Graphic Help--THANKS/ Changed to pointers for upgrades

Mr.Answer

Mr.Answer

CAGiversary!
EDIT: (Total edit from original post)

Thanks for all the help, I've decided to go for the upgrade and am having that internal struggle ----

1) do I go for the 9800, which seems to be blowing away the competition (frame rates) and spend 240 or whatever..

or

2) Go the cheaper route get a 9600 or 9200 for 90 or 130 dollars? IT would still be seemingly a pretty decent upgrade but will I be questioning my self for not spending a little more money now?


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
The thing with Half-Life 2 is that people keep hyping that you need to upgrade to play it when you don't. You could probably play it on that. Head over to www.fileplanet.com and download the HL2 demo and test it out.
 
downloading demo now (but won't be done before we leave)

WIll probably hold off until I see how it runs, but I am still interested in hearing people's opinion about the benefits (if any) of upgrading graphic cards.
 
[quote name='Mr.Answer']Howdy,

I have no experience with graphic cards (whatever is in the system I buy usually is just fine for me. I would like to be able to run Half-life 2 and it seems that I am in need of an upgrade.

I currently have a GeForce2Mx 100/200 (32mb) and am looking at a Radeon 9600 for 90 bucks.

1) Is the 9600 a decent card (especially for that price)?
2) How differently will games look with an upgrade? (I currently am playing Pirates, and Tron 2.0)


Thanks alot for any help, we are soon taking a trip into 'the big city' and I'd like to be able to upgrade the computer tonight.[/quote]

if your in school right now (like I am) I suggest just waitting till summer cause in the summer you could prob et a better card at that price and you will be playing alot more in summer anyway...
 
[quote name='Mr.Answer']downloading demo now (but won't be done before we leave)

WIll probably hold off until I see how it runs, but I am still interested in hearing people's opinion about the benefits (if any) of upgrading graphic cards.[/quote]

Do you know if your motherboard is AGP ? if so, 4x or 8x?
 
No I am not in school, I'm an old man. So this time of year is actually the better time for me to get some playing time on the PC. The motherboard question---I am a complete moron as I have no idea what you are even asking. yikes feel old and dumb now.
 
What is your CPU and system RAM at? I recently upgraded my Geforce FX5700 LE to a Geforce 6600GT and am very happy with the improvements. It did a average 77fps at 1280x1024, before I had to set it to 800x600 to get a decent framerate but it was also still choppy. If you want to take full advantage of halflife2's incredible graphics, make sure the card you get supports DirectX 9. $90 is kind of the low end of gaming cards these days. You'll get the most out of your money if you buy a mid range card around $200 like the 6600GT or better yet, the 6800GT or Ultra but those are quite a bit more expensive ~$450. It will keep playing your games for awhile so you won't have to keep upgrading your card so much.
 
[quote name='Mr.Answer']No I am not in school, I'm an old man. So this time of year is actually the better time for me to get some playing time on the PC. The motherboard question---I am a complete moron as I have no idea what you are even asking. yikes feel old and dumb now.[/quote]

Well you see if your MOBO is PCI (which isn't good) then you wont be able to find a card to play HL2 for 90... if its AGP its very possible, if its PCI EXPRESS (trust me, its not) then you computer is fairly new.
 
Well most likely than not it's a 4X AGP graphics card (but check your system to make sure, PCI cards suck compared to AGP).

Half Life 2 will run on almost anything (I think it was able to run on the old TNT cards with playable frame rates), so a ATI 9600 is more than enough to run HL2. Now, future games that's a bit iffy, with some tweaking with the GPU and memory you could get a 9600 running up to a 9800, but since your a graphics newbie I would't venture down that path. A 9600 can play current games, but your frame rates and resolutions are going to be on the low side. For a about 60-70 bucks more you could buy a 9800 Pro, or on the Nvidia side a Geforce 6600GT and those cards can play just about anything currently out now with decent frame rates and 1024x768 + resolution. What it boils down is how much PC gaming are you going to be doing? If you got the dough and are going to do a lot of PC gaming, I know this is cag but try to get the best with the most you want to spend, because you get what you pay for when it comes to graphics cards so don't go cheap ( :: GASP :: ).

Also good quality gaming (meaning frame rates above 40) you have to take into account your system specs. Having a 700mhz CPU and having a state of the art graphics card will hinder your frame rates. So post your System Spec's
 
Processor: 2.53 Intel P4
512 Kilo secondary memory cache
Main Circuit board--Bus Clock 133mhz,

Memory Modules--512mb, slot 2 empty

Display---
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200 [Display adapter]

A347SCSI SCSI Controller
D347PRT SCSI Controller
WinXP Promise FastTrak100 (tm) Controller
ZTekWare Original CD Emulator
Intel PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C2
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C4
Intel(R) 82801DB/DBM USB Universal Host Controller - 24C7

is that the info you need?
 
I still have no idea what your mobo is... let alone what type! BTW, you can delete that program ,its useless, next time just goto run, type in dxdiag, click no, then it will say your processor and stuff, then for info on your card goto display.
 
[quote name='help1']I still have no idea what your mobo is... let alone what type! BTW, you can delete that program ,its useless, next time just goto run, type in dxdiag, click no, then it will say your processor and stuff, then for info on your card goto display.[/quote]

So how does one figure out what kind of motherboard one has?
 
Man, that's close... sounds like a recent enough (and decent) PC, and I searched for your video card on Ebay... it's most likely AGP 4X, which is decent. In that case, you should be fine with a Radeon 9600, but the 9800 would be much better.

That said, even if HL2 runs on your current card, it WILL be much faster and look much better on a newer card.

I recommend www.tomshardware.com, look at the video card reviews, and you can kinda judge what you want to spend... there are different "flavors" of the 9600, for example...
The most recent review is here:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-14.html
 
Boy that was depressing looking at the framerate comparrisons of my card--in the lowest 33 % in all tests..So i'm thinking ANY sort of upgrade will seem worth it, not to decide which one to get. I don't do ton's of PC gaming, although it goes in cycles and Half life 2 is a must play I think.
 
9600XT is almost obsolete. It'll be better than your current GeForce MX, but soon you'll find out it may not be as fast for the current generation of games. But if you're really tight on cash, the $120 that ATI is offering for the 9600XT as part of the trade-in deal is not too bad. Because retailers like newegg.com are still selling it for $150+, and that your GeForce MX has almost no resell value since it's too old.

9800 Pro costs about $200, I have this card myself, it was fast a year ago, but after Doom 3 and Half Life 2 came out, it's slowly becoming obsolete as well. It's hard to keep up the video card upgrades nowadays since the newest and fastest cards are at the $400-$500 range. If you're tight in cash, go w/ the 9600XT along with the trade-in deal with ATI.
 
[quote name='Mr.Answer']Any last minute pointers--i'm out the door in 10 min for a shopping trip with the family[/quote]

Yeah, don't buy a video card in store. Go to www.newegg.com , you'll save money and have much better choices.
 
I have a question, I ran the Belarc Advisor and for my memory it said this:

Slot 'A0' has 256 MB
Slot 'A1' is Empty
Slot 'A2' is Empty

Does that mean I have 2 empty slots to put more ram in?
 
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