'Sup forum community, this is my first post on this forum.
I would like to know if I can buy any real good gaming graphic card less than or equal to 120$. Wich to buy AGP or PCI? and what’s the difference?
your motherboard does not have PCI-Express x16. It has AGPx8 and PCI. AGPx8 (2gb/s) and PCI (266mb/s) so I would go for an AGP graphics card because as you can see the AGP bus supports more bandwidth.
AGP 8x
A 32-bit channel operating at 66 MHz, strobing eight times per clock, elivering an effective 533 MHz resulting in a maximum data rate of 2133MB/s (2 GB/s) Source
Hm, that’s right, very explicit, thanks!
So, I gotta decide by something working with AGP 8x.
What do y’all recommend?
… Im also thinkin to get new 2RAM cards, each 2gb, gettin a total of 4GB of DDR, thats enough, right? and what you recommend?
example:to playing CS:Source at a smoothly 80-100 fps
well it depends on your OS as XP 32bit will only use about 3GB of RAM
you’d probably be better with a combo upgrade including CPU, mobo, RAM & gfx obviously not forgetting probably the most important part too: the PSU, i could ramble on about how important a high quality PSU is, but take a look at the PSU Sticky
BTW: by only upgrading the RAM you will be creating huge bottlenecks of the other components
Due to my money ammount I cant afford all this stuff in one time. So I want to upgrade my computer for gaming, I think I would start by graphic card and RAM, Im working with 32bit windows XP version. What you suggest?
The problem with that plan is that when you get around to upgrading the motherboard, it most likely won’t have an AGP slot, meaning you can’t use the graphics card.
true, however, most new mobo’s you can buy come with integrated VGA (onboard gfx) and a PCIe slot, so, if you are willing to endure the usually crappy onboard gfx for a while, then you can upgrade the gfx later by disablling onboard gfx in BIOS and add a PCIe card, so, maybe you’d be better getting a decent mobo first & you will probably be best not getting the ram yet as RAM prices are always falling
Edit: how much (approx) are you wanting to spend to begin with ?
So, y’all saying my mother board is “out of date” in any way :P, There’s any cheapest way to make a good gaming upgrade? That’s right, If I buy now an AGP CARD, later Ill do nothing with it, because the next future is PCI express as I realize.
So what do I gotta do? I got more or less 200$ to spend in upgrades
My concern is will any AGP cards these days even let you play Source with 80-100 FPS on high settings?! I mean, CS isn’t so new but you gotta admit, it’s still pretty demanding.
For $200, my advice to you would be to wait on the card because i think you’ll be throwing it in the trash the next year. Instead, focus on a CPU and Motherboard bundle. Then later on get some RAM and a fair PCI Express video card. Then i could see you run Source at reasonable speeds.
I was thinking about this and I realise the best for me and my needs is wait some months to achieve a computer gaming as I wish! So, I wouldn’t buy any graphic by now. I decided to buy a new one, so I’ll be waiting for your sugestion.
How do I start?
Where to buy just the box (motherboard, PSU, RAM, HD, graphic card, etc.) for less than 700$ with professional services.
to be honest I dont have all that ammount atm :P, however Im thinkin just buy a nice mobo, CPU, PSU, and HD, (i’ll use my old DDR, if it runs) and my old radeon 9600xt for now, Do I forgot something to pc works properly?
So, what would you recommend?
well i think there was some mobo a while ago that supported either DDR or DDR2 but not both simultaneously[ot]probably back when DDR2 was introduced[/ot]as new mobo’s have most things onboard (gfx, sound, NIC) you’d be better getting off getting a new mobo with everything onboard & add RAM, monitor k/b & mouse when you can afford it
if you can find an old mobo that supports DDR or DDR2 that would be even better