What Video Card should I get?

[Send]

DTF, is your old video card 256MB PCI? If so, message me...I'm willing to buy it.

[Bioture]

The point is that no matter what kind of video card you get, a PCI (non-express) video card is ancient even when compared to AGP. To run bf2 at something thats playable you will need to upgrade to at least have AGP.

[Send]

I give, I give. I'm gonna buy a new motherboard and use my Radeon 9600SE on that. What do you guys think of this hot piece of machinery for just $202.99 (Canadian)/$172.86 (US). Check it out:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...2789&CatId=191

[PaulOakenfold]

That's AGP Paul.

Oh crap he was looking for PCI?

[Mulkero]

Get rid of the 9600se and buy something pci-e like people have said. It would make absolutely no sense to buy something with agp-slot now, at least if you want to upgrade you machine later and have a powerful video card now. Besides, aren't the pci-e models cheaper?

[Subjugation]

I give, I give. I'm gonna buy a new motherboard and use my Radeon 9600SE on that. What do you guys think of this hot piece of machinery for just $202.99 (Canadian)/$172.86 (US). Check it out:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...2789&CatId=191

Honestly, if you can afford it, I'd suggest upgrading to the 939-socket system with an AMD cpu if you want it for gaming. Otherwise, I'd just wait until you get paid again.

I'm sorry, I feel a little ridiculous suggesting that you to spend $400 US to solve the problem of a video card, but that's one of the problems when you upgrade. You have to think not only of how to solve your immediate hardware problem, but you also have to think about the hardware trends on the horizon, or you will--in essense---be wasting money down the road. Right now, AMD is putting out a better product for gaming, 939-socket is going to be around for a while, and the PCI-Express interface is going to be around for a while. I would think of it as spending a little more now to save more later.

There are some really affordable solutions out there from Newegg. Newegg will probably have another huge sale after New Year, they seem to have sales all the time.


You can upgrade to a GeForce 6600GT, 939-socket mobo, and an AMD 64-3200 for about $400. Your system will be relatively modern, and you will be able to comfortably run whatever games you want.

Just make sure you have an adequate PSU and enough memory already, or you may as well just stick with your previous choice, unless you want to add those to the wishlist. That would add about another $170 US to the total.

[Bioture]

I agree with the PCI Express upgrade idea. However if you are looking to conserve money and have your PC to be "just enough" for games like bf2, then what you're getting is ok.

The tricky part to mobo upgrades is that the transition may not always go 100% smoothly - depending on how ancient your previous computer was, you might need to upgrade the ram, PSU, and case as well.

[Send]

Yup, I ended up getting an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Processor. I'm not a huge gamer, and this motherboard was at a pretty good price (wholesale). Can anyone tell me how fast a 2800+ processor is in comparison to an Intel Processor (so just tell me how many GhZ it is). I'm not very computer savvy.

The motherboard I got was a KM400-M2. I had to upgrade my RAM to DDR 300 Mhz (I enjoy having a gig of memory) which cost around a hundred bucks. Hopefully, someone can give me some feedback on the stuff I bought, cause I'm feeling like I got some substandard shit.

[Zloy]

You should shake off the x-mas buying craze and stop buing shit dude, do some research on the net instead of asking store vendors for advice, duh -
getting even a socket 754 motherboard is waste of money right now, and you got a socket A - vendors are trying to get rid of it before it loses value competely, they are always selling old shit to people

Athlon XP 2800+ runs at about 2084 mhz, but compared to AMD 64 3200+ which is approximately the same mhz it loses badly because of old core/ slow motherboard.
Also, buying new DDR 333 now is a waste of money, get a nice mobo with DDR 400 support, DDR2 is nicer but it too new to buy, costs too much.
Listen to what people in this thread tell you about upgrading, the thing to aim at is a nforce4 socket 939 motherboard with AMD 64 / FX processors
Compare this sex in the box with the thing you bought


If you ask for a video card recommendation - 6600 gt is nice, but if you have cash to waste on old mobos, get a Geforce 6800 GS, those come both for pci-E and AGP, cost in mid range and and compete with top tier cards (don't mix GS with LE or some shit like that =D)

[Subjugation]

Yea, pretty much what Zloy said.

The Athlon XP does not have the dual core technology that the AMD64 has, and I agree with the comment about the socket trend. PCI-E, dual core 939-pin cpu, and DDR 400 is where you want to be, especially if you want the freedom to upgrade, or add-on somewhere down the road.

But the cool thing is you can still get an reasonably priced mobo without getting a super-high-end one, and it will perform just as good. Read more here.

I hate to say it, but nowadays, if you want to design and build a good-to-very good gaming system, you have to plan it all out like you're playing a game of Jenga. When you make a move, you have to consider how it will affect the piece as a whole.

Some motherboards---especially the high-end ones---will not function properly with inferior memory, inadequate power supply units, or memory from different companies.

Some good resources to find information about benchmarks and comparisons are:

http://www.TomsHardware.com
http://www.AnandTech.com