[gritbox]

hi people. i have a dell d4600 and currently only have a geforce 5200 128mb bit card. what should i be looking to upgrade it to if i want to be able to play FEAR when it comes out? is it complicated as ram or will any good card work in my pc? also, is geforce a good make? whats the best kind to get for gaming that will work in my comp? thanks

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ive been hearing about pci express but i dont think my dell 4600 card will support pci express. would it be worthwhile upgrading from a gforce 128mb card to some kind of 256 agp? would that be sufficient for FEAR when it comes out, coupled with my intel p4 3.2ghz pro and 1.5gb ddr ram?

[gritbox]

ive been hearing about pci express but i dont think my dell 4600 card will support pci express. would it be worthwhile upgrading from a gforce 128mb card to some kind of 256 agp? would that be sufficient for FEAR when it comes out, coupled with my intel p4 3.2ghz pro and 1.5gb ddr ram?

[warriorscot]

As long as you have an AGP slot then any AGP card will do fine, try and get a x800 or 6800 card if you can for the best performance.

[gritbox]

ok so all i look for in it is an agpx8 (mine can support it def), 256mbs and a gforce. yeah? nothin else i need to look for? i tae it it will be ok on my motherboard! do you need to worry about whether or not it can support flatscreen monitors or can they all? also, a tv tuner. if its got a tv tuner does this mean i can plug the aerial from my sky box into it and i canw atch telly on the pc? ive been thinking about getting a tv card so i could kill 2 birds with one stone here?

thanks

[gritbox]

the guy at dell has just told me im limited to a 128mb card, thats gutting!!!!! can i install another 128 card to run alongside my current card? nah thats just daft. thats crap!!!

[warriorscot]

bollocks ive never heard of a mobo that was limited to a 128mb gfx card even the ime and tiny pre builts dont have a limit on there gfx card memory size. you would have to specificaly alter a board not to take a 128mb card and i cant believe dell would go that low. Well a 6600GT while over priced in my opinion would do if you are limited to a 128mb card although im still doubtful of that. You could connect the sky box in if you had an adapter but a usb tv box would be a better way to do it while these video cards can have use vivo its not something you idealy want to use all the time as you generally lack the software for watching the sky telly, i also dont know how the encryption would like being run through a pc. A card or usb box is the best thing for telly to guarantee it works.

[gritbox]

ok thanks a lot for your help by the way i appreciate it. ok so you think i could very well put in a 256mb card and it will work fine? if i do that and it doesnt work could i send it back, no? ok so its best forgetting about my new gfx card supplyin the telly, best to go for a hauppage win usb thing or something? i mean its daft to think a p4 3.2ghz pc with 1.5gb ddr ram can only have a 128 graphics card! what do i need to look for to see if its compatible with my pc then? will any card work in any pc? ive seen ddr3 mentioned what is that?

thanks again

[warriorscot]

You idealy want a ddr3 card thast the best memory there is at the moment also expensive in the first place so for card manufacturers have had to lower there profit margin to introduce it so its worth getting it. Depending on where you buy the card from if there is a local shop with a no quible returns get any 256 from them and try it and take it back or if you have a friend with one ask them to bring it over and you can try it, good excuse for a lan party as well actually. Yeah the usb tv adapters get the best reviews

[gritbox]

ok i dont really know how it works. does the memory on the card need to be same type of memory as in my machine? see the 256mb, is that the card that has 256 or does it take 256 from my machines ram? if ive got normal ddr ram, the ddr3 card will still work? the 6800 looks to be about 300 dollars which is maybe a little higher than i was hoping to spend. are there no other good cards maybe a little cheaper? or is it maybe best selling my current pc and getting one made up custom built? id rather have my dell i think but if its not going t let me get a better gfx card then im going to need to start buying a new mobo, so maybe cheaper in long run getting a custom built one built from scratch?

cheers

ps are you from glasgow, no?

[gritbox]

i mean. to play FEAR and games of the same spec when they come out, what kind of card am i going to need and what are the important things to look for? all i know is to go for at least 256mb and preferably ati or nvidia. is that the case? ddr 3 too, which should work on my pc. is the : MSI NX6200-TD256 Geforce 6200 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail
any good?

[warriorscot]

jh

Edited by warriorscot, 26 July 2005 - 10:36 AM.

[warriorscot]

It has nothing to do with your system ram it will take a small amount as all cards do but its nothing to do with the sizew of memory the card has. The only two requirements for a gfx card are you have the slot and you have the power for it, usually. x800s are good cards and retail from 130 quid to 200. about the same power as a 6800gt.
No polmont just outside falkirk.

[gritbox]

ah ok. well, the dell woman is just off the fone and says if i put anything in higher than 128 mb it will either just stay at 128mb or not work at all. do you think she's DEF talkin rubbish?

[ThunderT]

To answer your most recent question, the 256MB memory card should work without a problem. The motherboard doesn't care how much memory is on your video card, it just sends information to the card and the card's memory controller takes care of storing stuff in memory.

To answer your other question, no the Geforce 6200 is not what you want. A lot of video card manufacturers are releasing dumbed down cards with lots of video memory and then they get marketed based on how much memory they have. The analogy that comes to mind is putting 2GB of RAM in a Pentium II and expecting it to run as fast (or faster) as a Pentium 4 with 512MB of RAM. The quality of the graphics core is much more important than the amount of memory that comes with it. Most good graphics cards come with at least 128MB of RAM these days, so I would recommend you concentrate on GPU (graphics processor unit).

This comparison chart from Tom's Hardware should give you a good sense of current AGP video cards and their relative performance to each other. Keep in mind to pay attention to the specs of the benchmarking computer, as they are often faster than the ones that most users have.

How much money do you want to spend on your new video card? I wouldn't recommend anything lower than the Geforce 6600 models, and that's stretching it. I'm not familiar with the specs for FEAR, but you will want at least a 6800 (or a X800) to future-proof your machine - otherwise, you will be happy for about a year, and then you'll want another video card!

[gritbox]

ok. i dont want to spend more than £130 on it. afterall, if i can build a new pc for relatively cheap whats the point in forking out for one card? if i do buy the card u suggest, and i have 1.5bg ddr ram and a p4 3.2ghz pc, will my comp be up to date for a good wee while then?

cheers