Is This Video Card Good?

[CrzyTenor]

I saw a Prolink Pixelview GeForce4 TI 4200 AGP 128MB for $110. Is this a good buy? Will FFXI play on it?

[KiTA]

Originally posted by CrzyTenor
I saw a Prolink Pixelview GeForce4 TI 4200 AGP 128MB for $110. Is this a good buy? Will FFXI play on it?

Good card, good price. It'll play FF11 very well.

[CrzyTenor]

I've never installed a new video card before, Is it a difficult process? Is this card able to be installed on any computer?

[XZiLe]

you're gonna have to check agp for the card, and then make sure your mobo has the agp slot to hold it. (if you have any decent mobo you should be fine)... chances are, you'll be fine by just replacing your old one and not having to replace the entire mobo, unless it's like 8 years old or something :sweat:

as for installing, it's not that difficult at all. you should even get a little instruction on putting it in when you get your card. basically goes in the same way your other one will come out.

[baron]

1. Yes that is a decent video card. Never heard of the company, so you might not get some of the cool extras that come with higher up brand cards (free games, etc), but GeForce 4200's are performers, and, with a little tweaking, can run almost as fast as 4600's...

2. Yes, installing video cards is easy, but it won't work for EVERY computer. I'm assuming you have a PC, but you also require an AGP slot (which is pretty much standard on any motherboard made in the last few years...). Your motherboard manual (if you have one) should give you the specifics of the slot, and hopefully where it is located as well. (although it is pretty easy to visually identify, since there is nothing else that will fit in said slot except AGP compatable video cards.) After that, it's just pulling what you got, and slappin in the new baby. Load drivers. Play Quake 3 and jump for joy at insane speed

[CrzyTenor]

My Computer has a "PC Card Slot" is this where I insert it?

[vissione]

Originally posted by CrzyTenor
My Computer has a "PC Card Slot" is this where I insert it?

Don't tell me you bought an AGP video card and are trying to put it in a PCI slot! :dead:

Look on your motherboard, and you'll probably see 5 white rows of slots. Those are your PCI slots. Somewhere parallel to them you'll see a brown(usually) colored port that's the only one it's size. It's not a memory slot either... so don't put the video card in there. :sweat:

If you can find your AGP slot, stick the card in there, fasten it, and load the drivers.

[devils_pickel]

I got the same problem...

I just want to know if its really bad that I have 498 Mhz when the import version of FFXI needs 800 Mhz. What should I do?

[vissione]

Originally posted by devils_pickel
I got the same problem...

I just want to know if its really bad that I have 498 Mhz when the import version of FFXI needs 800 Mhz. What should I do?

I'm not saying it won't work, because even minimum specs are not true minimums if your balance is different, but...

What I'm trying to say is, you definately need a better CPU... even if it's to play FFXI or for general PC use... yours is quite outdated. However, the game MIGHT work if your GPU is strong enough to take the load off your CPU. You'd really have to switch off anything that puts a load on the system, and probably play at a very low resolution... 800x600 being your maximum, maybe 640x480 would be ok.

Theres a reason the minimum is 800mhz though, and that's most probably because of the huge filesize of the game. Your HDD speed may come into play also. You'll be constantly streaming data online and from your HDD... and it's a really tough job for a weak CPU.

Sould it work, consider yourself lucky.
:sweat:

[CrzyTenor]

I do have a laptop, so does anyone have a pic of what that would look like?

[CrzyTenor]

Lucky me. Just got out of a chat with my computer's tech support. I don't have an agp slot. F*#@!!!!!! So I now have to deal with returning the card I already bought, god I feel like a frickin' idiot. Anyone have any suggestions of a video card I can get that isn't agp that will run ffxi decently?


Damn sony, if the ps2 version were coming out at the same time I wouldn't be dealing with this shit.

[Casval]

Originally posted by CrzyTenor
My Computer has a "PC Card Slot" is this where I insert it?

"PC Card Slot" is a term sometimes used to refer to PCMCIA slots that are commonly found on laptops; they provide expansion options similar to PCI or AGP slots in desktop computers but cannot support something like a new video card

trying to upgrade a laptop into a gaming computer is pretty much impossible because the only component that is easily user-servicable is the amount of system memory in the computer, very little else (such as CPU or Video Card) can be upgraded by the end user

if your laptop right now is too slow to run FFXI, then you'll probably need to purchase a new computer to play the PC version, you could also wait for the PS2 version to be released since purchasing a PS2 and the required accesories probably isn't as expensive as an entire new computer

if playing the PS2 version isn't an option because of the wait involved, I would recommend you purchase a new computer late this fall specifically to play FFXI, waiting is generally a good idea because computers with similar performance will cost less as time goes on

here's a picture of a typical PC Card Slot device:
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage....130-002-05.JPG

this PC Card in particular is an Ethernet Network Adaptor, but unfortunately you won't be able to find a video card that works on a PC Card Slot

[syxxtekk]

Wait, so are you trying to upgrade your Laptop or Desktop PC? Because if you are trying to upgrade your desktop PC I can help. Most laptop upgrades are restricted to memory upgrades, so odds are you won't be able to upgrade your laptop if that's what your trying to do...

[CrzyTenor]

Thanks for all the help guys, I was trying to upgrade my laptop, little did I know that it's impossible. OK, guess I'll have to wait until the ps2 version comes out. I don't know what I'll do if I make it into the ATI pc beta. yikes.