Slavic Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 1938 Joined: 09/15/07 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 I've finally decided to set aside some money to buy a decent graphics card, my current one is an ATI Radeon Express 200 : (. It is essentially bottlenecking my system's performance. I have a 2.2 GHz AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 896MB RAM, I don't know why my ram is some weird fucking number like that. I don't know what kind of motherboard or the kind of graphics card slots it has. I do not know much about graphics cards. I am willing to spend bout $100 to at most $150 for a card. Any advice???? Link to comment
LegalSmash Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 2936 Joined: 02/04/08 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 Some medium 8 series nvidias are ok for a 256/512 range, 8600 is a nice bet for the money you are talking. Red and Zero would know best, I defer to the former's advice most often on this issue. Link to comment
Slavic Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 1938 Joined: 09/15/07 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 (edited) Is this an AGI port that I have above the PCI ones or a PCI-X Edited April 30, 2008 by Slavic Link to comment
Itch Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 3440 Joined: 12/12/07 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 (edited) Looks like PCI-E. Edited April 30, 2008 by Itch I'm blind Link to comment
Slavic Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 1938 Joined: 09/15/07 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 I found out its PCI-E, my friend found this deal for me, it looks pretty damn sweet. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10007955&prodlist=celebros Link to comment
Misanthrope Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 171 Joined: 04/04/08 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 If you're positive it's a PCI Express slot then I'd recommend either of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150277 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130333 If you don't want to go with Nvidia you're best bet is probably one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161216 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161206 Just as importantly, you need to make sure you have a good power supply, if you've got some 400 watt pile that came with the PC you'll have to upgrade your PSU when you get a new card. At least 550 watts would be recommended (don't bother with the card requirements since PSUs only have a certain efficiency) Something like this would be a good PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339006 Link to comment
Slavic Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 1938 Joined: 09/15/07 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 If you're positive it's a PCI Express slot then I'd recommend either of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150277 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130333 If you don't want to go with Nvidia you're best bet is probably one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161216 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161206 Just as importantly, you need to make sure you have a good power supply, if you've got some 400 watt pile that came with the PC you'll have to upgrade your PSU when you get a new card. At least 550 watts would be recommended (don't bother with the card requirements since PSUs only have a certain efficiency) Something like this would be a good PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339006 How important is upgrading the power supply? Link to comment
Misanthrope Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 171 Joined: 04/04/08 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 How important is upgrading the power supply? Like I said, it's JUST as important, if you've already got a good PSU (500+ watts) then you won't need to worry about it. Otherwise, take it into consideration. Actually, you could get the card and try it, if it works just fine, no worries. However, if you get a lot of crashing/errors/really bad fps, then you should upgrade. Link to comment
Slavic Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 1938 Joined: 09/15/07 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 Like I said, it's JUST as important, if you've already got a good PSU (500+ watts) then you won't need to worry about it. Otherwise, take it into consideration. Actually, you could get the card and try it, if it works just fine, no worries. However, if you get a lot of crashing/errors/really bad fps, then you should upgrade. aight thanks for the help man Link to comment
Zero001 Posted April 30, 2008 Content Count: 1230 Joined: 05/17/07 Status: Offline Share Posted April 30, 2008 What's the exact model of the motherboard? The black slot in the picture is definitely PCI-E, but the reason I ask is because you could benefit more from a multi-part upgrade over just a video card upgrade. - 8600GT $80 - 2GB RAM $47 - 2.3Ghz X2 $59 Total = $186 shipped - $30mir puts you back in the $150 range. Those three pieces will give you a better improvement over just a $150 video card. You should at least do RAM and video card, which I would then swap the video card to an 8800GS. Someone mentioned it, but if you have a generic power supply don't buy a power hungry video card unless you're willing to upgrade. You're going to ended up losing your power supply and it can potentially take out your other hardware in the process. Link to comment
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