Hello all,
I have been using an Intel chipset for some time now and I was looking to upgrade my video card to a new nVidia, since the nVidia is practically made for Intel. I was looking to upgrade, however, to the ATI Radeon X1300 and I was wondering if anyone else had this video card? Is it really good for gaming? The biggest concern of mine is that I know that Intel and AMD have had their battles over the years, so is it okay to install the X1300 to the Intel Pentium 4 board? Should everything run properly? When I punched in my service tag number on the upgrades section of the Dell site, the ATI x1300 was listed for my machine. Any thoughts?

Thanks a lot for any information!

I've got ATI display adapters on two P4 computers and they seem to run well.

".........since the nVidia is practically made for Intel."

I don't know how you've come to that conclusion but moving on.........it would have been nice if you also included the model type for your Dell in your system details field - it does help.

Anyhow, nothing stops you from running an ATI card on a system with an nVidia, Sis or Via chipset much as you would on a board with an Intel chipset since there isn't any exclusionary agreement or mechanism between those two & same goes for using nVidia cards on Intel chipset based board (which you seem to already know) and equally those other chipsets too.

Depending on how much you want to spend, what you are hoping to accomplish with the upgrade (gaming or otherwise) and what type of expansion slots you have available on your motherboard - it is hard to give you a suggestion at this point but odds are the consensus won't be on the X1300 after all the other variables are considered.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

Sabertooth,

According to a number of sources I have read, I discovered that Intel had signed a number of agreements with nVidia to "shut out" ATI products a long time ago (how long ago, I'm not sure) and AMD partnered/bought ATI.

When I went to the upgrades section of the Dell site, I had punched in my service tag for my Dimension 4600, and it offered the X1300 as a upgrade option, so I was assuming that perhaps Dell had authorized this to be a potential option.

I wasn't sure if perhaps ATI had run differently on an Intel board, I never really heard much about it, and I've always stuck with nVidia to this point, so I have little expierence with ATI or its performance.

My biggest concern was the fact that ATI would run well, or the expierence that people had had with such a device on an Intel chipset, and if there had been any known issues, since I am clueless to the performance ability of ATI paired with an Intel chipset. I had little doubts, but when it comes to such upgrades, I like to be confident in my decision.

Thank you for your response...I do very much appriciate it.

Thanks!

winhelp

You need to weigh what you read on the web. There was speculation that what you think is fact MIGHT happen but to my knowledge it hasn't. There are many MBoards currently on the market that run Intel CPUs and have ATI chipsets, including Intel brand MBoards.

The fact that nVidia does not actually make video cards but the graphics chipset used by the numerous manufacturers that it provides reference samples to make the type of "treaty" that you suggested was signed highly unlikely & besides I never heard about such an arrangement - this is not to say I've heard or read everything aout there, but a disclosure of such magnitude would have had a resounding circulation.

Now that you've provided the model number, which shows that you are only limited to AGP card (not a disadvantage) but you fail to elaborate on what you actually need to card for, do you play games, are you into CAD design or Animations - more importantly what is your current graphics adapter lacking? - You may not even need an upgrade afterall.

Also since you have an older 478 based system, there is very little persuasive reason to throw more than a few dollars into any type of video card if indeed you actually do need the upgrade considering that a CPU upgrade is not advisable because of the diminishing return of such an investment.

You're messing with the wrong guy

On a side note, the x1300/x1550 can handle most older games, Vista's Aero GUI, and doesn't cost very much. Just don't count on it for much 3D horsepower.

"If it ain't broke, upgrade anyway."

Now that you mention it, this computer has an ECS RS400-A MOBO with and ATI chipset. It has an onboard ATI display adapter but I'm using an ATI PCIe card instead. The CPU is a P4 3.0 GHz.

Well im running a Acer Aspire E380 (if anybody familiar with that model) and I have the NEW ATI XGE X1300 512MB and it's running all of my high demand video games like butter. ATI good choice for me!

Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 1MB L2 Per Core
4GB Dual Channel EEC PC3200 667MHZ
ATI Radeon XGE X1300 512MB 600MHZ
7.1 High Definition Sound
320GB SATA RAID 0 HD