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Cheap AGP card w/ Pixel & Vertex shader 2.0 for Vista??? 2

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wahnula

wahnula

Technical User
Jun 26, 2005
4,158
US
Hello,

Since I am not a gamer I have not paid much attention to the vidcard scene, other than the latest-and-greatest. I have my old Radeon 8500 AIW that works fine for everything...except Vista RC1. Is there any decent AGP graphics card (cheap) that has pixel & vertex shader 2.0? I know everything is PCI-E these days but I have an AGP-8X slot only. Thanks all.

Tony
 
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I was looking for some model #'s from our distinguished panel before spending hours poring over specs...this stuff is second nature to gamers!
 
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Okay no problem but some times it takes less time to look than wait for replies. Some times not.

Wayne


Life is a big Roleplaying adventure.

Wayne
 
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What about the nVIDIA Geforce FX 5500 256MB AGP:


Some sites say it has 2.0, some not, it's definitely in my price range. Here's one that's PCI and says it has 2.0, but it's a different mfgr. I do know that specific chipsets have different features on differnt mfgr's cards. Here's the link to the PCI card:


Thanks.
 
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Anything from the GeForce 6000 series or later will do the trick, as will anything from the ATI X800 or X1000 series.

nVidia parts at NewEgg:


The ATI parts all start at around $100. I am about 99.5% positive that the GeForce 5500 series only support shader model 1.0, not SM 2.0.
 
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And I'm wrong. It's SM 3.0 that is supported on the 6000 series and later cards. The FX series can still do SM 2.0, and according to nVidia it is a "Vista ready" GPU line (as are the 6000 and 7000 series cards).
 
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Are we sure that 'Vista Ready' means that it will run Vista Aero? I admit to being confused by that label. It seems to me that sometines it means that the computer or hardware device has drivers for and will run Vista (Home Basic or Business) but not supporting Aero in the Ultimate or Enterprise versions.

If anyone know the defintive answer, please send us a link.

Also, will Intel's new GMA3000 support Aero?


Regards: tf1
 
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Vista needs Pixel & Vertex Shader 2.0 to function properly. It detected both video cards and installed the drivers automatically for the Radeon 8500 AIW & the nVidia 6200 I just bought.

I believe Aero Glass will not ship in the first version...it is conspicuously absent in RC1. ***scratches head*** You know, I have not checked if the feature is now available since I installed my new vidcard. I know Vista will disable features that the hardware will not support, but it usually tells you first. I will report back.

Tony
 
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I'm running Vista Ultimate Post-RC1 and that definitely has Aero Glass. If you run an app that isn't compliant, Vista turns off Aero automatically. I would guess that you didn't see Aero Glass because you had a non-compliant video card. With the Radeon 8500 it should detect that you are now compliant and enable Aero.


Regards: tf1
 
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OK I am Aeroing away sorry for the misinformation. I was looking under "themes" instead of "colors". Duh. Oh well at least I am getting it and it is quite fun. I love the Media Center too. This is getting me pumped for my new Core 2 Duo rig...too bad they axed the AGP bus though...I will have to get my $60 worth out of this card with RC1!

Thanks everyone for the responses.

Tony
 
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Well butter my buns and call me a biscuit I look in my Sunday paper and at my local Fry's (Texas) there is a Core2 Duo E6300 bundled with an ECS P4M800-pro-M mainboard that supports AGP 8x and is....$179! Plus it accepts DDR400 or DDR2 533, wouldn't have to upgrade RAM just yet...

I am not the biggest ECS fan, but it is tempting!

Probably better to wait and do it right...I want DDR2 1066. Great deal for cheap upgrading, though.
 
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The ATI cards above the Radeon9500 are Vista-ready, as per ATI. Nvidia shall have such a statement too. Shared memory isn't Vista-ready, meaning all these motherboards with integrated video. But this probably means the support of the Aero feature.


 
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Felixc, I wouldn't be so sure about the shared memory. I've seen articles about "hypermemory", or "turbocache" (or whatever it was that ATI and nVidia had developed that allowed your 128 MB card to grab an extra 128 MB of system RAM for a total of 256 MB) not working with Vista. But I have run Vista and Aero Glass on workstations and laptops that use integrated video chipsets that take ALL of their video memory from system RAM with no problems. If you think about it, if such a scheme didn't work then a) none of the Intel/nVidia/ATI chipsets with integrated graphics would work with Vista, and b) none of the millions of business class PCs sold by IBM, HP, and Dell would be able to run Vista.
 
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b) none of the millions of business class PCs sold by IBM, HP, and Dell would be able to run Vista."

This is my main concern. The majority of 'business' PCs are probably running Intel chipsets with either the GMA 900 or newer GMA950 graphics.

My guess is going to be that the GMA 950 will probably run Vista but without Aero Glass but the GMA900 will struggle to run any version.

The new GMA3000 and GMA3000X will support Shader Model 3.0 and will be branded Windows Vista Premium Ready.



Regards: tf1
 
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"b) none of the millions of business class PCs sold by IBM, HP, and Dell would be able to run Vista."

This is my main concern. The majority of 'business' PCs are probably running Intel chipsets with either the GMA 900 or newer GMA950 graphics.
Click to expand...

That may or may not be the case, and as I am unfamiliar with the feature sets of Intel's integrated chipsets I couldn't say for sure. My response was to felixc's claim that all systems with shared memory, specifically those with integrated graphics chipsets, would not work with Vista. There are plenty of integrated graphics chipsets that will work with Vista, and many of those are in business-line laptops and desktops.
 
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I hope that you don't think I was implying that you were incorrect in your statement: I was only adding my concerns.

As it turns out, the GMA950 does support Shader 2 and will run Aero Glass but it needs at least 1GB system memory installed.





Regards: tf1
 
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Not that they will not work, but Microsoft estimates that their performance will be so-so for even the lowest of the Aero settings.


My reaction was ooooh, the first time I read something about it, thinking about all those brand-new Dells and others that will go to the junkyard in a couple of years. The recommendation is to buy a system that has a PCIe slot, even if it has integrated graphics. This will ease the pain of upgrading your system for Vista, next year.
 
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