what video card to buy?

A

Adam_Glanza

Member +
hey guys,

well im thinking of buying more ram for my pc to speed it up a bit, as it works fine apart from maybe getting a tad old.

i recently bought a few pc games and noticed that my graphics card is no longer up to scratch.

ive got an ATI RADEON X300 128mb video card, and by wat i understand its a bit naff!

you lads that are into computers wat do you recommend? and will it be fully compatible etc?
 
davehart

davehart

Member +
If your running an AGP slot then get an ATi X800.

if your on PCI-E then I'd go for a ATI Radeon HD 4870
 
GT_Neil

GT_Neil

Member +
Then of corse though there would be no point getting a good card if the rest of your hardware isn't up to scratch.... so whats your spec?
 
A

Adam_Glanza

Member +
ok i will just read wats on the sticker lmao,

its an AMD Athlon 64 processor 3200+

1GB DDR

200GB hard drive

128mb video memory

i dont really know wat all that means.

i was looking to upgrade my ram to 3gb as i can get 2gb for 40 quid
 
Dub-Se7en

Dub-Se7en

Lifer
chances are it's agp looking at that spec, best bet is pop the side off and take a piccie of the gfx slot.

also, if you're running windows XP there is no point going over 2gb. i've done a lot of testing with high amounts of ram in XP, and 2gb actually ran better and more stable than 3. it wouldn't even load properly with 4gb.
 
A

Adam_Glanza

Member +
really? thats strange.

would 1gb make a huge difference in performance neway?

always wanted to run the pc more boost :p

i will take a picture tommorow when i get the chance to get the covers off.

would 2gb be able to run a stronger gfx properly?
 
Gryzor

Gryzor

Admin
Get the 2 Gb of ram first it'll make a huge difference.

If your wanting to play "new" games e.g far cry 2 you might as well go the whole hog and upgrade everything.

note the newer graphic cards require separate power rails (upgrade power supply)
 
ChrisGT

ChrisGT

Member +
Dub-Se7en said:
chances are it's agp looking at that spec, best bet is pop the side off and take a piccie of the gfx slot.

also, if you're running windows XP there is no point going over 2gb. i've done a lot of testing with high amounts of ram in XP, and 2gb actually ran better and more stable than 3. it wouldn't even load properly with 4gb.
Click to expand...

I'm running 4 x 1GB DDR2 sticks in mine and running XP fine although it only shows available physical memory to be 3.6GB. Do you reckon I'd see performance gains with just 2x1GB sticks in matched slots? Might whip 2 out ! lol


Anyhoo, back on topic, what are the games you wanna play? And like the others have said, the 3200 is a pretty poop processor nowadays. I used to have one, think the Venice core, which is super over-clockable. Had it running 2.4Ghz or something silly with a huge heatsink and fan lol.
 
Dub-Se7en

Dub-Se7en

Lifer
montanajr said:
I'm running 4 x 1GB DDR2 sticks in mine and running XP fine although it only shows available physical memory to be 3.6GB. Do you reckon I'd see performance gains with just 2x1GB sticks in matched slots? Might whip 2 out ! lol
Click to expand...

last pc i built (i build and repair pc's for a living) i experimented with different amounts of RAM and found the PC ran a lot better and seemed more stable with 2gb than it did with 3. certain tasks took a lil' longer on 3gb, bootup was slower too.

my PC is running 8 explorer windows, sound mixer, opera browser with 5 tabs open. outlook express, newsleecher and GOMplayer playing the australian top gear (which is crap btw) along with antivirus, and loadsa other tsr programs and i still have 1284MB RAM free.

over half of your ram is not in use... with vista it's another matter though, 2gb is the minimum i would recommend with that.
 
A

Adam_Glanza

Member +
montanajr said:
I'm running 4 x 1GB DDR2 sticks in mine and running XP fine although it only shows available physical memory to be 3.6GB. Do you reckon I'd see performance gains with just 2x1GB sticks in matched slots? Might whip 2 out ! lol


Anyhoo, back on topic, what are the games you wanna play? And like the others have said, the 3200 is a pretty poop processor nowadays. I used to have one, think the Venice core, which is super over-clockable. Had it running 2.4Ghz or something silly with a huge heatsink and fan lol.
Click to expand...

i see, so raising the ram and video card wont be enough?

a few games that are coming out soon like starcraft 2 cod5 etc stuff that needs high power. i bought red alert 3 last week and that wont even run on my computer it just crashes
 
Dub-Se7en

Dub-Se7en

Lifer
to be honest, you'd be best starting again.

your system is perfect for web browsing and 'normal' computer stuff but it ain't gonna cut it as a gamer.
 
ChrisGT

ChrisGT

Member +
Dub-Se7en said:
last pc i built (i build and repair pc's for a living) i experimented with different amounts of RAM and found the PC ran a lot better and seemed more stable with 2gb than it did with 3. certain tasks took a lil' longer on 3gb, bootup was slower too.

my PC is running 8 explorer windows, sound mixer, opera browser with 5 tabs open. outlook express, newsleecher and GOMplayer playing the australian top gear (which is crap btw) along with antivirus, and loadsa other tsr programs and i still have 1284MB RAM free.

over half of your ram is not in use... with vista it's another matter though, 2gb is the minimum i would recommend with that.
Click to expand...

Hmm I might give it a try mate, will only take a couple minutes to do. I'm currently using 4 x 1GB Corsair DDR2 675MHz/PC2 5400 RAM. Might get a few benchmark progs going and have a test, quite bored! lol
 
R

rob300zx

Member +
You can go on and on with buying PC bits, You can buy the fastest RAM on todays market but theres always something else that will slow it down, such as Processor, gfx card or mobo etc..

Your CPU aint too bad tbh for everyday stuff but if its games your after playing then id get a mate or a shop to build you one, You can go out and buy a whole new tower but you will pay the price, and even then theres always something thats crap inside, Id build one yourself mate or get a shop to.

Oh and dont go to Vista, stick with XP lol.
 
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