| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 65994 | 2006-02-07 11:04:00 | Yet another "Graphics Card" upgrade question | meg_h_nz (6960) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 428026 | 2006-02-07 11:04:00 | Hi all You guys are so great with info and help that I thought I would ask your advice on up-grading my graphics card. I have had a quick look through previous posts but none really answered my questions. My present system: GigaByte 81915 Pro MoBo P 4 LGA775 3.2GHz 800 FSB 1 GB DDR-400 (2 X 512) Powercolor Radeon X600XT PCI-E 128MB Win XP home I want to spend around $200 on the graphics card as I also want to increase my RAM to 2GB. I am not a gamer but do play Sims2 and have found my present card a bit lacking in performance. I have tried up dating the drivers, tried Omega drivers, adjusted settings till the cows came home but still have a few issues with it.(some days it works fine, others I can only play for 10 - 20 minutes before it freezes) I have since read on a review site that it does have a tendency to over heat. I would be interested in what you would recommend. I have had a look on PriceSpy but I really don’t know what I should be looking for. Many thanks Meg |
meg_h_nz (6960) | ||
| 428027 | 2006-02-07 11:25:00 | You want another Gb ram and a better card for $200, that seems not very likely. If you bump your budget up to around 350 that should do the job. A Gb ram cost around 120 and you can spend the rest on a 6600gt or something, much better performance. For only $200 I suggest leaving the ram, 1gb is enough and get a 6600gt as well. | michaelqian (9385) | ||
| 428028 | 2006-02-07 12:51:00 | Yeah, I agree . . . you'd be better off, spending money on just the graphics card, 1GB is more than enough . The system would benefit more from a new graphics card upgrade rather than a memory upgrade . I assume your mobo is PCI-E so you might want to think about upping the amount you want to spend on a graphics card . I suggest a board that has 256MB of RAM . . . I saw a Radeon X1600 Pro 256MB PCI Express ( . co . nz/catalog/product_info . php?cPath=184_4_191&products_id=1754&osCsid=3b3840c17d7049c3811e4c6fe9af0a67" target="_blank">kowteq . co . nz) @ Kowteq . Looks like a good buy and incidently is clocked higher than the 6600GT at 475c/450m . . . apart from a few Open GL games this card performs better than the 6600GT . . . worth some investigation . cheers chiefnz |
chiefnz (545) | ||
| 428029 | 2006-02-07 17:29:00 | I think, and this may cause an arguement, that people may be expectng too much from their computers. Over the past couple of years I have been doing a lot of fiddling and upgrading and have reached the conclusion that the improvements are not worth anything like the money spent. And video cards are the least value for money item in a computer. At present I gave a Radeon X800XL with 256 megs. A $900 Viewsonic monitor, and 2 gigs of low latency ram. Still I am nowhere near happy with my graphics. Certainly minor improvements are possable, but are hey worth the money? |
JJJJJ (528) | ||
| 428030 | 2006-02-07 17:41:00 | And video cards are the least value for money item in a computer. At present I gave a Radeon X800XL with 256 megs. A $900 Viewsonic monitor, and 2 gigs of low latency ram. Still I am nowhere near happy with my graphics. Yes graphics cards are probably one of the most expensive items. I spent $900 odd on a graphics card and $100 on a monitor and am very happy with my graphics. CRT is still better than LCD in my opinion. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 428031 | 2006-02-07 19:09:00 | 4x512mb is slower than 2x512mb if you are not actually using enough of the 2gb. | mejobloggs (264) | ||
| 428032 | 2006-02-07 19:31:00 | 4x512mb is slower than 2x512mb if you are not actually using enough of the 2gb. Rubbish |
JJJJJ (528) | ||
| 428033 | 2006-02-07 19:44:00 | Rubbish www.xbitlabs.com |
Metla (12) | ||
| 428034 | 2006-02-07 20:27:00 | Not that you would notice it in real life. But i think anandtech had larger differences between 2x512 and 4x512, not sure about this though, will have to try and find it. According to xbit labs, it looks like if the game doesnt need the 2gb 'at all' then you lose max 5 fps, and probably average 2 fps, so not a big deal really. |
mejobloggs (264) | ||
| 428035 | 2006-02-07 21:42:00 | First I think spending your money only on the graphics card is the best investment. Second I've never heard of adding RAM reducing the performance of a PC, even with the 3GB switch blogs.msdn.com www.microsoft.com There's a diminishing return on your investment after 1GB of RAM, but I would be shocked if it *reduced* the performance of any Windows PC. |
kingdragonfly (309) | ||
| 1 2 3 4 | |||||