Hogfan25 Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 I'm wanting to upgrade my video card to maximize the settings for mvp and other new games. I have a 128 mb nvideo 9700 tx right now, but the newer games won't run at max. settings because of my video card is almost 3 years old. What suggestions do you guys have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitoon Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 ??? I've never heard of an Nvidia 9700 TX??? ATI has a Radeon 9700 Nvidia offers an FX5700 Which is it? At any rate, the new Nvidia 6600GT or 6800GT (or Ultra) would be awesome. On the ATI side, their new X700 and X800 lines are very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 20, 2005 Author Share Posted June 20, 2005 Oh sorry, yeah ATI Radeon 9700 TX is what i meant. So any suggestions on what to upgrade to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleMo Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 ati radeon xt, and by the way, that is good enought to run BF2 so you ought to be good. :roll: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 20, 2005 Author Share Posted June 20, 2005 Yeah i know its good enough to run BF2 but, for example i played doom and a lot of things ran in Med or low quality so i didnt get to enjoy the full effect of the game or graphics. I want a card that can run everhting on High but i dont want to pay 400 dollars either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyBlaze Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Nvidia 6600GT. It's around $160 on NewEgg.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitoon Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Well, a 9700 is a pretty powerful card, it might be the rest of your system holding it back. Other than that, an X800, X800 Pro, or X800 PE will be about the only cards that will show significant improvement over the 9700 in the ATI line. As for Nvidia, a 6600GT or 6800 or 6800 Ultra will give a boost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emil Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I got teh Radeon 9800 PRO and I can't run CS:Source on high...or mabye that has to do with the rest of my system :shrug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyBlaze Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I got teh Radeon 9800 PRO and I can't run CS:Source on high...or mabye that has to do with the rest of my system :shrug: You shouldn't have much problem running CS:S on high on a 9800 Pro. What are the rest of your specs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 Well what would i need to do then, up my memory or what? i have 512 mb now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars777 Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 What speed is your cpu what speed is your Front Side Bus runnin at what speed is your memory.....pc2100...pc2700...pc3200 or pc133 All these things need to be taken in account when getting a good graphics card.....putting a good graphics card in a low end system or even a mid range system will bottleneck the system and you will not get full performance out of that card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 2.4 mhz cpu, i have no idea about the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars777 Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Download a program called Sandra Lite from Guru3D....run the program and it will tell you all you need to know about your system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 Front side bus is running at - 4 x 133 mhz (532 mhz data rate) Memory speed is - 2 x 166 mhz (332 mhz data rate) 2.4 Mhz speed cpu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars777 Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Ok...so whats the max you can spend on a graphics card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 Well, I dont want to spend a lot but i want something that will max out the settings to high on everything on games like BF2 and Doom for example. Just give me some suggestions and i'll go from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars777 Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Well my system is a P4 2.6 1 gig of pc3200mem runnin dual channel but I still use an older Gforce5900xt.....its a dx9 card and it will run all games at max level.....Farcry....Halflife....Doom 3.......with no problems.....You can spend a lil less and get yourself a really decent card thats a year or so old.....or you can spend a lil more and get something current.......either way....to get games to run good comes down to tweaking your system and graphics card.......The current card you have now is not dx9 if its 3 years old......all games now are dx9....they make heavy use of textures and shaders......thats why games look so good.....Personally I am not an ATI fan....I have had them in the past and switched to Nivida a few years ago.....thats just me.....Anyway there are a few things to look at when comparing graphics cards.....look at the core clock and mem clock and see the numbers....on some the core might be 450 and mem 750 or something similar....also look at wether it will use pixel shader 2.0 or 3.0......also compare how many millon vertices the card will pass. All of the above should be listed in the graphics card specs when looking and comparing......So start like at newwegg and look at some of the ati cards then look at some of the Nivida cards......compare those specs and prices and make your choice. Ideally you will want something that will pass pixel shader3.0...thats the current....but 2.0 is still very good depending on the card......the higher the number of vertices the better....also the same with the core and mem clocks.....example....my card will pass 322 million vertices a sec......with a 430 core clock and 700 mem.....runnin pixel shader 2.0 and this card still works like a charm......Take peoples advice only to compare cards......but dont just run out and buy something that someone says to get. Look for yourself and compare.....but as for me and my house we will never run anything but BFG Nivida based graphics cards.....there the only company out there that offer a true lifetime warrenty on all of there cards.....other companys offer a so called lifetime warrenty but thats as long as they still have the card in stock.....if they dont you are out of luck......not with BFG...I had an older gforce 4200ti maybe 4 years old....and the card blew a resister......I just called tech support and over night they sent me the card I now still run 5900xt.....so warrenty is also important when making a decision. I wont tell you what card to get but rather tell you what to look for when shopping.....when you go this route you will also learn a few things along the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 So do you think if i just upgrade my memory, which is 512 mb now, to 1 Gig, it will make my card that i have now run everything at max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars777 Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I dont know anything about the card you have now.....rule of thumb is a gaming machine should have at the least 1 gig.....so getting more memory will never hurt you only help you......but will it make your games run like they should.....all depends on what your card can do as well.....tell me excatly what graphics card you have....model number and I will go check out the specs on that card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars777 Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I just looked at the specs of your card and by todays standards the card is weak at best......can you run an agp 8x card on your board?.....I see that your current card is agp4x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 I doubt it, but how do i find out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ticks Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 going to a gig of ram. and changing your card settings to 8x in startup bios if your board can handle it should do the trick. for around 120 bucks @ newegg.com u can get a gig of some nice corsair ram.with those system specs 8x agp and a gig of nice gaming ram u should be good to go. :new: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars777 Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 that program that you downloaded should tell you if your mobo is agp8x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hogfan25 Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 I don't see Mobo anywhere and the only thing i see is agp4x. Where do i find mobo? My memory speed is pc2700 by the way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars777 Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 well either way....if you get an agp8x card it will just run at 4x if thats all your mobo supports.....its backwards compatable.....its just a lil more of a benifit if your mobo supports agp8x....overall gain with agpx8 is really only about 10-15 percent faster than agpx4.....pc2700 is ok........ideally you would want pc3200 or larger again if your mobo can support those speeds.....but pc2700 is good......add another stick of 512 of the same would put you in a much better position.....or dump your stick of 512 and get yourself 1 stick of 1024....1gig.....either way you are in a much better position than you are now...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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