Nvidia Geforce 6200 128mb PCI (not express!!)

Blunderbuss

Champion. Re. Those PCI card benchmarks you posted. Do you think the 3D Fuzion 128MB card might have fared better if it had used the same, more recent drivers that the BFG card used? Does the extra 128MB really make all that much difference to a card like the 6200?

ChampionFx

Hello Blunderbuss

Your video card is just like your motherboard, in the sense that the more RAM there is, the faster it will run. There are many choices in the amount of RAM to get, but nowadays you should get no less than a card with 128Megabytes of RAM. If you can afford to break the bank, you can't go wrong with video card with 256MB of RAM . The more RAM your video has, the higher the resolution can go in a game, further enhancing your gaming experiences and possibly bringing it to a whole new level.
That's true especially with PCI bus cards because of a slow PCI bus bandwith.

There could be more factors why I had bigger difference between 3D Fuzion 6200 128MB and BFG 6200 256MB.
Video driver is not one of them , 81.95 is not that old and newer drivers are addresing
mostly SLI configuration and few other things that have nothing to do with any 3D extra processing, but mostly of problems running two video cards configuration in some games.
It's not that 81.95 driver and latest 84.56 make a thousand point difference.
If you play a game 1028x768 that is very demanding to store frame buffering in to video card memory and need at some point more than 128MB, then it needs to write data to your hard disk.
Because PCI bus is so slow that's where the problem begin with data transfer.
After hard disk accessing all you get is game stutter and a lot of freezes that are making your game less enjoyable.

AGP or PCI express even with only 128MB can have more faster RAM(DDR3) and core clock, plus much faster data transfer can help to offset for only 128MB of memory.

I can tell you that overclocking memory from stock 410Mhz to 500Mhz did maked difference
in 3DMark05.
Here you go what score someone else got with 6200 128MB or 256MB in 3DMark05 and most of them running faster AGP bus 4x,8x even some with open extra pipelines, my PCI bus with 1233 points is not the shame at all

3DMark05:
Intel Pentitum P4
CPU clock range 1500Mhz to 2100Mhz

[color=#800080]http://service.futuremark.com/orb/projectsearch.jsp[/color]

3DMark Score: 1769 open pipes 300/550 User: xxxxxxxxxxxxxDate: 2005-8-14 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1508 MHzGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6200, 299 MHz / 548 MHzDisplay Driver: 7.7.7.7Driver Status: WHQL - Not FM ApprovedResolution: 1024x768 32 bitOS: Microsoft Windows XPSystem Memory: 512 MBVideo Memory: 128 MB

3DMark Score: 1494 bv jcghr User: xxxxxxxxxxxx Date: 2005-5-27 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1697 MHzGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6200, 299 MHz / 501 MHzDisplay Driver: 7.1.8.4Driver Status: WHQL - Not FM ApprovedResolution: 1024x768 32 bitOS: Microsoft Windows XPSystem Memory: 768 MBVideo Memory: 256 MB

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3DMark Score: 1233 BFG 6200 PCI bus !!! (not express) 350MHz/500MHz User: xxxxxxx (ChampionFX) Date: 2006-4-15 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2001 MHzGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6200, N/A / N/ADisplay Driver: 8.4.4.3Driver Status: Non WHQL - Not FM ApprovedResolution: 1024x768 32 bitOS: Microsoft Windows XPSystem Memory: 1022 MBVideo Memory: 256 MB-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3DMark Score: 1111 Untitled User: xxxxxxxxxxxxDate: 2006-1-7 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2000 MHzGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6200, N/A / N/ADisplay Driver: 7.8.0.5Driver Status: Non WHQL - Not FM ApprovedResolution: 1024x768 32 bitOS: Microsoft Windows XPSystem Memory: 1024 MBVideo Memory: 128 MB


3DMark Score: 951 CPU Limited User: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxDate: 2006-1-16 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1993 MHzGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6200, N/A / N/ADisplay Driver: 8.1.9.8Driver Status: WHQL - FM ApprovedResolution: 1024x768 32 bitOS: Microsoft Windows XPSystem Memory: 512 MBVideo Memory: 256 MB


3DMark Score: 835 TJB Home PC User: xxxxxxxxxxxxxDate: 2005-11-10 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1994 MHzGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6200, N/A / N/ADisplay Driver: 7.7.7.2Driver Status: WHQL - FM ApprovedResolution: 1024x768 32 bitOS: Microsoft Windows XPSystem Memory: 1024 MBVideo Memory: 256 MB


3DMark Score: 822 1st one User: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxDate: 2005-12-30 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1995 MHzGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6200, N/A / N/ADisplay Driver: 8.1.8.7Driver Status: Non WHQL - Not FM ApprovedResolution: 1024x768 32 bitOS: Microsoft Windows XPSystem Memory: 1022 MBVideo Memory: 256 MB


3DMark Score: 818 6200A350700 User: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxDate: 2006-5-13 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1614 MHzGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6200, N/A / N/ADisplay Driver: 7.8.0.1Driver Status: WHQL - Not FM ApprovedResolution: 1024x768 32 bitOS: Microsoft Windows XPSystem Memory: 512 MBVideo Memory: 256 MB

All 6200 cards in here are running with faster AGP bus @ 4x,8x rate speed .
Only mine is a PCI bus.

It's hard to say how will 3D Fuzion 6200 128MB PCI bus perform on your machine , but I strongly believe that you will do better with BFG 6200 256MB PCI bus card just for sake of overclocking it.

PS: I got then 3D fuzion 6200 new for about $75-80, BFG 6200 was about $155 so there is still probably quite difference in price.

Blunderbuss

Thanks, Champion. That was an epic reply you posted! Much appreciated.

First off, I'm in the UK. After searching though every UK PC component site I know of (17 of them!), the 3D Fuzion 6200 128MB PCI card is the one that (on paper) should perform the best. it was only on sale on one site, for £50. No sign of the BFG card over here. I did not find a single PCI card with a 128 bit memory interface! The second best card was a nVidia 5500 (with either 128MB @400MHz, or 256Mb @ 333MHz). The 6200 appeared to be the best option by virtue of it's chipset.

The card is not for me. I'm merely advising a third party, who's PC lacks both AGP and PCIe, but who wants something better than the dreadful Intel integrated (it isn't even their latest one, it's from a few years ago, 64MB maximum shared memory) GPU it uses. He's bought the 6200, anyway. Probably be installing it tomorrow.

Any advice on how to go about effectively disabling the Intel GPU? I've heard it can be tricky.........

EDIT. Btw, this 6200 is going to be backed up by a Celeron D 2.9 GHz (533 MHz FSB, 256kB L2 cache), and 1GB of PC2700 RAM.

ChampionFx

HI Blunderbuss ,

BFG 6200 OC 256MB PCI bus video card just very much have been released short time ago.
It's too soon for many websites to have any kind of review on this card, if they will bother at all.

http://www.bfgtech.com/6200_256_PCI.html

This is also reason, why many stores , websites do not have this card in their stock so it may take longer time before they get it.
I remember it was like yesterday switching from horrible Intel Graphics to my first PCI bus video card Visiontek Extasy 9200 256MB 128-bit PCI bus and it was like a rocket then comparing to Intel.
Huge improvement in graphics, I couldn't believe at first how much this could make a difference.
Also this card should be at least everywhere "BFG FX5500 OC 256MB 128-bit PCI bus ( origin. 290Mhz/400Mhz)" and It's a great card , but in newer games it lack extra one shader processing power over new 6200 series card.

http://www.bfgtech.com/5500OC_pci.html

My Compaq Pukesario was tricky with PCI bus video cards , there is not much option to tweak Bios for better performance, I couldn't switch from PC2100 RAM to speed of PC2700 RAM so my 1 GB of PC2700 RAM is running at speed of PC2100 RAM (stupid)
System have support for higher speed memory , It just won't let me to change in Bios
configuration ( no option for it ).
Another horror is no " DISABLE Intel Graphics " option in Bios, only choice of Intel or PCI.
That should be enough, but unbelievably Intel Graphics is melted to the whole system like a glue, I couldn't get rid of it.
Even more stupid, the moment you uninstall Intel Graphics, right after reboot it install automaticaly all over again .
No way to fix that other way, than disabling Intel Extreme Graphics in Device Manager.

It's my fault that I overlooked important things like no AGP bus or completely useless BIOS
on my system when I bought new Compaq back in 2002 .

I'm for sure goin' after more gaming oriented machine very soon .
It's nothing else I can tweak out of this current Pukesario .

PS: Unfortunately I had problems with Visiontek Extasy and 3D Fuzion card.
Both BFG 5500 and current BFG 6200 are stable without Nv4_displ.dll Infinite Loop
error or Visiontek Extasy card with monitor loosing picture and not recognizing this
card from time to time after reboot.

Blunderbuss

Interesting. So, all he has to do is disable the Intel GPU in Device Manager? Then remove it's driver using Add/Remove Programs, switch off, fit the 6200, power up and use the driver CD to install it, then restart. Then he can re-install it with the latest Forceware from the nVidia site, and pray that the card works alright. Is there anything else that needs doing? Is that sequence even correct?!

Btw, "Pukesario"?! What the hell is that?

Btw2, this is my first PC. I bought it in March '03. AGP was one of the things I made sure it supported (I have a 6800GT installed now, which is a far cry from the vanilla Radeon 9000 it came supplied with). I avoided the old Celeron, too! My errors lay in the lack of vacant RAM slots, and the 250 watt PSU. We all make (costly!) mistakes.........

ChampionFx

I don't know what kind of BIOS your friend is running and what options he have.
I really hope that he have a lot more and better options for his BIOS configuration.

What is Pukesario ? I just renamed my Compaq Presario to Compaq "Puke"-sario , got it ?

It's so good to have at least one AGP slot for video card , you were much smarter than me
with new computer purchase back then.

Probably the best way to get it run is that your friend needs to first restart to the BIOS options.
There he should select PCI video interface or whatever option he have and then turn off the machine and monitor. Disconnect video cable, then power cable , touching something metal to make sure there is NO any power discharge from his hands to new videocard and put it new card in to PCI slot.
Connecting back monitor cable , then power cable and turn it monitor "ON "
Next turn it computer "ON" frequently hitting F5 or F1 or F10 or whatewer he can get right in to safe mode. Clicking cancel to "FOUND NEW HARDWARE" message. Click "OK" for error message about card not being configured.
Uninstall Intel Graphics and restart right back in to safe mode then cancel again "FOUND NEW HARDWARE" clicking OK for error, then going in to where he downloaded latest FW video driver and open it to start driver installation ( I use MY DOCUMENTS folder ).
Restarting the system when asked and he should be just fine.
If system keeps installing Intel Graphics video driver over and over again then he should dissable this in Device Manager.

It may sound complicated with this all "SAFE MODE" running, but I always prefer safe mode to prevent all other stuff running in the backround during driver uninstall and install especialy firewall and antivirus software that can easily make trouble with driver install
and uninstall. That's just me.

Lastly, he should go in to System Information option and look in to assigned IRQ number by
making sure that it should NOT share same number with other device.
XP machine will automaticaly assign IRQ number ( mine is IRQ21 for example ).
If something happen and video card will share IRQ number with something else like whatever it is, then he should uninstall driver, turning "OFF" computer starting all over again but trying new another PCI slot to get IRQ number without sharing it with something else.
( he should have at least three PCI slots, at least I do )
My other PCI slot is occupied with Audigy 2 sound card.
Hope it helps somewhat

PS: I have no idea why, but 3D Fuzion 6200 have minimum PSU requirement 300 watt and BFG 6200 have requirement minimum PSU 250 watt.

Blunderbuss

Jeez, I really hope the device Manager disable does the trick, because that solution you just posted does my head in! Glad it isn't myself having to do this! I don't know which BIOS he has. He does have Everest installed, though, so it will be easy to find out. Hasn't reported back yet, but will probably be installing it tonight.

Re. PSU wattage requirements for different video cards. I think most of those "recommended wattage" thingies are nonsense. They're just covering themselves by putting forward such figures. I mean, how much power can a PCI slot provide, anyway? In the manual for my current card, that Point of View 6800GT I mentioned, the manual recommands a 300 watt PSU minimum. The AGP slot can't provide sufficient power, so it needs an additional molex connector to draw more juice when needed. Does a PCI 6200 really have the same power requirements as an AGP 6800GT?! I find that hard to believe! My previous card, a 9600XT, ran perfectly well on the PC's original 250 watt PSU for almost two years.

ChampionFx

Hi Blunderbuss

Yeah , what I posted looks really silly and may scare poop out of someone

It's mostly all about this thingy with Intel Graphics driver reinstalling automaticaly again, if in my case I tried to uninstall it. It will install this stupid Intel Extreme video driver right back in after reboot

In case with your friend, he can have smooth install with new card like a charm, with Intel Graphics driver staying uninstalled and will not show up in Device Manager.
Only if it shows in here, then he will need to disable Intel Graphics to make it stop showing as a video accelerator.

Onboard Graphics configuration differ on many computers and is nothing new that many guys were unable to install new PCI graphic card because their computer won't accept it.
This is worst case scenario and I believe that your friend will have successful install.
When he get the picture on his monitor after power up his computer then he should be fine and being able to ironing out any device mishap if any.

I totally agree with you about PSU requirements, 250 watt should be plenty of power for 6200 card.

Wishing him good luck

Sparky6string

I am having trouble with drivers for this card. No one has yert released drvers for it so all the ones I find identify this card as the AGP version. I wish someone would come out with them already. Anyone know the best ones for it?

ChampionFx

Hello Sparky6string

We may never see in our lifetime any specific driver made from Nvidia creators for PCI bus card owners.
Those are released for long time as a "Unified Driver Architecture" that apply to mostly all the
Nvidia range of cards.
It's highly unlikely that someone will bother with finding any hitch for such a low market of PCI bus card owners
I do not expect any new and future ForceWare drivers release that will mention any update or fix for PCI bus cards.

That's really strange, if your system driver is recognizing PCI bus as a AGP bus.
Never hapenned to me before.
I tried literally tons of FW drivers even tweaked or beta, and it was always recognized as a PCI bus.
Where it shows you about AGP bus . I don't have this option for AGP extra settings in my Nvidia display settings.

Blunderbuss

Update re. 3D Fuzion 6200 PCI. Failure! After trying everything humanly possible, it would not work. He took it to a local PC repair shop, and they couldn't get it to work, either. They then declared that his motherboard was incapable of utilising any PCI graphics card. Oh dear. Refund time.

ChampionFx

Hi Blunderbuss ,

Sad news , that suck

I would eat my computer alive if this happen to me.
I don't get it why some computers with free PCI slot option for video card won' t take it.
So how manufacturer created mobo and Bios if system do not recognize PCI card no matter what ?
It's really sad, and is happening a lot on Compaq and Dell computers.
Once they made a model with onboard video , sometimes nothing else matter.
I was lucky.
I'm sorry to hear that Blunderbus, that your friend machine didn't make it.
Probably a burial is in order.

Blunderbuss

I think it's ridiculous. I mean, what is the point of having PCI slots, if PCI devices can't function on them?! Will the same thing happen for PCI sound cards, tv tuners etc.?

ChampionFx

Well , one more lesson to be learn for me, next time ( soon ) I'm goin' to shred my monies
on new system, I will make damn sure that I can mix apples with oranges inside my new computer.

Not long time ago my power supply did finaly gave up and I knew what was about to happen next.
Rather than choice of very good , (some well known) hundreds of power supply units around with fantastic prices, I ended up surfing websites for about an hour just to find some reasonable price for my specific Compaq, still pricey.
It needs to be exactly the size and cables connectors otherwise it won't fit in
Thinking of changing Motherboard, time to forget it, many other good mobos won't fit in.
Want to change hard disk ? well I can be up to trouble because Compaq custom XP operating system is so specifically configured, that I've already read some horror stories
about new hard disk not being recognized.
When I did reinstall of XP Home on my Compaq I was forced to use 5 disks on both CD and DVD drive
Since I installed PCI video and sound card, It's imposible to reinstall again without turning everything back to original and starting from scratch.
I won't reinstall again, I'm not interested in working full day shift just to put all back in, and up and running.
Compaq , Dell and few others are OK for everyday internet surfing and basic stuff but once we change our mind and want a little change , OOOPS better not

It's truly time for a gaming machine.

Blunderbuss

I'm not even sure which brand of PC he has, tbh. If I ever feel rich enough for a new PC, I intend to build it myself (probably!). This one is a Medion PC. I get the impression they just scrape together any old components they can find cheap and stick them together. This does have the advantage of allowing upgrades to take place, though.

I've made a few changes:-

MSI MS-6701 motherboard
Pentium 4 2.66, 533 FSB, 512kB L2
generic Radeon 9000 64MB AGP ---> Point of View 6800GT AGP
2 x 256MB PC2700 ---> 2 x 512 PC2700
FSP 250w PSU ---> Jeantech 400w PSU
Seagate 60GB HDD
DVD ROM
CD/RW
Floppy ---> DISABLED! (hardly used, and every Watt counts, right?)
Card Reader


I might get around to fitting a bigger hard drive sometime soon. That one is only a 5400 RPM unit, with a measly 1MB cache. Some of the newer games are stretching to 6GB and beyond.

Yeah, build one yourself!

ChampionFx

I wish that I'm running at least your system configuration and free options to change few things around
I better won't go about my "powerhouse" because someone can get hurt from laughing!

Yeah, nothing beats homebuild rig, that can achieve unbelievable results being able to play
all latest games with good FPS for $1,000- pocket change comparing to some brand name computers.

I love June 2006 issue of MaximumPC magazine.

"Build our $1,000- gaming rig ! "
Get uncompromising performance from this budget wonder!
Can your PC run FEAR at 50 fps ? ours can !

The Specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon 3700+ easily OC from 2.2GHz to 2.53GHz $230
www.amd.com
RAM: 1GB Corsair PC3200 $75
www.corsair.com
Videocard: Nvidia GeForce7600GT $225
www.nvidia.com
Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar SE 16 250GB $110
www.wdc.com
Mobo: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe $110
www.asus.com
Optical drive: BenQ DW1655w/LightScribe $55
www.benq.com
PSU: Antec TruePower 2.0 550W $115
www.antec.com
Case: Kingwin SK-523BKW $55
www.kingwin.com
TOTAL: $975


Good price , plenty of power to run latest games I would love to build this one

Benchmarks: single videocard / dual videocard

DOOM 3 (FPS) 35.3 / 56.9
FEAR (FPS) 52 / 83
QUAKE 4 (FPS) 44.8 / 70.8
3DMARK06 3,026 (mine 300) / 4,926
3DMARK05 5,958 (mine 1,233) / 10,158

This kind of computer system ? anytime baby I have to find some good name for it.

PS: I almost forgot about benchmark:

Real game tests were run at 1280x1024 with all settings on High and antialiasing
set to 4x.
3DMark05 and 06 were run at the default settings needed to obtain an official score.

BryonB

I tried an eVGA 6200 AGP card when my old Radeon 8500 workhorse lost its fan recently. The 6200 AGP was much SLOWER than my old Radeon 8500. I took it back. (Some of the DirectX 9 benchmarks only scored 2FPS with this card!!) If you can't find ANY better PCI card then you might be better off getting a different motherboard. I ended up buying an ASUS N6600 card. It has twice the rendering pipelines of the 6200, and actually outperformed my old '8500 - for about $90. I wanted an ATI X1600, but I couldn't really justify the cost difference.

ChampionFx

Hi BryonB

That's the point , you can't just switch brand name computers Mobo and kick in different one.
Because they deliberately made custom size of motherboard , power supply units, custom version of XP operating system including browser etc. , you just get stuck like many of us who bought 3 - 4 years ago without thinking computer with onboard video from Compaq , Dell and some other.
BFG 6200 OC 256MB 64-bit PCI bus is currently top of the line video card for anyone considering switch from onboard Intel Extreme Graphics to a lot more powerful PCI bus card, if they lack AGP bus like me.
Sure, there is always risk that it won't work

BryonB

My old ATI Radeon 8500 card is basically an older, slower version of what is currently sold as the Radeon 9250 - same chipset with less memory, etc. You can get a PCI version of the 9250 with 256 MB of memory onboard at stores like CompUSA. It wouldn't surprise me, given the performance of the 6200 card I had (which was AGP) if the 9250 PCI card wouldn't perform as well or faster than the 6200. There are a number of 9250 and GeForce 5200 class cards with 128-bit memory interface that are available with PCI interface. I would be surprised if any of them couldn't outperform the GeForce 6200, as long as they have at least 4 rendering pipelines. NewEgg.com has a number of them for under $80. I paid $39 at Circuit City (after a rebate) for the '6200 card I had - and that was too much, given the level of performance it gave.

ChampionFx

Hello BryonB ,

There is no way that you actually read my previous responses.
I have discussed being some time ago owner of the Visiontek Extasy 9200 256MB 128-bit PCI bus card.

3DMARK2001 SE - ATI RADEON 8500 have much better frame rate than BFG 6200
but ATI RADEON is unable to run all test , that's why is getting
higher score
because the rest of test may easily bug ATI 8500 down.
ATI 8500 AGP bus best result with P4 in range of 1500MHz to 2100MHz
is 10883.
ATI RADEON 9250 AGP bus 4x best result is 6238 able to run all test.
BFG 6200 PCI bus with my best result is only 6552 running all test.

3DMARK03 - The best score for ATI RADEON 8500 again not completing all test
with same Pentitum P4 MHz range is 1383 AGP bus 4X .
ATI RADEON 9250 AGP bus 8x not able to run all test is 644.
BFG 6200 PCI bus with my best score of 2288 score.

3DMARK05 - ATI RADEON 8500 unable to run the test.
ATI RADEON 9250 unable to run the test.
My best score with BFG6200 PCI bus is 1233 points . If Radeon 8500 and 9250 was
able to run at least something in here, it would lost big time no doubt about
that.

Conclusion is :
ATI RADEON 8500 running games from 2001 and RADEON 9250 can be OK.
2003 games RADEON is evidently loosing ground by quite margin.
2005 games if able to run benchmark, RADEON 8500 and 9250 is slow like turtle against BFG 6200.

BFG 6200 is clearly winner. There is even no reason to compare old RADEON 8500 and 9250 GPU processing , comparing to BFG 6200 SHADER MODEL 3.0 GPU speed and memory clock even thou it's only 64-bit .

Sparky6string

I got a 1278 score a week or two ago.

ChampionFx

OOOOO NOOOOOO

Hi Sparky6string ,

Did you published your score with Futuremak ?
I have both 3DMARK03 and 3DMARK05 published, we can be close to each other with score.
Congratulation , that's not bad at all considering everyone around us published they result
with AGP 4x,8x.
Did you got advantage over me from CPU points ?
I'm running XP Home 2 / Pentitum4 exactly @ 2001MHz , so nothing close to some of the guys with P4 3000+MHz.

BryonB

I'm not suggesting that you should buy an ATI 9250, only that that card was not hampered by as many bottlenecks with its basic architecture the way that the 6200 is. I bought the '6200 because I wasn't looking to buy a racehorse, but only to replace my old '8500 card with something fairly equivalent. On paper it looked like it should have blown my old card away. But my old '8500 card gave me MUCH BETTER performance on DirectX 8 games - with PLAYABLE frame rates. The '6200 card showed no noticable difference running the 3DMark2001 benchmark, but gave pitiful performance on most of the tests. And on the 3DMark2003 benchmark, the '6200 card gave only TWO FRAMES per SECOND on a number of the tests.

The '6600 card that I ended up keeping runs both the 3DMark2001 and 3DMark2003 benchmarks MUCH faster than the '6200 did, with mostly PLAYABLE framerates. Of course my old 8500 can't hold a candle to it on the 3DMark2003 benchmark, but it ran all the same tests on the 3DMark2001 SE benchmark, with the same visual quality as far as my eye could tell, and it did it a lot faster than the '6200. As far as I can tell, the 3DMark2001 SE benchmark only used shader model 1.4 tests, so the '8500 didn't seem to have any problem with it.

Anyway, my point wasn't that you should buy an old card - only that the '6200 performs like an old card. It's got impressive hardware that is being strangled by its architecture, and so it failed to even reach the level of GAMEPLAY performance that my old card had. If you can find ANYTHING better, you'll be a lot happier with it. Try and find something with a 128-bit memory interface, and at least 4 rendering pipelines (the '6600 has eight).

ChampionFx

Hi BryonB

I know that you're not suggesting buying ATI 9250 and we're creating chaos

Which 6200 you bought ? It's AGP bus or PCI bus ? Who made this card , how much memory, what driver you tried ? what is the rest of your system ?
How you install and reinstall video drivers, just a lot of other possibilities that can make
difference between good results and dismal outcome.

There simply must have been something wrong with your system setup , because I'm founding hard to believe that my and Sparky6string's BFG 6200 256MB OC 64-bit PCI bus can pull out nice score on 3DMARK05 even better than many with 6200 AGP bus 4x,8x video card with about the same CPU MHz.

The extra SHADER 3.0 on BFG 6200 is providing much faster performance over older types
with SHADER 1.4 on latest games. That's why the extra shader on 6200, to process more.
Just take a look on others performance with various 6200 card models and type of bus they're running, and you can see that many are having good performance not to mention those with AMD ATHLON 64 CPU because there is more processing power over Pentitum P4 when it comes to playing games.

Why you constantly mention 6600 model ?, this thread was about PCI bus card and I don't know of one 6600 model on this earth that is PCI bus configuration.
I wish we could get 6600 and newer models but there is none.

Sparky6string

I tried to, but since I pirated the 3DMark05 proggie to begin with, when I tried to post it on their site they knew somehow and wouldn't let me. They have my email address now too so I hope they don't hunt me down and make an example out of me.

My CPU points are low, around 970 or so, maybe a little lower. This computer was not meant for gaming but I've done what I can with it.

ChampionFx

Sparky6string,

I'm using the free version of 3DMARK05, 3DMARK03 and 3DMARK2001 SE .
With 3DMARK 2001 SE free version , I can publish as many scores as I want.
With 3DMARK 03 and 05 free version, there is limit to only one published score for 3DMARK03
and one for 3DMARK05.
So far I haven't got any problems with publishing and whenever I got better score, it lets me to change and publish new score replacing the old one
Common, I'm alone in there, publishing my score with 6200 PCI bus card against all AGP bus guys.
Get your @ss up in there so I have some motivation to compete and tweak some more out of my POWERHOUSE

PS: My CPU score is only 869 marks

Sparky6string

Lemme see what I can do.

BryonB

Sorry guys, I didn't mean to corrupt this thread with AGP stuff. The 6200 card that I bought was EVGA brand, and it was AGP - and I only mention my ASUS N6600 because that's what I ended up replacing it with. I don't know why the 6200 did so poorly. I used Driver Cleaner to make sure all traces of my old ATI drivers were removed. It could be my motherboard, I suppose. It's an old ASUS board with an AMD Athlon XP 1800+, and AGP 4X. I tried updating my VIA drivers, and a bunch of other stuff, but nothing seemed to improve things. The 6600 card scores MUCH better on both games and benchmarks though. I was just really surprised that a DirectX 9 card with so much newer technology than my old 8500 card performed so poorly.

If your 6200 is working good for you though, then you have no worries!

ChampionFx

Hey buddy ,

It's all fine, we have a nice productive discussion and is interesting to hear from you about your experience with 6200 model.
I remember I lot of critic about 6200 especialy with turbocache PCIx16 bus 64-bit memory interface.
I'm somehow considering myself a fan of BFG Nvidia video card, but I will never forget that they gave us new model released in 2006 year with antique 64-bit interface for PCI bus , where every little extra count in performance.
They should skip 6200 all together and made at least 6600 with 128-bit interface and PCI bus option .
Now that would be something .
My feeling is that this is never gona happen and 6200 PCI bus is probably the last of the best they could came up with.

PCI bus is not ment for gaming , period , so I don't see why they should bother with even better version. ( but I wish, it could delay new system purchase HAHAHAHAAAA... )

xtraman122

Hi everyone, I just got my 3d Fuzion 128mb PCI card today and am not entirely sure on how to install it. My friend just told me to put it in and install the drivers, so I did. It booted with the card as default and I started to install the drivers and at about halfway through the screen went all black with a white blinking minus sign in the top left. I left it for a few minutes, and without any other results I just removed the crad and used my integrated again. Any suggestions? Was it supposed to go black for a little while?