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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:
--- Quote from: honkey on September 21, 2011, 10:16:23 am ---but in order to use direct3D don't you need a video card?
--- End quote ---
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.
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