Upgrading Graphics card

Troublesome

Soo I wanna upgrade my graphics card, and maybe a few other things.

I have about £80 to spend on a new graphics card, I did look in PC world but I wasn't sure what would be worth the money.

Atm i got:
AMD Sempron processor 3000+ 1.8GHz
1GB RAM
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series


I could do with a new pc but yea I can't really afford to get one.. My parents don't trust me building one and package pcs are to over priced.

Lord Deco

Stay clear off retail shops mate....nothing but thrash in them...

What games do you want to play?

What graphics card do you have now?

Your pc is pci express isnt it?

Your doing the right thing in terms of what your looking to spend as your pc will bottleneck the latest €180 plus cards....


http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4M63&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,11 8400GS €46 Delivered....

Not a bad card,can play the latest games at low settings,will play older games like fear,far cry,wow etc with ease...

Lord Deco

€80 though you said 50....

You can get a lovely 7600gt for that....

http://cgi.ebay.ie/NVIDIA-GeForce-7600GT-PCIE-PCI-E-256MB-SLI-PCI-Express_W0QQitemZ230207162936QQihZ013QQcategoryZ3762QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

What did they have in Pc World?

TerrorFirmer

Will have pci-e slot, sounds like a cheap HP/PB/etc machine. Another 512mb of ram if you've a slot free, if not, change one of the occupying 512's to a 1gb stick. Good card Deco's linked to, no point going any higher owing to both power constraints and bottlenecking. Not a bad card either, I used to have one temporarily and Call of Duty 2 ran at 1280x1024 max settings in Dx7 mode. Major improvement on the Xpress 200.

If you won't be upgrading for a long time, find out if that cpu is socket 754 or 939 - should be easy find a better one second hand on adverts.ie for either socket that'll be much better then the 3000+ Sempron that'll kick a bit of life into it. Power supply is probably about 250w, but should be capable of powering a 7600Gt or maybe an 8600Gt in the event of getting a new cpu, both of which are excellent for the games of yesteryear (half life 2, battlefield 2) and decent at some of the latest games (quake wars, cod4, etc). If you're not getting a new cpu, the 8600 would be wasted, though a 7600Gt will be fine even with the 3000+. Though, it costs much more then the 8400, so again, only an option if you're looking to make the best of a situation that definitely won't see a new machine for quite some time.

In fact, don't forget to check adverts.ie before you hit retail shops and online stores. You can get some good deals there, should be able rope a 7600Gt for under 50 euro, and a gig of ddr ram for 30-40. And a new processor for the same if you decent to opt that way too and make the best of your current hardware.

What machine do you currently have?

Troublesome

Lord Deco wrote: »

Stay clear off retail shops mate....nothing but thrash in them...

What games do you want to play?

What graphics card do you have now?

Your pc is pci express isnt it?

Your doing the right thing in terms of what your looking to spend as your pc will bottleneck the latest €180 plus cards....


http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4M63&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,11 8400GS €46 Delivered....

Not a bad card,can play the latest games at low settings,will play older games like fear,far cry,wow etc with ease...

ATI XPRESS is onboard video which is also PCI-E, boards with ATI XPRESS come with an extra PCI-E slot for adding a proper video card.

Im from the UK guys.

Lord Deco

Troublesome wrote: »

ATI XPRESS is onboard video which is also PCI-E, boards with ATI XPRESS come with an extra PCI-E slot for adding a proper video card.

Im from the UK guys.

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/668/875/-/3360635/Zotac-nFire-Geforce-8600GT-256MB-128bit-PCI-E-Graphics-Card/Product.html?searchtype=genre

8600gt £60,not sure wheter a 8600gt or 7600gt would be better in your current system,Havok?

Troublesome

Lord Deco wrote: »

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/668/875/-/3360635/Zotac-nFire-Geforce-8600GT-256MB-128bit-PCI-E-Graphics-Card/Product.html?searchtype=genre

8600gt £60,not sure wheter a 8600gt or 7600gt would be better in your current system,Havok?

An 8600 with that mobo would be retarded tbf

Lord Deco

Troublesome wrote: »

An 8600 with that mobo would be retarded tbf

True.....

I think the 8400gs for £32 delivered is very good value...

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4M63&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=8400&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

7600gt is still the way to go though,only £50