Advice on a Low-Profile Video card

[twistedsymphony]

I'm building a dedicated vertical cabinet... 99% MAME but I'm also running Fix it Felix and the PC release of Ikaruga.

I have a 15K only arcade monitor that I'll be using through a J-PAC.

my PC is a Core 2 Duo with 2GB of ram running Win XP.

Currently I've got an nVidia 7200GS and everything runs well, but I've been hearing a lot of Good things about CRT Emu Driver and Groovy MAME and resolution/frame rate accuracy is very important to me.

the one road-block I have is that I need to use a low-profile (half-height) video card in order for everything to fit....

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations as to the best card to use that is both compatible with CRT Emu Driver and half-height in size. It'd be nice if there was a VGA port as well, so I wouldn't have to use a DVI-VGA adapter (again, because of space) , but this would be a minor thing if everything else is good.

It seems I can get a 4650 in either 512MB or 1GB in a low-profile format but I don't know if this is compatible or if there is a better card out there I could be looking for.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Calamity]

It seems I can get a 4650 in either 512MB or 1GB in a low-profile format but I don't know if this is compatible or if there is a better card out there I could be looking for.

That card should be compatible. However you will need a DVI-VGA adapter definitely. You won't be able to get the right mode to stick if you only use the VGA port.

Regarding Fix it Felix, I can't promise it will work. Search this subforum, there was a recent post of an user failing to get it working.

[twistedsymphony]

somehow the nVidia card I had stopped working so it forced my hand in buying an ATI replacement. I opted to go with a used HD4350 because I could get one in half-height with a VGA port and fanless.

I was originally planning on using Soft15KHz with the nVidia card but everyone kept going on about how much better CRT Emu Driver is... but now you're saying it might not support stuff?   

EDIT: I searched around for the Fix it Felix thread and couldn't find anything... if you happen to find a link let me know.

[Calamity]

Sorry, it seems it was a pm I received about that issue.

but now you're saying it might not support stuff?

I meant that specific game (which is probably a problem with the game rather than the card).

It won't support DX11 emulators either.

(IMHO it is a matter of who cares when you have all MAME/MESS stuff fully working, but this is something you have to value by yourself).

[twistedsymphony]

Sorry, it seems it was a pm I received about that issue.

but now you're saying it might not support stuff?

I meant that specific game (which is probably a problem with the game rather than the card).

It won't support DX11 emulators either.

(IMHO it is a matter of who cares when you have all MAME/MESS stuff fully working, but this is something you have to value by yourself).

Considering this is a Fix it Felix cabinet, that's technically the only game that NEEDs to work without question.

The official Fix it Felix cabinets ran on arcade monitors in 15KHz mode on a vertical monitor so I would suspect there's a way to do it.

My frustration comes from the fact that literally dozens of people on BYOAC have been telling me I'm doing it wrong by using Soft15K with an nVidia card when I should be using CRT_EmuDriver with ATi instead and now that I'm here it seems it might not actually be able to do everything I need it to do (Where Soft15K was working fine). I realize that's no fault of yours personally, but it is still frustrating.

Since this thread was simply asking for a recommended low-profile card, I created a different thread related to the issues I'm having with CRT_EmuDriver now: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,141248.0.html

[Calamity]

Considering this is a Fix it Felix cabinet, that's technically the only game that NEEDs to work without question.

Yeah that makes sense.