Which Graphics card upgrade?

[phoenix69]

Hi, I'm looking on upgrading my son's computer and seeking some advice on what graphics card i should upgrade him for around £70, considering the modest system he has.

PU Type Intel Celeron D 345J, 3066 MHz (23 x 133)

Motherboard Name Foxconn 661M03-G (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN, IEEE-1394)

System Memory 1024 MB (Kingston PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter R9200SE-DT - (128 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9200 SE (RV280)


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[james_earl]

for that budget you can get either an x1600 pro or 7600 gs available on the website for around 70. or you could try and source a second hand x850 agp from an auction site for around this price.

 

[melbourne720]

These are the best AGP Cards:-

9800 Pro(S/H), 6600 GT(S/H), 7600 GS (£76), 6800 GS(S/H), 6800 GT(S/H), X800 XT(S/H)…, 7600 GT (£96)…, x1950 Pro (£135)

 

[Cairnsey]

I bought a 7600GS and regretted it tbh. This was purley because the GT's were only £20 more but don't get me wrong, the GS is a great card (highly overclockable too ) but the GT annhililates it

Depends on usage I guess, i.e. which games he wants to play and at what settings. maybe the GT is overkill for the celeron processor.

If you went for either the GT or GS, It'll be a HUGE improvement over what you have

 

[melbourne720]

I bought a 7600GS and regretted it tbh. This was purley because the GT's were only £20 more but don't get me wrong, the GS is a great card (highly overclockable too ) but the GT annhililates it

Sell it, the GTs are cheaper than they were...

Depends on usage I guess, i.e. which games he wants to play and at what settings. maybe the GT is overkill for the celeron processor.

Although benchmarks are split between CPU and GPU, most games are GPU bound in all but the slowest CPUs (or the fastest GPUs).

If you went for either the GT or GS, It'll be a HUGE improvement over what you have

2nd'd

 

[Cairnsey]

double post

 

[Cairnsey]

Sell it, the GTs are cheaper than they were...

I RMA'd it because it was Overclockers got it wrong and advertised it as 800Mhz memory when in fact its only 700Mhz, they read the figure for RAMDAC. Plus I was within the 7 days of buying it so returned it as unwanted

Now, I don't know whether to buy the x1950 pro or just the 7600GT until I do a full upgrade Concerned about power reqiurements for x1950 pro, however, if i return it within 7 days......

 

[melbourne720]

If you can afford a full upgrade I recommend it. What do you want your new/upgraded rig for specifically? CoH and Oblivion, or CoD & Battlefield 2?

 

[Cairnsey]

playing BF2142 at the mo.. thinking of upgrading to one of those asrock boards so i can keep all my components bar the CPU, which will be a e4300 But then I'd have the PCI-e option...

 

[melbourne720]

Sounds like a good idea. The e4300 seems to be the chip of the moment. And RAM is so expensive that if you can reuse your old RAM then you'll upgrade for very little money.

 

[Cairnsey]

sorry for hijacking but what would be your upgrade route melborne, if you were me? would you first:

1) Get a good AGP card (x1950 Pro) and see how I get on with new games like bf2142 ut2007 etc

2) Get the mobo and c2d and stick with my old 9700pro until a cheap dx10 card comes out?

or any other suggestions?