I like to PLAY GAMES. HalfLife 2. Battlefield 2. Call of Duty 2. The list goes on. With my semi new computer, I would like to know which graphics card to buy to make the most out of and take full advantage of all of my PC. Heres the specs... Windows Xp. Duh. Intel P4 533mhz FSB At 2.26 Ghz, (Considering Overclocking) 2, 512mb ddr400 memory dual channeled (1 gig memory) agp and pci slots, no pci express on mobo SATA drive, 150Mb/s, 200gig, (connected to motherboard not pci card) As of right now I have a ATI radeon 9550, agp, 256mb, 128 bit. Im more of a fan of ATI but will listen to all suggestions. Am I getting the most out of my card? Should I upgrade? I can always return it. Any suggestions for different cards? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
i wouldnt know what ATi card to suggest to you but the best Nvidia AGP card you can get is the 6800GT series. quite a lot faster than the card you have at the moment in terms of memory speeds and such. its no good asking me if you should upgrade the card though as the only person who can answer that is you. if your current card is causing you problems or its just not giving the graphical results you want then yes id upgrade.. if its not really a problem then its up to you whether you should upgrade or not
Well the problem is my computer as of right now is completly dissassembled. I have no pc case and im wating for one to arrive that I recently ordered. New motherboard and ram wihich I already got. Its just, I havent insatalled the GPU yet so I really dont knonw weather its going to be good or not. Im just haveing second thoughts about buying a card from the low end, 80 bucks, of the graphics card spectrum. With my processor and such, will I be able to use theese 300 dollar garphics cards. I dont know. But all these people keep saying how great those 6800gt 's are the ati x800's. I guess what im trying to say is, will I see the difference with a more expensive, top of the line card. Is it worth it?
Keep in mind your power requirements too. The 6800GT will suck down a bit more juice than it's little brother, the 6800GS. Both share the same core however, and some of the GS's can be unlocked (some have good NV40 cores, others have corrupted pipes/shader engine). Most 6800GS's from eVGA have been unlocked without any problems, and they overclock like a madman. My card (only 12 pipes active) stock is 350mhz, but using Coolbits, it went to 441! Not bad really... Also, the 6800 series cards are PS/VS 3.0 compatible (some are also OpenGL 2.0 the others only 1.5), whereas support for ATI doesn't come in until the X1800 series. I think you'll get more bang for your buck getting a GT or GS then an X800, or X850 card.
