Would the hardware savvies have a look here please?

[BWild]

Hello everyone,

I'll finaly be upgrading my desktop pc to a level where i should be able to come play with you soon.
Since i have to be able to run a certain french CAD program, the videocard has to be a 3DLabs Wildcat4, the 7110 model to be exact. 

I have not been able to determine whether that card can run DirectX 9, though.
Would anyone around here have an idea?

The 7110 is an AGP Pro card, that and having next to no money to spend on the PC, has meant that i have been begging gear from the IT department at work.
The rest of the pc is, like that graphics card, somewhat dated:
Tyan Tiger i7505 motherboard with dual Xeon 3.06 Ghz, 533FSB and 4Gb ram
7 x 147Gb SCSI discs in hardware Raid 5.
Win XP Pro,
and so on...

Do any of you foresee problems?

All the best,
BWild

[mipoikel]

I think that card supports only directx 7. It is quite old hardware....

Today 3dlabs is out from CAD-business.

You should just build new gaming machine..

[BWild]

You should just build new gaming machine..

Ah yes, had i just the dough. Being a student the budget is limited, to say the least.
Unfortunately the graphics card has to be exactly that one, so i can use the software from work.

I guess i wont be seing you all soon then.

All the best,
BWild

[Chalenge]

Its an OpenGL card (like most CAD cards) more then a DirectX card and it may have problems running AHII. In fact I have not found a CAD card that works really well with DirectX games.

[OOZ662]

Thing is much more of a server than a gaming machine, honestly.

EDIT: Also, gaming computer retailers like CyberPowerPC and (RIP) Alienware are generally massive ripoffs, especially when you look at exactly what they're selling you. It seems that the notion of cramming more stuff with big names into a computer and charging more for it works. A good example is their SLI/Crossfire "deals." I saw one of the CPPC rigs with three top-line video cards in SLI...that's 300% cost for a rarely achieved maximum of 10% performance gain.

Building your own, even if you do whacked things like triple-SLI, will still cost you around half or less of what they're charging.

[mipoikel]

One thing you could do. Buy a AGP gaming card and put it in at weekends when you want to play and put wildcat back in mondays. 

[BWild]

One thing you could do. Buy a AGP gaming card and put it in at weekends when you want to play and put wildcat back in mondays. 

YEAH  

Well, there might be another way it seems now.
I went to the IT department and whined. Didn't get me much sympathy but a: "Try installing another videocard in the PCI-X slot" According to the eggheads it will work if i enable one and disable the other using the "hardware profile".
It might even work with both enabled and only a monitor switch to change the primary display between the two cards.
A bit exotic, i'd say 

I robbed them of a video switch!
Now to find a PCI-X (64-bit 133MHz 3.3Volt) graphics card. Any ideas for one of those that will do it all and only cost half?

Thing is much more of a server than a gaming machine, honestly.

It is supposedly a CAD workstation, according to IT. I tend to agree since i use one slightly smaller at the office and it will swirl and swivel 3D-objects something fierce under OpenGL. Only my office brain is a bit slow at opening large files and memory swapping. I think that is solved by snatching as many SCSI UW320 drives as will fit, plus a hardware raid controller. No way to get over the 4Gb memory limit unfortunately, since i have to run a 32 bit OS.

All the best,
BWild

[OOZ662]

Dual Xeon (server) processors and the ruggedness of SCSI drives says server to the layperson, however.

[mipoikel]

Dual Xeon (server) processors and the ruggedness of SCSI drives says server to the layperson, however.

They are very common in heavy cad-use.

[BWild]

Well then,

The machine is running, impressively under OpenGL i might add.
Direct X9 will not run on the Wildcat video card, as predicted by mipoikel.

So the hunt has been on for a PCI-X card.....  It seems there are none to be had.
I'll have to use a PCI slot (32bit/33mhz ) instead. PCI-X is not the same as PCI-express, btw.

The fastest card i have found on the shelves at the IT department is a  Diamond S9250PCI256 Radeon 9250 PCI 256MB. I cannot remember if that actually was the fastest card back then.
But it's free and if it is enough for AH i'll grab it.

So, question is: Is a Radeon 9250 PCI 256MB good enough?


Happy landings,
BWild

[BaldEagl]

So, question is: Is a Radeon 9250 PCI 256MB good enough?


Happy landings,
BWild

Probably although you may have to turn settings down.  Until March I played on a GeForce MX-440 with 64 mb of video RAM (600 meg PIII and 512K SDRAM).

[Denholm]

I had one of those and it ran fine on default graphics. (The GeForce 440 MX/MX.)

[Skuzzy]

The 9250 is a slower version of the original ATI-8500 card.  It will have the dreaded 'black dot' bug unless you use Catalyst 4.12 drivers.  They are the only ones that do not have that bug for the 9000 series.

Do not expect much in terms of performance from the PCI version of the 9250.  I do not think ATI or NVidia ever made a PCI-X based video card.  The CPU's might help overcome some of the performance deficiencies of the video card.

[OOZ662]

Just to throw this in there, the MX440 is a wonder of a little card. It outperforms at least a few of the cards that came out after it and is incredibly stable and fast (for its time) under the right drivers. Obviously it can't compare even to one of today's cards, but I was horribly disappointed when I "upgraded" from my MX440 to a 5200 back in the day.

[Fulmar]

Those early FX series cards were the suck.