recommend me a graphics card

degoose · 11 Dec 2007 at 10:09

Hi everyone, id thought id ask you folks on here about recommending a graphics card for my stsem, its not an amazing machine but fairly decent and i was wanting to upgrade my graphics card to something a bit more powerful

i currently have :

AMD 64 3000 2ghz

1gb ram

My motherboard does not have pci e slots as my current card is a 6600gt agp card, so i know this limits the options now as most people are on the newer pci-e motherboards

Any help would be great or if theres any more info needed just ask

thanks

4T5 · 11 Dec 2007 at 10:11

Another Gig of Ram & a 7600Gt would be my advice.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-088-LT&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

Biffa · 11 Dec 2007 at 10:12

AGP 1950Pro 512MB unless you are stuck on staying nvidia. Unfortunately there isn't much available in the high end AGP range after the 1950Pro which just about tops it out.

Not sure why you would want 2Gb of memory unless you were really struggling in something like photoshop or if you were running vista

Teaf · 11 Dec 2007 at 10:14

7600 GT, or the X1950 Pro if you wanna spend a little bit more.

Ewanb75 · 11 Dec 2007 at 10:22

Cant fault the 1950pro, good card. Or try the 2600xt tis cheaper.

Randell · 11 Dec 2007 at 10:35

Biffa said:
Not sure why you would want 2Gb of memory unless you were really struggling in something like photoshop or if you were running vista

depends on the game. Certainly since Battlefied 2 2gig can make a difference.

degoose · 11 Dec 2007 at 11:08

hmm sounds good, ive had a check on this one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-137-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=403

which seems pretty good, i can afford it no probs, do you think id get a good jump in fps, seems like it from the reviews

J.D · 11 Dec 2007 at 11:19

degoose said:
hmm sounds good, ive had a check on this one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-137-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=403

which seems pretty good, i can afford it no probs, do you think id get a good jump in fps, seems like it from the reviews

A 6600GT was about the equivalent of the 9800Pro if I remember correctly and the X1950Pro is about 3.5 - 4 times more powerful than the 9800Pro

. I've had the 9800Pro to the X800 and then to the X1900XT and my jump was about double each time. So with 4 times more oomph then it's going to be a good experience. If you are gaming at 1280x1024 or lower then you will be CPU bound in a few games I'd imagine so the more you overclock (The CPU) the better

. If it was me then I'd keep my eye out for a dual core CPU and overclock it a little to help that X1950Pro. Don't worry too much about it though, it's just a little pointer if you start to experience less FPS/points than you are seeing in benchmarks. It will most likely be down to being CPU bound.

gareth170 · 11 Dec 2007 at 11:38

u could wait for the 3850 agp to come out...

degoose · 11 Dec 2007 at 11:39

J.D said:
A 6600GT was about the equivalent of the 9800Pro if I remember correctly and the X1950Pro is about 3.5 - 4 times more powerful than the 9800Pro . I've had the 9800Pro to the X800 and then to the X1900XT and my jump was about double each time. So with 4 times more oomph then it's going to be a good experience. If you are gaming at 1280x1024 or lower then you will be CPU bound in a few games I'd imagine so the more you overclock (The CPU) the better . If it was me then I'd keep my eye out for a dual core CPU and overclock it a little to help that X1950Pro. Don't worry too much about it though, it's just a little pointer if you start to experience less FPS/points than you are seeing in benchmarks. It will most likely be down to being CPU bound.

well i always played my games at 1024 x 768 res so i dont mind sticking to that, if im going to see a good leap then it looks like it might be worth it as i dont want to go all out and do a pci-e upgrade yet

J.D · 11 Dec 2007 at 11:43

degoose said:
well i always played my games at 1024 x 768 res so i dont mind sticking to that, if im going to see a good leap then it looks like it might be worth it as i dont want to go all out and do a pci-e upgrade yet

Oh you will surely see a considerable amount of difference

. You'll be thinking it's December the 25th after playing your favourite/most current game no matter what day it really is lol.

Is your CPU Socket 939 or Socket 754?. If it's Socket 939 then you could always buy a cheap X2 dual core to boost your current system.

degoose · 11 Dec 2007 at 11:55

J.D said:
Oh you will surely see a considerable amount of difference . You'll be thinking it's December the 25th after playing your favourite/most current game no matter what day it really is lol.

Is your CPU Socket 939 or Socket 754?. If it's Socket 939 then you could always buy a cheap X2 dual core to boost your current system.

yep i believe its a 939 but ill double check later , i was aware that it could be upgraded at least to a 3700 at the time of buying it, but i know some boards can be flashed to accept more powerful processors

degoose · 12 Dec 2007 at 12:08

thanks for all the help, also i just want to check i had a 350 psu and figured i needed an upgrade is a 500 psu good for the x1950, by the way ive ordered the x1950

looking forward to using this.

J.D · 12 Dec 2007 at 13:07

NP Degoose

. Just make sure the PSU you buy does 26Amps on the 12v rail or 30amps to be really safe.

Good luck with the new card

.

degoose · 12 Dec 2007 at 13:33

J.D said:
NP Degoose . Just make sure the PSU you buy does 26Amps on the 12v rail or 30amps to be really safe.

Good luck with the new card .

hmmm the one ive picked up does 20 on the 12v rail, is this not good enough, at all if not i better pickup a different one.

J.D · 12 Dec 2007 at 13:38

degoose said:
hmmm the one ive picked up does 20 on the 12v rail, is this not good enough, at all if not i better pickup a different one.

How many 12volt rails does it have?. If it's only one then yes you need another PSU. If it has multi rails then it should say 12v1, 12v2 etc. So if it has 12v1 @ 20Amps and 12v2 @ 20Amps then that should be fine. If not then it's going to cost you about £30-40

.

degoose · 12 Dec 2007 at 13:59

J.D said:
How many 12volt rails does it have?. If it's only one then yes you need another PSU. If it has multi rails then it should say 12v1, 12v2 etc. So if it has 12v1 @ 20Amps and 12v2 @ 20Amps then that should be fine. If not then it's going to cost you about £30-40 .

im not a genius on this whole psu side of things so thank you for the help

on the box it states
+3.3v +5v +12v -5v -12v +5vsb
36a 36a 20a 1a 1a 2a
+5% +5% +5% +5% +10% +5%

does that make any sense lol

degoose · 12 Dec 2007 at 15:06

ok found a solution as i have researched into this, it seems i need a 700w psu really to make sure this works perfectly .

J.D · 12 Dec 2007 at 17:04

degoose said:
ok found a solution as i have researched into this, it seems i need a 700w psu really to make sure this works perfectly .

It doesn't work like that. It's all about the amps.

Here are some links to 2 PSU's. The first one is £6 cheaper and the specs are in the second link.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=ca-089-an&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=103

http://www.antec.com/specs/bp500u_spe.html

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

This is the slightly dearer one but I'd recommend spending the extra £6 for this.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Both these PSU's will run that X1950 no problems what so ever but I'd go for the Corsair if it was my choice.

Randell · 12 Dec 2007 at 21:07

degoose said:
ok found a solution as i have researched into this, it seems i need a 700w psu really to make sure this works perfectly .

not true as stated above me. I run 2x1950's in crossfire, an X2 4200 and 3 HDD's on a 480W PSU. My current system is still on that PSU.