Video Card Help!

[Clown Monarch]

I got my old computer working but the video card needs an upgrade - it's having trouble with half the new games.

The system is a 1.8 ghz AMD. I don't know exactly what mothercard I have but according to my store receipt it's a "2000+" - whatever that means. The video card is not integrated, thank God, but is a Radeon 9000 64meg 4x AGP.

What is the "4x" part? Can I use a newer card that's "8x" or "4x/8x"?

Can I buy a 256meg card? What are my constraints here?

It also has 2 RAM slots that have 2x256 in there. Can I put 2x512 in?

Can I upgrade the processor too? How much?

 

[shawmutt]

So...

you want to buy a video card, RAM, and a processor

...ok, as long as you don't want a new computer

If I were going to go through all that trouble, I would go ahead and buy a new mobo to go with those new parts. I believe you can just use your old parts and put these new parts in and make it all work. I would, however, buy a quality power supply, 400-450W, to make sure you have enough juice for all your new parts.

 

[Clown Monarch]

Yeah, I'm a cheapskate.

The computer works good except for certain games. Maybe I'll just upgrade the video card in the meantime...

 

[Atari]

Try a 9800 Pro.. it should complement the rest of the system nicely. Bear in mind most graphics cards need their own connection to the power supply now.

It's getting to the point where older systems are really starting to struggle with the latest games, and a major overhaul is the only solution.

 

[Guest]

I don't know what games you are trying to play, but a radeon 9000 should be able to handle mid range graphic games.
Like atari said, the 9800 is a good one, but its going to cost you alot. ($350 US) Another cheaper alternative would be to get a nvidia geforce fx 5700. They are about half the price and are decent for high quality games. Make sure to get one with 256 megs of ram. You should be able to add more memory to your system. If you have 512 in there now total, you shouldn't be running into other problems. I'd say just search up on www.pricewatch.com for video cards. The fx series by nvidia are good, just make sure you get the 5700 or above based on your budget.
HTH
Stewie

 

[deli_conker]

I don't think its the video card (unless it's the 9600 SE which I've heard is the "value" version). I have a 9600 XT on a p3 933 512 Mb, and it smokes "modern" games. In all honesty, I would see what programs are running in the background on your machine, kill the ones that aren't required for gaming and then see how the games perform.

I would also check to see what resolution you are playing the games in. I know it "sounds cool" to play in the highest resolution, but you should let monitor size be your guide there. Playing a game in 1800x1600 on a 17" monitor doesn't make the game look better, it makes all the "cool graphics" look smaller. Playing in higher resolutions also taxes the cards performance. If you have a large monitor where the graphics look good at a high resolution, then go ahead and do it, but if not, then turn it down.

I would also check some of the other graphic detail settings from within the game. I always check all of them out to see what they are like. Well, I usually skip the low settings but I'll test the medium, high, and uber high settings. Some of the games I have the only difference between medium and high is something small that I don't bother to enable it. It's all personal preference though. If you have to see leaves on nearby trees swaying gently to and fro from the shockwaves coming out of your chain gun while laying down cover fire for the rest of the team, well, that's your perogative. I don't bother with swaying leaves.

I'm not against buying new hardware. Who doesn't like putting in that new video card and playing games on it to see what it can do? I just can't see a reason (for me at least) to "keep up with the jones's". If you have the time and money to buy the next great thing every time one is released then by all means, indulge. But my experience has taught me that keeping my OS clean makes up for not having the latest greatest hardware available.

 

[deli_conker]

Oh yeah. You can use an 8x card in a 4x agp slot. That's what I'm doing now. It will just slow down to the 4x speed. This is port speed and not card speed. Basically it's a measure of how fast information can move from the card to the motherboard and has very little to do with the processing that happens on either side.

Your motherboard determines how much ram can go into a slot. Most modern boards support large amounts of RAM.

One thing that I've always told people looking to build or upgrade is that your pc is only as fast as the slowest component. Having 2 Gb of RAM won't help you if you're running an old 3DFx card. Find out what's slowing you down (hardware or software) and start from there.

 

[Clown Monarch]

Believe me, Deli, I HATE keeping up with the Joneses. I remember playing the original Air Warrior when Gamestorm was around. Then it was Team Fortress. These were GREAT online games with simplistic graphics. I stress playability over graphics EVERY day of the week and twice on Sunday and those games were great then, would be great now, and great 100 years from now. To give you an idea of how much I care about graphics, I have a Commodore 64 emulator on my machine so I can play M.U.L.E.

Of course I don't get to choose what the rest of the herd does. Most of the people playing these types of online wargames are teenagers I would imagine and get all worked up with "awesome graphics". Who cares if the game plays like crap as long as it looks cool?

So unless I want to play these games by myself online, I have to have a massive supercomputer that will calculate the physics of the swaying leaves :?

 

[Erik_115]

i just want to say this i want the new NVIDIA car its like the 6000+ you can play Doom 3 with it

it makes me drool when i see it

 

[shawmutt]

I just bought a new computer for my wife (well, the parts, I have to put it together) for a little over $1000. It's everything but the keyboard/mouse and software, which I already have. Here's what I got:

1 Linkworld Black/Silver ATX Mid-Tower Case with 400W power supply, Model "A319-C2628-P4" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16811164006
$40.00

3 Vantec "Stealth" Double Ball Bearing Case fan, Model "SF6025L"
Item# N82E16811999601
$6.55

1 ASUS "A8V Deluxe" VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL
Item# N82E16813131510
$135.00

1 ASUS nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB GDDR3, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, AGP 8X, Model "N6600GT/TD/128" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16814121195
$230.00

1 AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939 64-bit Processor - Retail
Item# N82E16819103501
$159.00

2 CORSAIR XMS, Xtra-Low Latency 2-2-2-5, 184-Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 w/ Platinum Heat Spreader, Model CMX512-320LPT - Retail
Item# N82E16820145521
$127.33

1 Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800JB, OEM Drive Only
Item# N82E16822144122
$ 60.00

1 KDS XF-7BK 17" Xtreme Flat CRT Monitor –RETAIL
Item# N82E16824155031
$108.95

1 SONY 16X DVD-ROM Drive, Model DDU1613, OEM
Item# N82E16827101125
$ 25.00

1 Logitech X-230 2.1 Black Speaker System -OEM
Item# N82E16836121123
$35.00

Subtotal: $ 1,065.31
Tax: $.00
Shipping & Handling: $82.82
Grand Total: $ 1,148.13

 

[draX]

shawmutt...droool. Love the mobo, love the processor...and lurrve the corsair memory! busy saving for a 512mb corsair dimm. so jealous.

 

[shawmutt]

It's basically the computer I currently have. Mines a little better, with a 3500+ processor, dvd dual-layer rw drive and the dvd-rom, and a sb audigy2 platinum card with 5.1 speakers. However the ram in mine, while still corsair, is the next step down, and the vid card is a 9800pro. My wife will be getting my ram and vid card, I'm taking the new stuff .

 

[deli_conker]

So unless I want to play these games by myself online, I have to have a massive supercomputer that will calculate the physics of the swaying leaves

I have no problem playing modern games online. Unless you're serving the game in peer to peer environment over the internet, you don't need a supercomputer for most games. Most of the games I have, the graphical settings on one players machine are independent of all the other's players. There are a couple where certain items have to match (ie realistic fog, so that all players are affected by it), but not many that I know of.

The reason for the processor and video requirements are so high on newer games is because of the graphics rendering the machine has to do, not because of the physics of games. The physics haven't changed; games still use the same math to determine collision detection as games a few years ago did. The new bells and whistles in modern games are almost all graphical needing more "power" to let corpses fall realistically (there's not nearly as much math as you would think in that, it's more parent-child object control than anything else) and to make more realistic textures over top of higher detail wire frames.

Unless you're saying that a p3 933 Mhz is closer to a supercomputer than a 1.8 Ghz AMD...

Did you ever find out what the video card was (SE or XT)?

I'm not upgrading my pc until I can't play the games I want anymore. And I do have standards as far as what I'll accept graphically. But I've found that running clean and with a good video card makes up for not having a processor that's 3 times faster than what I currently have.

Most current applications (games included) don't even come close to making use of the processors that are currently out on the market. Not too many operating systems use much of that 2Gb of hypersonic RAM you have installed. And that sound card that can play 10,000 sounds at once; yeah, because I want to hear 10,000 sounds, all at once. It's like watching a 100 year old man drive a Lamborghini on the freeway. You know he won't go faster than 50 mph. He won't push the machine to it's limits. Such is most apps.

The only exception is with video cards and the reason is because graphics (not physics) are getting more and more detailed and require faster processors to render more details in a believable (animation-wise) fashion.

Just so you know I don't meet the required (let alone recommended) requirements for the following games. Links go to game homepage or screenshots so you can see the graphics I'm talking about.

Star Wars Battlefront
Dawn of War
Battle for Middle Earth

There are more, but I don't have time to list them all (at work), but I run the above at between 90-100% of graphics options cranked with no problems and without a supercomputer.

 

[William]

2000+ means your AMD proccessor is the equivilant to a 2Ghz intel equivilant I believe.


Also, Video card. Is your Mobo's AGP slot 4x, or is it 4x/8x universal?



If its a universal, then just about anything you stick in it will work [ providing you have an necisacary power from the PSU ].

However, if its JUST a 4x slot [like my mobo] then you need to look for a AGP card thats 4x/8x and not just 8x [some cards out today only run on 8x slots]


So basicly, providing you have the right wattage in your CPU, and it produces a decent number of amps on the 12v and 3v rails...Then yes, your computer could handle a new video card.

 

[Clown Monarch]

I think my problem with MOH Pacific Assault was that my Windows Updater was running in the background during a particularly graphics-intense scene - it worked fine when I tried it yesterday, though I'm not really enamored with the game. :|


How do I turn off all the crap running in the background? I can't remember where I can select that stuff. There's seriously like 40 processes running at any given time - doing Lord knows what.

I just reset the machine so I don't have any spyware or adware. I really do need to keep it cleaner than I have been.

 

[Clown Monarch]

Battle for Middle Earth

btw, how do you like this game? This is an online game, correct?

 

[William]

Battle for Middle Earth [ Build on the SAGE 2.0 Engine ] has a extensive single player campaign, as well as online play.




As for shutting down uneededs..


Start-Run-MSCONFIG

Click the startup tab, then start unchecking boxes of programs you're sure you don't need running at startup. Things you don't need on startup are thing such as media players like Quicktime and Winamp, Therea re many other things that arn't required....Just use common sense.

 

[deli_conker]

my Windows Updater was running in the background during a particularly graphics-intense scene

That will do it. I don't let my computer automate anything. I'll update whenever I feel like it. Thank you.

Start-Run-MSCONFIG

Click the startup tab, then start unchecking boxes of programs you're sure you don't need running at startup. Things you don't need on startup are thing such as media players like Quicktime and Winamp, Therea re many other things that arn't required....

Yeah. What he said. This will work unless you are running windows 2000 and NT. You have to do it a different way if that's the case. A lot of the names you'll run into might confuse you. Check the path name (ie where the executable is located) to give you some insight. For instance, if a program named rupdt.exe (just made this up, don't look for it for real) is listed, and it lives in a folder named Real Media, chances are it's not needed to run the pc. If in doubt, don't uncheck it and if you want to experiment, only uncheck one box at a time, reboot, and make sure everything you need is working.

I haven't spent enough time playing BfME so I don't want to comment too much on it just yet. So far it's cool though.

 

[shawmutt]

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=324&dPage=1

not sure if I posted this yet, but this is the best guide I've found and it's easy to follow. I use this on all my computers.

 

[William]

my Windows Updater was running in the background during a particularly graphics-intense scene

That will do it. I don't let my computer automate anything. I'll update whenever I feel like it. Thank you.

And, no offense, but thats why we have massive viral epidemics in windows systems like all the worms that have made news recently. Windows updates provides updates that protect you from the exploits the virus/worm uses.

Because people don't patch/patch as often as they should.


So, the best protection, is to let Windows update automaticly so it can grab patches soon as their ready. You can set it to do it at 3 or 4 in the morning so it dosn't interfere