best video card for vista ultimate?

[wonderings]

I just got a free pc and I would like to get Vista ultimate. The main reason I want to is I like to stay fluent in the pc world (as many of you know I am a Macboy). The pc I got is a P4 2.8 ghz, 1 gig of ram, 160 gig hard drive. It has onboard video, so I will be upgrading the video card to something. What is the best 256 mb video card for vista? I was thinking about Vista Ultimate.

The few that I have looked at are:

ATI Radeon 9550 256MB AGP Graphics Card

ATI Radeon X1300 Pro AGP 256MB Video Card

Forsa GeForce FX5500 AGP 8X 256MB Graphics Card

I do not know much about the internals on a pc. I was told I should look for an agp video card. I think it has some pci slots though.

thanks for your help

[wonderings]

Thanks JA

Of the cards I listed, which one do you think is best? I would like it to run Aero (is that what its called?)

thanks again

[pat]

Are you limited to those three cards or do you have a budget target?

But out of those three cards I'd go with the Radeon X1300.

[wonderings]

Well I was out shopping and picked up a GeForce 7300 GT 512 mb video card. I got it for $170 CAD. I have 30 days to return it if I am not happy. It says Vista ready on the box, and it is a 512 mb video card, so I think I should be ok.

[pat]

I�ve run the Vista adviser and basically all it checks for are minimum and recommended requirements which may be misleading in real world applications.

That said, your system should run vista.

[wonderings]

I am not going to jump into Vista just yet, I will do a bit more research. But from what I have read on Microsoft's website, I should be more then fine with running Vista on my machine. This was a workhorse machine used for our RIP at work.

Windows Vista Ultimate
Recommended system requirements
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 GB of system memory
40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:
WDDM Driver
128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
32 bits per pixel.

I have as stated before P4 2.8 ghz , 1 gig of ram (will probably drop another gig of ram in the machine). A 512 mb video card with support of Direct X9. So I think I am fine for Vista. This machine is only to keep me up-to date in the windows world, if anything it will collect a lot of dust.

[wonderings]

I was going to download the vista advisor, but it says its for XP, I current have NT on this machine, as thats what the one program the computer needed to run needed. Will the vista advisor run on a NT machine?

thanks

[wonderings]

thanks everyone. Another question regarding installing a video card. I have never done this in a pc, is it a real nightmare with drivers? The ones I have installed in my macs have been plug and play. I never had to install any drivers for this. I am planning to install XP first, so I can setup the video card, as I think I might have problems installing it on a NT machine. Should I expect problems or is this a pretty easy thing?

thanks again

[wonderings]

ok, well I just got home, a little problem... my pc does not have a pci port. It was made for a specific task, so I guess they cheaped out when it came to that. How big of a deal is it to get some pci ports? I am a newb at this stuff, so break it to me gently

[wonderings]

Its only AGP, I have looked inside, there are a few slots available. I would need a new motherboard for PCI slots right?

[pat]

I think there may be a little confusion here, your motherboard most likely has PCI slots. However it appears it does not have a PCI express slot(s). PCI-E is the new video standard on most (all) new motherboards that replaces the AGP slot.

This should not be a big deal, if you bought a new PCI-E card just take it back and get an AGP card.

And yes you would need a new motherboard for PCI-E cards.

[wonderings]

Yes, thats what it is, it has PCI slots. So is it better for an AGP video card? are there PCI video cards?

thanks

[pat]

Well ok, I�ll try.

There are indeed dedicated graphic cards for a regular PCI slot, but if you do have an AGP slot that would be the better choice.

Do you have any idea of the make and model of the system and/or motherboard? That would certainly help sort it out.

[wonderings]

I know its an intel board, I know there is an agp slot as well. A friend of mine, PC guy, told me there was an agp slot. I just assumed that because it was a fairly new computer, it would have pci express as well. I have checked some of the local stores online and no one has a pci video card, just agp or pci express.

[pat]

AGP would be superior to a regular PCI card in my opinion and that's what I would get.

[wonderings]

thanks I will replace the video card today. The only downside is I will only be getting a 256 mb video card, rather then the 512 mb video card I have now.

[wonderings]

well I found the same PCI express card at Staples, but agp! this thing should run vista pretty good... I hope

[pat]

I hope the card turns alright for you. Let us know how it works out and what you think of Vista, from an OSX users point of view.

[wonderings]

I will deffinetely write a little review once I have it all going and what my first impressions are. I will try to be as unbiased as possible.

[wonderings]

well I have a copy of Vista sitting on my desk, I will probably get around to installing it next week. I will try and write a review from a mac users perspective if anyone is interested

[scuzzy]

Considering that my next notebook will be a MacBook, I'd be very interested in a fair and objective comparison.

[ingeborgdot]

Are you serious about a mac scuzzy?

[Carskick]

The 7300GT will not likely utalize the 512MB of memory, so having only 256MB shouldn't make much of a difference.

Also, installing a new video card is easy. It will be autodetected by windows, and you can install the drivers to add more options and better performance.