Need some Gfx card advice

[desm0nd]

Hello,

I am looking to buy a new graphics card for my slightly outdated computer. The games I play are World of Warcraft, Dawn of War 2, and I expect I will pickup some newer FPS' soonish.

My System Specs:

AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 3800+ Processor
4GB RAM
Nvidia 8600GT (ugh...)
my PSU is 250W or something. (Not too sure)

Bottom line is, I'm slightly worried about the space within my case. I need a GOOD graphics card which is going to last me a while, and ensure that I am getting very good performance in games. Top priority is World of Warcraft.

Pictures of inside my case:

- http://i40.tinypic.com/m7dtmh.jpg
- http://i40.tinypic.com/2poe8v6.jpg

My other issue is PSU. I feel that I'm not going to have enough power to power a decent graphics card. Also the price range is around £150 (including a new PSU if need be). Will go over if it is really worth it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Vince]

That card looks to be of the AGP variety, your best bet and the most powerful AGP card is the 3850 (comes in at 56% of your budget at a competitor, overclockers don't have any in), that gives you 65 quid with which you could probably get both a decent enough psu and a little more ram.

Job done.

 

[95thrifles]

more RAM? he's got 4 gig thats fine
re your upgrade, tbh youre going to struggle, Id suggest its time to think about a new system, scrape together as much cash as you can and look in the clearance section of the shop, theres quite a few good deals to be had
Oh and welcome to the forums

 

[desm0nd]

That card looks to be of the AGP variety, your best bet and the most powerful AGP card is the 3850 (comes in at 56% of your budget at a competitor, overclockers don't have any in), that gives you 65 quid with which you could probably get both a decent enough psu and a little more ram.

Job done.

I bought the card in. There was orginally no Gfx card in the PC. There is an onboard Nvidia 6000 (something) on it. I'm not really very PC savvy, so the only thing I know is that it is a PCI-E slot for my gfx card.

Is the 3850 really much of an upgrade for me in terms of performance? Cheers for your advice.

more RAM? he's got 4 gig thats fine
re your upgrade, tbh youre going to struggle, Id suggest its time to think about a new system, scrape together as much cash as you can and look in the clearance section of the shop, theres quite a few good deals to be had
Oh and welcome to the forums

Yeah I was worrying that was the case. I would like a temporary boost in performance for the moment though. WoW is the game I play the most, and my FPS in it is quite low... And thanks for the welcome!

 

[Vince]

if its pci-e then your upgrade will be cheaper, I have a AGP 6800gt, don't know wether thats equivilant to yours but the 3850 was a marked improvement. However there are cards due out in a few days (4770) that look very very promising indeed.

 

[desm0nd]

if its pci-e then your upgrade will be cheaper, I have a AGP 6800gt, don't know wether thats equivilant to yours but the 3850 was a marked improvement. However there are cards due out in a few days (4770) that look very very promising indeed.

I'm not too sure if it's PCI-E though. How can I check this out? Also, can I just buy any gfx card (take 9800GTX for example) and stick it in assuming I have enough power from my PSU. Only other issue is the fact that I have around 9-9.5 inches maximum space for a new gfx card.

 

[Vince]

Sorry im not having a great day here... that last post by myself was mostly crap. the 8600gt is not a bad card, although something along the lines of:

8800 GT
ATI 4830
or a
GTS 250
ATI 4850

are going to give you good performance gains. however afaik wow is very cpu bound so you might not get great performance gains while playing. Possibly some wow players might help you out here.

 

[psychas]

it should say beside the slot if it and agp or pci-e. well new motherboards say it im not sure about old ones.

also agp slot was usually brown back in days.

download gpu-z should show exactly what it is

ps: u need better psu for 3850, gt250, 4850, or 9800 it would not handle it

 

[desm0nd]

Thanks for the help guys. Just downloaded GPU-Z and my Bus Interface is PCI-E x16 @ x8.

So now the question is. What card + PSU is going to be best bang for the buck for me?

 

[95thrifles]

Ahh if you have PCI-E thats easier to upgrade thought you had AGP

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £98.99 (£86.08)
Seasonic Silverpower 400W Power Supply £45.99 (£39.99)
Sub Total : £126.07
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £20.41
Total : £156.48

This will destroy what you currently have (in a nice way)

 

[desm0nd]

Ahh if you have PCI-E thats easier to upgrade thought you had AGP

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £98.99 (£86.08)
Seasonic Silverpower 400W Power Supply £45.99 (£39.99)
Sub Total : £126.07
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £20.41
Total : £156.48

This will destroy what you currently have (in a nice way)

Took your word for it and bought both of them beasts. Thanks a lot for your kind and considerate help!

 

[KraniX]

Welcome to the forum desmond, don't forget to come back and tell us how you got on, have you run any benchmarks on your current setup so we can compare after the change?

 

[Sasahara]

Not sure if you'll get a great improvement as already said wow is a cpu killer.

I had an x2 3800+ with a 7800GTX and had my 8800GTX in it for a month before I upgraded the rest of my system.

I got around a 15-25% improvement.