How do! I'm interested in upgrading my current graphics card and wondered what advice you all might be able to offer My system is : Athlon 2800, 1Gb Ram, ATI 9600Pro 128Mb. The PSU output is 400 Watts so in the cards I'm looking at power shouldn't be a problem. My primary constraints are : Interface - must be AGP Price - <= £150 I'm thinking in terms of an nVidia 6600GT 256, but I'm open to suggestions. How would this compare? Is it worth it? Should I look at another component first? Tia, Losername.
Yep the 6600GT will be good, the ATi X700 range are also good but they're not quite as fast as the 6600GTs.
Thanks for the quick reply Addis. Do you think this card would be fully utilised in my system and would you have any specific manufacturers to avoid/look for? Thanks again. Losername [EDIT:] Forgot to ask - do you also think it would be worthwhile getting the 256Mb version or will the 128 be sufficiently quicker than my current card? [/EDIT]
The 256MB will be useful if you like to play at high resolutions with eye candy turned up. If not, 128MB will play stuff like Doom 3 fine at 1024x768 for you. The Radeon 9600 is alright, but it does have limitations. While you may not get the absolute fullest potential from that card, it will be a big improvement over the 9600. You'd probably have to upgrade to a higher-end Athlon 64 before the graphics became the bottle neck, but if you're going to do that, you'll want to get a motherboard with a PCIe x16 slot on it and go that route.
Many thanks for that. I'm looking at a Leadtek one now, and I'll have to see what the budget will stretch to (eye candy or no eye candy!?) Don't think I'm quite in the market for a new box yet, but I'm gonna work on it... Cheers for now, Losername.
Leadtek's pricing isn't the cheapest, and if you want that, look at XFX, eVGA or Chaintech for the GeForce stuff. For the X700, look at Sapphire or PowerColor.
