8, I think all the MAME games I have tried have run at 100% except for Gauntlet Legends.

[honkey]

If you want to run gauntlet legends, run the dreamcast version, it won't run well in MAME, there are still problems with the emulation, even on higher end rigs it has sound issues and slows down after a couple of levels.

The dreamcast actually has a TON of fun games on it, sould caliber, MvC2, Capcom v SNK2, some decent shmups, powerstone is fun.  None of these will run in MAME on your setup.

I wouldn't straight up upgrade my CPU without playing some games and seeing if its worth it.  You will probably find that most that you want to play is playable and that some of the things that you want to play won't be playabe, even with an upgrade.  Plus for 100-150 bucks you can get a used core 2 duo, which would be a lot better for mame, I would rather do that than upgrade a P4 processor, its not much more money and would give you more bang for your buck

In terms of a video card, it DOES matter for some emulators, but not for MAME.  Check out the M2 and Zinc emulators, and if you are interested in those, get a video card that supports Pixel Shader 3.

With the hardware you have, and like a 25 dollar video card, you will be able to play a surprising number of games if you venture out of mame and look at the dreamcast, m2 and zinc emulators.

Very helpful! Will Gauntlet Legends on a Dreamcast emulator function well with regular arcade joysticks and buttons?

[notroubleclubber]

If it's justthe service packs causing a problem then just reinstall windows and leave the service packs. If it's a mame pc is itgoing on the net and if not then I wouldn't bother.
Just install something like tinyxp and try running nulldc with your current setup for gauntlet legends.
This way u don't need to upgrade anything and u haven't spent anything

[honkey]

If it's justthe service packs causing a problem then just reinstall windows and leave the service packs. If it's a mame pc is itgoing on the net and if not then I wouldn't bother.
Just install something like tinyxp and try running nulldc with your current setup for gauntlet legends.
This way u don't need to upgrade anything and u haven't spent anything

I have never used tinyxp. Will every program that works for regular XP work on tinyxp?

[Donkbaca]

The dreamcast is probably one of the most underrated consoles ever.  It is basically a home version of the arcade hardware Sega was using at the time, so the games on it are near, if not, arcade perfect.  It does help to give a good graphics card with it, but you don't need anything super-amazing, just make sure you get one that supports Pixel Shader 3 and like I said, the M2, Zinc and Dreamcast emulator will bring a lot more games playable.

I would advise against Tiny XP.  I dabbled in it and got frustrated. One its not exactly easy to find and there are lots of different Tiny XP builds, and a lot of them have issues with driver support, etc.  I just found it frustrating to find information and then quickly grew tired of all the tweaks I needed to do with it.  The only real advantages to tiny Xp are 1) a potentially faster boot time - which I don't care about because I am not turning my machine on and off all the time, and 30 secs or so of boot time doesn't really matter to me. and 2) It takes up less drive space.  When you can get 1tb drives for around 50 bucks or less, saving a gig here and there really isn't worth the trouble.

[notroubleclubber]

Donka - id be interested to know what problems you had with tinyxp as ive used it 3 times on 3 different builds and have never had any problems with drivers etc.

[honkey]

Quick update: I just realized that with service pack 1a, the display adapters driver does not show up in the device manager. When I update to service pack 2, it shows up in device manager, but the computer can not boot unless it is in safe mode. Otherwise I get the blue screen with Nvid4_disp. And something about an infinite loop. With Service Pack 3, same thing. Maybe there is a way to salvage this card? I did try updating the drive and that did not fix it. Is there anything else to try?

[notroubleclubber]

If the card works fine before the service update then the card must be fine and it's a software issue

[Donkbaca]

Just ditch it, at this point it's not worth the frustration. Get a a new cheap card