PC graphics question

[someone]

I am planning on buying a Compaq 8000Z, and if you go here: http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping...tomize_start.do you'll see the product features. If you scroll down to "Graphics" in the features section, you'll see it says "8X AGP Graphics Card Slot."

Does that mean that the 8000Z model can give me any graphics card they feel like (ex. a 64 mb or any other "old" graphics card) or will they even give me the computer without a graphics card? If you click on the "Compare all series" link, you'll see that the 8000Z got 3/3 stars for gaming, so do think the will give me a graphics card (that is powerful like a 256 mb graphics card)?

Thanks very much,
Someone

[Danny]

256MB DDR ATI Radeon™ 9600 w/ TV-out & DVI cap

Click on the Customizable PC picture to see all the crap.

[Spekkio]

Originally posted by someone@Feb 10 2004, 11:50 PM
I am planning on buying a Compaq 8000Z, and if you go here: http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping...tomize_start.do you'll see the product features. If you scroll down to "Graphics" in the features section, you'll see it says "8X AGP Graphics Card Slot."

Does that mean that the 8000Z model can give me any graphics card they feel like (ex. a 64 mb or any other "old" graphics card) or will they even give me the computer without a graphics card? If you click on the "Compare all series" link, you'll see that the 8000Z got 3/3 stars for gaming, so do think the will give me a graphics card (that is powerful like a 256 mb graphics card)?

Thanks very much,
Someone

256 MB is only marginally faster (often on par or even slower) than the 128 MB versions.
None of the games today even use all of it, so instead of getting a slower 256 mb card, invest in a faster 128 mb card, the difference will be much more noticeable.

[Jet Set Willy]

He's right, that much texture memory is overkill for the foreseeable future.

[onewecallgod]

dont buy a compaq...build your own

[Zach]

I was under the impression more ram could improve AA performance, especially at higher resolutions

[Spekkio]

Originally posted by Neco@Mar 9 2004, 12:04 AM
I was under the impression more ram could improve AA performance, especially at higher resolutions

It can, but none of the textures will fill the texture memory.
If you have a voodoo 1 with umpteenhundred megabytes of texture memory it will still suck arse and probably just crash with FSAA on.

A faster GPU with a better fillrate, more pipelines and all that technical mumbo jumbo will benefit your performance a lot more because it will calculate all of it very much faster.

If texture memory was the answer, we'd be using a geforce 2 with 1024 mb now.

[Jet Set Willy]

More texture memory can be used for other optimisations and yeah, you'll get some extra speed, but the money is better spent on a faster architecture.

[DanielW]

Originally posted by onewecallgod@Mar 8 2004, 02:12 PM
dont buy a compaq...build your own

:with_stupid:

[Zach]

Very good points.