Suitable Video Card?

The video card in my computer uses a PCI-E connector. There is something wrong with it though, for some reason, it doesn't output S-Video very well to the TV. I'm not talking resolution, I'm talking rolling screens and such. I've talked with friends that know about computers, and even brought it in to be looked at, it's the PCI-E connector itself. I'd need an entire new mother board to fix it. I'd rather not go that route if I could help it. Doesn't effect my monitor for some reason though.
Anyway, I enjoy Emulators and Roms, but would MUCH prefer to output them to my larger TV. Would getting a video card with a regular PCI connector work? Could I output to both video cards at the same time? Would this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814140027 be a suitable card for emulation (Atari, Coleco, NES, SNES, GBA, N64 are what I play)?
Also, I do have a spare 64MB AGP video card lying around. Would this be suitable as well, and if so, is there such a thing as an AGP to PCI converter?

why don't you try another tv? and a seperate pci card wouldn't work with a pci-e card, they cant be used simultaneously. and the agp card won't work with a pci-e motherboard.

well this could be a simple case of a bad cable or converter visit your local tv hi-fi store and look for a proper good quality cable ( borow / steal from a friend if you dont want to spend money )

My pc has never exactly looked good on my Tv but sometimes messing around in your driver settings can give you some results.
It depends on what brand graphics card you have but the options are mostly the same just make sure you select the right settings for your Tv ( pal i for the uk and ireland and so on )

I've tried multiple S-Video cables, all do the same thing. The video card is an ATI Radeon X600 Pro with 256 MB RAM. PCI-E. I have the latest drivers installed, and have played around with the settings. My TV is an analog SDTV, which I know isn't ideal for computer work, but I would think it would be fine for the emulation, since that's what they were originally made for anyway. But I get basically a rolling screen, or sometimes the top of the screen is on the bottom, and the bottom is on the top (Flip flopped).
I don't imagine it would make much difference, but I don't know a whole lot about computers, so here are my specs:
Intel Pentium 4 3.6 Ghz with Hyper Threading
1GB DDR RAM
160 GB SATA Hard Drive
250 GB SATA Hard Drive
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Sound Card

have you tried anouther tv at all ?

Yes, I have tried multiple TVs (Lugging a desktop around is real fun lol). I also normally use a A/V selector, and bypassed that and connected directly to the TV. Still had the same problem. I've been told it's the PCI-E connector on the motherboard. Don't have the money to replace the motherboard (Expecially since when I do, I want to replace the CPU and RAM as well), so a cheap PCI based video card just for the emulation would be great!

that doesn't make sense as there's no direct correlation between PCI-E and the fact that your tv out doesn't work. the only way i could see that being true is if your the video through your monitor was garbled as well. your x600 itself is probably broken.

And why in the hell would you have to replace the CPU and RAM if you replace your motherboard? All you have to do is swap it out for the same model board, or for another board that supports your current CPU and RAM..

Who are you talking to about this stuff besides us? Because they are filling your head with A-Class garbage.

If you have a problem with your TV-out, it is likely your video card, as has already been pointed out. If the problem was with your PCI-E port, the card probably wouldn't work at all, or it would at least give you the same problems on your monitor

No, I don't have to replace everything, but I do want to, so I was just kinda planning on doing it all at once. But I suppose I could just get another motherboard for right now. What would be a good recommendation?
I have an Intel Pentium 4 with Hyper Threading running at 3.6 Ghz (I really want a dual core AMD with 64 bit support). It also needs to support at least 3 GBs DDR RAM (DDR 2 would be even better). Obviously a PCI-E connector. At least 4 1.5 Gbs SATA ports (3.0 Gbs would be better). IDE connector. Should have at least 1 firewire port, and at least 4 USb 2.0 ports. No need for onboard audio or video. Integrated LAN. I do NOT know the socket. I'll have to email HP for that and get back.

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Originally Posted by Zach

And why in the hell would you have to replace the CPU and RAM if you replace your motherboard? All you have to do is swap it out for the same model board, or for another board that supports your current CPU and RAM..

Who are you talking to about this stuff besides us? Because they are filling your head with A-Class garbage.

If you have a problem with your TV-out, it is likely your video card, as has already been pointed out. If the problem was with your PCI-E port, the card probably wouldn't work at all, or it would at least give you the same problems on your monitor

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I don't know why you'd want to replace a 3.6 ghz Pentium 4, and it probably has EM64T anyway, making it 64 bit, plus it has HT, which is like dual core, maybe not as good but still ace. Anyway, if you really want to get an AMD 64, then you'd want socket 939 or socket 940 which is just out, and just look for the other features on the motherboard specifications you need. Just browse around on computer shopping sites (i can't recommend any US ones as i'm British). Make sure you get an atx motherboard, not micro atx, as they usually only support up to 2GB.

You should just get a new graphics card, and more RAM if you need it. You should wait for the next generation of processors to come out, as you probably woudln't see much difference in performance anyway.

here is a socket 940 motherboard model: MSI K9N SLI Platinum AM2 Skt940.

hmm remind me how this turned into a cpu topic the mans emulator is not coming up on screen properly his best option to see where the fault lies is if he borrows a friends pci-e graphics card and slaps it into his pc for a day if the picture is still crap then its not the graphics card if the picture is improved than he should make a complaint to the supplyer and either get a refund or replacement

also have you tryed playing about with the emulators resolution most tv out puts only support 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 so if the emulator is in full screen on the pc with a resolution greater the image can bleed over

not much help i know but its better than arguing about cpus

Perhaps if you had read the posts you would see how and why the conversation has progressed to the point where it is at.

Anyway..

Yeah, there is nothing wrong with a 3.6ghz CPU at the moment, even if you are wanting to switch to a 64-bit AMD I'd say wait a while. There is not much out there that really uses the 64-bit stuff, as with everything, it is going to take time for the industry to adapt. And based on your emulation needs, I'd say you are doing fine.

I wouldn't Purchase anything else until you have tried another video card in your system first. Borrow one from a friend, or buy one from a store to test and take it back saying it was incompatible (make sure you can return it first), or even take it to a credible shop to have them confirm the problem.

As for emulator resolution, when you TV-out it rarely matters in full-screen mode. Most TV's will auto size the screen properly all the way up to and cap at the TV's max resolution, unless you are maybe dealing with a VERY old TV. All TV's I've played on have worked fine with TV-out. The only problems I've encountered with the entire picture not making it onto the screen have been with PC based games. The picture tends to be "centered" with the sides of the frame cut-off (but in some cases still "scrollable" with the mouse)

You may also want to make sure your TV-out settings are correct. Make sure its ouputting in the correct mode, and any TV options in the ATI control panel should be looked over to make sure they are properly setup as well. I know ATI's panel has a lot of options compared to Nvidia panels from what I have seen in my household. You might even try asking on an ATI forum, they may be able to tell you with more certainty that it is a faulty TV-out connector on the card as well.

Hey just to help about a bit here. If what your saying is the svideo is displaying scrolling video on the TV its has very little to do with what has been talk about. I'm sure suggestions have been made that are good; I'm not talk down to any one on here. Just don’t have time to read it all. BUT! That sounds to me like an encoder problem. For example if you send your video out to use pal, its going to look black and white with scrolling images on a NTSC TV. If your encoder (a part of your vga card) is a not getting the proper request from your driver/software it will do some very strange things. So suggestion one check your out put in you vga out settings. Make sure it matches what your TV wants. Normally NTSC.. And make sure you try the latest or an alternative driver. It could also be the svideo port on the TV, so get a svideo to rca adapter (under 3 bucks) and connect it to your rca input on the TV(if you have one). If you care to elaborate on the symptom (I know is hard to describe these things) then I will be happy to help you.


I just saw the tail end of Zach's text. presisely , what I'm saying.