Video upgrade on Compaq Presario 7360?

H

Hojo

New Member
For those not familiar with the model, this are my specs :

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=94462&lc=en&cc=us&dest_page=product&dlc=en&docname=c00013978

Add to that an extra 128mb.

Basically, I want my PC to be more gaming-quality, I know my model it's very
old and stuff, so I don't expect being able to play unreal or far cry or anything,
but if I would be able to at-least play Diablo 2 or Age Of Mythologies, I would
be happy.

I bought the 128mb of RAM thinking that it somehow would improve my PC, but it didnt, it still feels the same (Im using win98, by the way).

So maybe a video card would be the solution, my mother board only allows PCI video cards, maybe I can find a cheap one on ebay, but I don't know much about video cards, so maybe anyone can suggest a good one?

Also, Im not even sure if that kind of upgrade is possible, because of the shared memory stuff.

So, any comments? :confused:
 
if you dont want to spend a lot of money and just upgrade you can get a radeon 9000 with PCI bus and it should make a huge improvement. However since your computer is only 500mhz you may just want to go with a radeon 7500 with 64mb memory because you might not see much difference since the cpu is only 500mhz.
 
I bought the 128mb of RAM thinking that it somehow would improve my PC, but it didnt, it still feels the same (Im using win98, by the way).
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What exactly are you trying to do? :)

if you dont want to spend a lot of money and just upgrade you can get a radeon 9000 with PCI bus and it should make a huge improvement. However since your computer is only 500mhz you may just want to go with a radeon 7500 with 64mb memory because you might not see much difference since the cpu is only 500mhz.
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Good call.... did they make 8500s as PCI? If so that would be a much better choice than the 9000. I still agree with the 7000/7500 though.
 
First of all, thanks for the replies, seems like it was a good idea to come here, I asked in other forums but nobody told me about how some video cards won't be suitable for me because of my proccesor speed, but you people seem to be more experienced.

if you dont want to spend a lot of money and just upgrade you can get a radeon 9000 with PCI bus and it should make a huge improvement. However since your computer is only 500mhz you may just want to go with a radeon 7500 with 64mb memory because you might not see much difference since the cpu is only 500mhz.
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I did some ebay searching (Not many computer shops in my area, eBay is kinda my source for that stuff), this is the card I should look for, right?

Will I still see some difference? (I.E. Games that run slow now would run a bit faster?)
Or at least, be able to play DivX without slow-down ? (Been happening recently, with the newer codecs).

Also, I have never installed a Video Card, could there be conflicts with my motherboard, monitor or something ?

What exactly are you trying to do?
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Oh, nothing really, I bought the extra RAM because it was very cheap those days (I think it still is), and since I had only 64mb, I (stupidly) tought that since most actual computers were 128/256mb back then, maybe with an extra 128mb my Computer would run as fast as those other computers, but of course, I didnt know anything about proccessors, video cards or that stuff, I still feel my computer the same as before. Maybe it's because my proccessor is still crappy =/
 
this is the card I should look for, right?
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Yep something like that. The reason people might say "it's not worth upgrading the video subsystem" is because your overall speed will be hobbled by your RAM, system bus and CPU etc (it would be like trying to put a 100000hp engine in a car designed for 600hp or something)

Will I still see some difference? (I.E. Games that run slow now would run a bit faster?)
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Oh god games will run much faster! If you get the 8500 (if it comes in PCI) then you can play even games like Doom3 (on paper only ... in reality it's not worth trying). Just realize that the 8500 is a superior card to the 9000.

Or at least, be able to play DivX without slow-down ? (Been happening recently, with the newer codecs).
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Ah my speciality :P AVI file playback has virtually nothing to do with your video card but rather it stresses the CPU/memory subsystem. The official DivX codec is actually quite inefficient when it comes to playback and for playback you'll definitely want to make the switch to FDDSHOW. Throw in an AC3 filter and you will be able to playback 99.5% of the AVI files you'll encounter. Now if you want to do video encoding, FDDSHOW, while able to do such tasks, is a very poor option (for now) as it's quality and speed isnt that great. You can grab the latest FFDSHOW from here: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ffdshow.cfm and the latest AC3 filter from http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/codecs_and_filters/ac3filter.cfm now if you want to get into video encoding a step by step guide you can referr to for setting your codecs up can be had at http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/48608 ... it's a bit convoluted but it works quite well.

Also, I have never installed a Video Card, could there be conflicts with my motherboard, monitor or something ?
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Shouldnt have a problem.
 
Quote:
Will I still see some difference? (I.E. Games that run slow now would run a bit faster?)

Oh god games will run much faster! If you get the 8500 (if it comes in PCI) then you can play even games like Doom3 (on paper only ... in reality it's not worth trying). Just realize that the 8500 is a superior card to the 9000.
Click to expand...

Actually, I was talking about the Radeon 7500 when I asked that.
I did some searching and turns out there's no PCI version for the 8500, it says so on a FAQ Section in Radeon's page :(

Oh, and thanks for the codec, sounds interesting, I will try it :)
 
Actually, I was talking about the Radeon 7500 when I asked that.
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Pardon the pun but an e-chicken running around on your motherboard would give you better performance than what you've got now! :D
 
xDDDDD
lol, thanks.
Then it's setled, I'll be looking for a 7500 :)

By the way, I tried FDD Show, and you were right :) my video problems have been solved. Thanks a lot!
 
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