Video Card Upgrade

[lmimmfn]

Re: How well will my comp. run BF2?

The last upgrade I MAY consider before buying that gaming computer is upgrading the processor to something around 3.0-3.2 ghz and maybe dual layering 2 1 Gig RAMs. Would this ever be worth it in like a year? Or would that money be better spent on that gaming pc (keeping in mind my specs after the intial upgrade)

You have the pretty much the same setup as i had, old original setup last November:
Dell 4600
P4 2.4 Ghz
Nvidia 5200 128Mb AGP x8
Intel 865PE Mobo
512Mb PC2100 RAM
Mobo Sound Card
40 Gig Maxtor ATA 7200Rpm Hard drive
PSU dunno, standard for 4600

Setup Now:
Dell 4600( Grrr still )
P4 2.4Ghz( grrrrr again )
Radeon X850Pro( OC'd with 16 pipelines open and 520GPU/600Mem ) and added a Zalmann Fatal1ty Fan to it for cooling
Intel 865PE Mobo
2 Gig PC3200U 3.0-3-3-8 RAM
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
40Gb & 160Gb Maxtor ATA 7200Rpm Hard drive
PSU - Same crap one
I upgraded RAM incrementally( 512 - 1024 - 2Gb ), youre better off upgrading to 1Gb RAM and using what you save to put it towards the GFX card, dont want to confuse the issue but if you can get it cheap search around for an X800 Pro GTO2, has great OC'ing ability an i was going to get that card initially only got vouchers from work and only had to put 80Euro with them for X850Pro
1Gb RAM will just mean that when you load a game for the first 10 seconds it will be jerky( note you'll have to tweak XP down to using about 150Mb to get this ), but it is definately not bad to only have 1Gb

Btw, if youre upgrading you can get Mobo's that take AGP and LG775 intel processors, i.e. theyre basically Intel 865 compliand MObo's. Thats going to be my next upgrade, but ill hold off a while, also with a 2.4Ghz Intel if its like mine the mem will be under used as if you use dual ram it'll only be at 533FSB whereas a faster CPU will give you 800FSB, also when getting RAM get it faster than your CPU spec in case you upgrade CPU later( thats what i did, at leas till have a bit of an option, would prefer DDR2 RAM though )

Does anyone out there know if i can upgrade my Dell PSU as id like to upgrade it considering the amount of stuff i have on my machine now

[NUTZ_J98]

Re: How well will my comp. run BF2?

Here go with this card (ATI X1300 for $99.00) and you can pull of them high settings as long as the ram is sufficient.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102687

I personally prever Nvidia put you said 100 bucks.

[datakillx99]

Re: How well will my comp. run BF2?

How do you mod Windows XP to use the least amount of memory possible?

Oh and I've decided on the 6600GT. I'm willing to spend an extra $35 for this. As for only upgrading to 1 gig I suppose I will do that as I saw on TechTV that they tested memory over 1 Gig and it didnt improve immensely.

[datakillx99]

Video Card Upgrade

Hi, I'm sure several of you have read my post on my plans to upgrade my computer. If not,these are my current plans:

-Albatron Geforce 6600GT
-Silencer 410 Dell-2 PSU
-Kingston 512 RAM (PC2700)

I have just seen a Visiontek Radeon X1300 512 MB AGP in the Circuit City ad for $150 after $30 mfr and a $20 Mail-in rebate. Compared to the 6600 GT, how good is this card? Which one gets more bang for the buck? Thanks a lot ^_^

[imported_TheDragon]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

Hi, I'm sure several of you have read my post on my plans to upgrade my computer. If not,these are my current plans:

-Albatron Geforce 6600GT
-Silencer 410 Dell-2 PSU
-Kingston 512 RAM (PC2700)

I have just seen a Visiontek Radeon X1300 512 MB AGP in the Circuit City ad for $150 after $30 mfr and a $20 Mail-in rebate. Compared to the 6600 GT, how good is this card? Which one gets more bang for the buck? Thanks a lot ^_^

hmmm
not sure that is a good choice
I have x1800xl which in many ways
is not much better than the x850/x800
and as I recall, all the ones LESS than x1800
were NOT nearly as good
so . . . . using that as a baseline
get the x800xl (which my son uses and has avg 90fps)
(they are now about $175 without rebate)

[UNDIESRULES]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

6600gt is still better than the x1300. Id think about doubling my ram first if i were you, youd notice more of a difference.

[vets.Sarge]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

The 6600gt has 8 pipelines compared to 4 on the x1300, while the clockspeed difference isn't as big.

In simple terms:

6600gt > x1300

By far. BF2 won't run smoothly on anything higher than low with an x1300 :)

Also, get some pc3200 ram! 1 gig of it!

[datakillx99]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

Haha, trust me I'd love to but my mobo doesnt support that. However, later this week I will have 1 gig total of pc2700 ram so I hope thatll help :)

[Master Josh]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

you deffenetly must chose a geforces card asus has crap cards so GEFORCE is the KEYWORD

[dontshoot@bob]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

Haha, trust me I'd love to but my mobo doesnt support that. However, later this week I will have 1 gig total of pc2700 ram so I hope thatll help :)

So you only had 512MB of RAM to start :hmm:
Im surprised you got it to run at all.

I got all settings on high with full AA & AF and max resolution and after playin with Skype on etc, my max RAM usage is about 1.7GB

Done a lot of research of graphics cards lately and i'd recommend going for one with the highest possible active pixelpipelines.
This way it can transfer more data/sec and isn't so dependant on GPU speeds.

Recently got an AGP Radeon X800XL with 16 pipes for a friend and he says it runs great!! Stock speed of that card was 400/490

[Master Josh]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

very nice cards

[dontshoot@bob]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

very nice cards

Thanx dude!!!

Totally amazed by my own X800GTO2
stock speed was 400/490 but O/C to 580/594 stable. That's nearly a 50% increase on the GPU.

BF2 looks soooooo good now!!
When walking along in the grass it looks so real you can almost smell it :laugh: :laugh:

[datakillx99]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

w00t! I just bought 512 RAM for a total of 1 gig I wouldve bought more but my pc only supports 1 gig Um I do have another question however. I looked a little bit online and talked to a PC tech at circuit city about this: Will my 250w power supply be able to support the 6600gt without problems? I'd rather not spend $120 on a psu

[vets.Sarge]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

w00t! I just bought 512 RAM for a total of 1 gig I wouldve bought more but my pc only supports 1 gig Um I do have another question however. I looked a little bit online and talked to a PC tech at circuit city about this: Will my 250w power supply be able to support the 6600gt without problems? I'd rather not spend $120 on a psu

250watt is a little low, and I doubt that it would have many amps either.

Ask yourself: "Do I want to buy myself a new computer because my crappy psu sizzled my pc?"

However, 120 dollar is way to much, You could easily pick up a quality low-power PSU for around 60 dollars or, if you're short on cash, Just any average PSU.

I'll go look for a suitable one for you after I'm done writing this..

The 6600gt should be fine for BF2. Expect nice and smooth performance on medium settings.

Have fun

Edit: Crap, you've got a Dell.. Ok, hang on..

Double edit: Sorry mate, I don't have much experience with Dell PSUs. If I were you I'd just toss the mobo, PSU, and case and get standard non-Dell (atx) components :p

[exhilator]

Re: Video Card Upgrade

Don't worry about the PSU. Before replacing my broken 9800 Pro with a 6600 GT, I asked for some help about the 250w PSU on the Dell support forums, anyway Dell underrates their PSUs and I as well as other people run the 6600 GT perfectly on a 250w psu.