Help with graphic card for this old rig

[rob77]

Hi

My girlfriends graphic card has decided to break so am looking to replace it for her. I was an old ati model and just wondered what would be the best graphic card I could buy for it without the cpu and ram bottlenecking it.

Its a maxdata pc with:

Pentium 4 3.28ghz cpu
1gb ddr2 533mhz pc4200
16x pci-e slot

She doesnt really want to upgrade anything else just the graphics for a bit of light gaming at a probable res of 1280x720. Any advice would be most welcome

Cheers

 

[coupe69]

budget?

 

[rob77]

Probably upto about £70 or so if its worth it

 

[coupe69]

Something like an ATi 4830 or 4850 if her psu is up to the task, if not maybe a new ECO 9800GT which takes all the power it needs from the slot. Any of those will be more than good enough for the resolution you require it to run at.

If you want something even cheaper perhaps have a look at the 4670 as well

 

[rob77]

Thanks coupe69

PSU inside is a 300w. Looks like a cheap one and made by delta electronics. +12v 18A, +5v 30A and +3.3v 28A. There is a caution on it saying +5v and +3.3v output cannot exceed 195w. Old graphic card is an x600pro 256mb

I'm guessing them graphic cards would draw too much power and need a PSU upgrade aswell?

Cheers

 

[coupe69]

Thanks coupe69

PSU inside is a 300w. Looks like a cheap one and made by delta electronics. +12v 18A, +5v 30A and +3.3v 28A. There is a caution on it saying +5v and +3.3v output cannot exceed 195w. Old graphic card is an x600pro 256mb

I'm guessing them graphic cards would draw too much power and need a PSU upgrade aswell?

Cheers

Yeah you guess right, you might want to have a look at the 4670 then as that doesn't require any more power.

 

[rob77]

Thanks coupe69 seems like the best card I think. I'll have a word with her see if she wants to upgrade the psu aswell.

 

[coupe69]

No probs, yes I wouldn't spend too much on it, especially if you only want to run it at that res.

 

['Wes]

I reckon you're girlfriend should consider upgrading the ram to at most 2-3GB, get a 650W PSU and a GTS 250 at either 512MB or 1GB.

 

[PwnDirect]

I would say get a Radeon HD 4770 very low power draw & same performance as a 4830/50


ohh & as said get more ram you would be better of buying a matched pair, cheak what the mobo will support

 

[brendan]

get her another ram stick at the same time

 

[rob77]

Thanks for the replys guys

So would it be worth it in your opinion actually upgrading the psu and ram (i see its quite cheap for the pc4200 type) and then getting a better graphic card? Would the cpu not hold it back at all?

 

[rob77]

Shes decided to go for the 4670 which should meet her needs and wouldnt require a new PSU. I'll probably put in a couple of sticks of ddr2 whilst im upgrading it (2x1gb).

 

[arc@css]

4670, good simple and cheaper choice.

 

['Wes]

Good choice.