Hey guys, Well i upgrdaed my pc a coupke weeks ago but i stayed with AGP. Now im thinking that i really should go PCIe because i plan to have this computer for about 5 years and only make some upgrades such as video card and ram. My specs: Asus A8V AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 768 MB PC 3200-cheap ram ATI Radeon X1300 Maxtor 40 gig HDD What could be mine: MSI RD480 Neo2-FI AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 768 MB pc 3200 Gigabyte GeForce 6600 256MB or ATI All-In-Wonder X600 Pro Radeon X600 http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RD480_Neo2-FI&class=mb http://shopati.ca/product.asp?sku=2594349 http://www.giga-byte.ca/vga/products/Products_GV-NX66256DP.htm Right now when playing Half life 2 online i do get 100 fps on some servers. I think that is pretty good or should i be able to go way higher? Thx everyone
Well, The X600 is going to be slower than the GeForce 6600, so I'd drop that idea. 100fps is great, but if you're looking to run at a real high resolution (1280x1024 and up, basically), you'd be better off to consider something stronger. Right now, the Radeon X800GTO is probably the best value for the money, and runs around $150 at places like Newegg and ZipZoomFly. It's a little bit more than the cards your considering, but offers vastly better performance. If you go with the cards you're considering, this upgrade really isn't going to render you any improvement. While I don't have anything against MSI, right now, the Asus A8R-MVP is the best RD480-based board according to the reviews I've read. I just read a review of the MSI board, and while positive, it's one review, and I'd like to hear more than just one source. The A8R-MVP should be pretty similar in price to MSI's RD480 Neo2. Now, I'm assuming that you're reusing your CPU and RAM?
ok thats good advice im glad i asked. So i should look at the Radeon X800GTO . i will do that today. right now i have my resolution at 1280X1024. i wonder if i should decrease it? Thx man
Not sure why you'd want to decrease it. You'll have more desktop area with a higher resolution. This also adds to a better looking picture. HL2's Source engine is pretty lean compared with other engines, so 100FPS is really good any way you look at it. Other games may not be able to necessarily play as well at the same settings. Now, if you go outside of HL2 stuff, like, say Quake 4, Battlefield 2, or FEAR, you're probably going to want something more powerful to keep up. If you want to jack up the eye candy, then upping the graphics card will help as well.
