[RWoelk]

My lady friend, much to my surprise, just purchased Quake III and Quake III Arena. She has a Compaq Presario 3550 500 MHz PIII with the 810e chip set and a 15" flat panel display. Even after fiddling with her Quake settings, her Quake looks quite weak when compared to my G4 with an AGP Radeon on a CRT. Would a higher end PCI graphics card greatly improve the aesthetics/ detail in her game play or are flat panels displays severely limited by virtue of their MAX resolution... in her case 1024-768? She does a fair amount of graphics 2D, some 3D work as well and might like TV input, but I don't see an ATI All In Wonder Radeon in a PCI version for a PC. Her Presario appears to have the a 2D/3D card built on the mother board so no AGP slot to be had… Any suggestions, comments on cards? Is it really worth her spending the money?

Listen, I want to frag this bitc*h (Oh, sorry honey, I didn't see you standing there behind me).

[This message has been edited by RWoelk (edited 02-10-2001).]

[Cipher13]

Hm... I'd imagine the chip soldered in is AGP.
They normally are.
What kind of video card is it?
Have yo ulooked inside for an AGP slot?
Is PCI graphics an option? If so consider a Radeon All-In-Wonder PCI if its available, but if not as you seem to think, there are other PCI options that may be viable...

Cipher13

[Tominator]

Heh, yeah the i810 chipset is nice for a Q3 "slide show". Unfortunately, the i810 does not support AGP, which rules out the nice GeForce2 MX cards. I'd have to recommend either picking up a Voodoo5 PCI (while you still can) or better yet the ATi Radeon 32MB SDR edition. Both of these cards support PCI. Since the Radeon All In Wonder is AGP only, and if she really wants TV in and out, you might also take a gander at the Voodoo3 3500 cards.

All of these cards will perform adaquately for both 2D and 3D, but I've gotta recommend the ATi above the 3dfx cards, simply because 3dfx and their support is soon to be no more.

Might even consider picking up a new motherboard for her that supports AGP. You can find good PIII motherboards for $40 no problem. Then you could pick up a nice GeForce.

Hope all this helps.

[RWoelk]

Thanks for your replies. Indeed, there is no AGP slot so it will have to be PCI. I'm not sure upgrading the motherboard is a viable option given Compaq's propitiatory builds, but I may very well be wrong. This tower is one of a very small, unique slim line foot print. I think the biggest issue is the 24 pin video connector needed to attach her bundled with Compaq flat panel display. It looks propitiatory as well, although I haven't examined many PC flat panel displays out there, and I have tried for days to get through to Compaq support to find out if there are adaptors/ PCI upgrade video cards out there that might work. Any other suggestions would be most welcome.

------------------
Rocke "Why yes, I have brought our
network down." Woelk

Only the educated are free!-Epictetus

[This message has been edited by RWoelk (edited 02-12-2001).]

[This message has been edited by RWoelk (edited 02-12-2001).]