# How do improve my graphics card (disaointed with 256mb!)



## AFX (Sep 12, 2004)

hey.

I recently bought a new card from XFX
its a
Geforce Fx5200 AGP8x 256MB DDR

It works fine and i recently fitted a fan to it, i decided to run 3dmark03
and i got a measally score of 1004 .
I expect alot more of a 256 carD!
why is my score so low? i can run doom3 at high graphics but it stutters a little bit even with a few effects turned off. HELP!!!

MY system is
AMD athalon 1600+
512 DDR ram
256mb graphics

thanks for any tips

Alex


----------



## spellbyte (Sep 10, 2004)

In my opinion, i would suggest that it is the rest of your system that is lagging behind your graphics card, a 256 Mb GC is a high spec piece of equiptment in comparison to a 1600 cpu.


----------



## TeranteK (Aug 28, 2004)

I definitely think part of the roblem would be CPU bottlenecking. But also memory on your graphics card isn't the only factor, there is also the memory speed and core clock speed. The 5200 actually has a fairly poor performance as far as these speeds go, so part of the problem would also be the card.


----------



## TeranteK (Aug 28, 2004)

Another thought: make sure you have the latest drivers for your card installed.
You can get them from www.nvidia.com or www.nvplanet.com


----------



## megamarsvin (Sep 9, 2004)

Definitely check your drivers, also could you define "run doom3 at high graphics" for us? If you're expecting 1280x1024 with all the trimmings a 5200 probably isn't going to cut it. 256 megs ram is nice but from what I read it doesn't make as huge a difference over 128 as most people expect. The GPU itself is a much bigger factor as well as system ram and CPU.


----------



## AFX (Sep 12, 2004)

yeh,

define doom3 at high graphics.... 800x600 res , not the best i know but its preset to that. 

I do ahve the latest drivers but i only spent £60 on my card so i think i should b pleased with it really, i mean i can play all the new games with reasnoable graphics. I'm just wondering why 3d mark gave me a low score, is it a reliable source.. or is it because my processor is lacking?!

oh well, looks like ill b saving for an AMD64  

lol


----------



## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

60 pounds? You got taken. That card sells for 80 dollars in the US, which translates to about 44 pounds. Quite frankly, this card _is_ a budget card. Not that it wouldn't be able to play these games, but to expect a high benchmark from this card and your CPU is asking too much. It _should_ be able to play DOOM 3 at 1024x768 with no major problems...

But if you do plan on buying a different card, don't buy on the amount of RAM it has- buy it based on customer reviews. Remember that these cards are tiered based on their performance, that the performance is directly proportional to the price, and that with this kind of thing, you really do get what you pay for for the most part.


----------



## AFX (Sep 12, 2004)

yeh, thanks for help!

but i did buy the card on the reviews, it got 4.5/5 
which is pritty good, next time i get a card 
with 5/5 !!!!


heh 

cheers


----------



## IORI (Aug 27, 2004)

ur card is ok for what ur doing afk u maybe pushing it a lil u can allways oc ur cpu a lil bit btw if anyone has aim im me ioridanj 
sys specs amd 1700 512 ram geforce 2 ultra upgradeing to ati 9600 
40 gb maxtor and 160 gb western digital


----------



## burnzy (Sep 21, 2004)

you're lucky you can even run doom 3 on high graphics, with my athlon xp OC 3200, 512mb ram and geforce 6800 GT it always stutters, count yourself lucky being able to run it on that, but i do know many people get the stutterings, even with my card. And the card i owned beforce my 6800 gt was a fx5200, but only 128mb and my 3dmark03 scores were only between 980-1050 and thats OC!

For that card youve go and the rest of your system it seems about right
Hope that helps


----------



## Sir_Hendro (Aug 24, 2004)

Im sorry to say this but you realy bought a very gay videocard. The FX 5200 are REALY slow and that you bought a 256 MB version still doesnt help its slow speed. If you want some good speed for a good price you must get a FX5900XT or a 6800LE. Both are $200 but the 6800le is faster so i would go for that one. RAM doesnt say to much. Its more about the GPU, its techniques
and the clock speeds. Get atleast 128 MB since you will need that. Im very sure that your system works totaly fine and that your videocard is all you need to blame.


----------



## skyfire (Sep 30, 2004)

the VGA itself should be fine.. try upgrading the motherboard, make sure u choose one with 8xAGP and a good bus - next thing to upgrade would be the CPU and then you're good to go.

And.. there's recently new realeases of drivers for Geforce VGA's (the one that came with your 5200 won't be sufficient with newer games such as Doom3).

good luck.


----------



## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

That advice is misguiding. Maybe not intentionally, but it is. No matter what motherboard or processor there is in that computer, it will suck with DOOM3 as long as the 5200 is still there.


----------



## skyfire (Sep 30, 2004)

The purpose of this thread is "How do improve my graphics card", not "What's the best graphics card for Doom3" :exclaim:


----------



## V0lt (Sep 14, 2002)

Exactly the reason why suggesting buying a whole new system around a crappy video card doesn't make a lick of sense- if anything in that system was to be replaced, the most cost-effective upgrade would be the video card, not everything else. Why? Because you can't make a video card any better than it is. Overclocking will not help one bit, because the architecture of a particular card is just as important as the clock speed, amount of RAM (though this is not a very big factor when you approach amounts over the 128MB mark), and memory bandwidth.


----------



## elf (Jul 19, 2002)

You should just wait for PCI express


----------



## skyfire (Sep 30, 2004)

yeah but you'd have to wait til about summer next near.  only problem is that you would have to buy all new crap: motherboard etc.. manufactures probably still won't support it for a while also.


----------

