graphics card advice required - cheap

[chemdog]

upgrade for the father...

upgrade card required (30 quid ish would be nice) dont plan on spending much since big upgrade / replace approx 12 months away. (to PCI-E) - this card needs to be AGP.

currently running MSI geforce 4 mx440 which runs current games - Rome Total War & Barbarian Invasion to a satisfactory quality.however, just got age of empires 3 and system doesnt meet minimum spec

would like it to run (at normal settings - nothing spectacular required) age of empires 3. although would like to be able to run Battlefield 2 (im trying to get him into it) and need for speed most wanted at normal settings.

XP2400+ chip, 768mb ram

help appreciated.

iain

 

[ugly ferret]

I'm no expert but I'll throw my weight in anyway, seeing as no one else has . Firstly, the geforce 4 mx is a horrible card, just a faster version of the geforce 2mx, and you should never have been using it in the first place, let alone still be using it . Bin it ASAP! At least you'll see a huge leap in performance for even 30 quid, though i'm not sure you'll be able to play those games on normal settings. As I said, I'm no expert, so these aren't necessarily good recommendations, but they might give you a a starting point. Look at the geforce 6200 cards here on overclockers that start at around £42 or if you could stretch your budget to around £60 you might be able to pick up a 6600 and see a fair amount more power. As you can see, I'm an nvidia man, but the x300 (around £40) and bit more expensive x550 ati cards might be worth a look, though I can't seem to find any AGP versions, but then I'm not really looking hard .

Anyway, hope i've helped.

 

[ACESHIGH]

2nd hand 9700 - 9800 pro would be your best bet, for what youre after.

 

[chemdog]

thanks folks... now only if i had enough posts to get into the second hand section of these forums... post post post!!

 

[Cyber-Mav]

cheapest option would be a asus v9999 which is a 6800nu. cracking card for only 105 inc vat. even has shader model 3.0 which 3 days ago got a real boost in popularity.

 

[chemdog]

cheapest option would be a asus v9999 which is a 6800nu. cracking card for only 105 inc vat. even has shader model 3.0 which 3 days ago got a real boost in popularity.

105 notes seems a little over the top for a graphics card for the old man for one year. the 9600se appears to run battlefield 2, so im assuming it'll run NFSMW and AOE3. The 9700 and 9800 appears a bit more expensive again even second hand.

having a look about for cheap 9600se's which should make a considerable difference. if anyone feels like scanning the for sale forum (to which i dont yet have access - i think its 250 posts) and send me a pm if theres anything suitable / your selling something (if you can do that on this forum or email [email protected]) it would be greatly appreciated. ive had a look on a well known auction site but no luck as yet - perhaps its to well known.

cheers

Iain

 

[J1234]

I would recommend the ATI X300, im using it on my Dell dimension 5150 and it peforms fine on any games.