Help with finding a right graphics card

[Azner]

I am currently looking for a good graphics card. Ive been stuck with a Asus ATI Radeon X300 SE X (PCI-E, 128MB). Not the best gaming card.

Specs: Asus ATI Radeon X300 SE X (PCI-E, 128MB) (Current Graphics Card), Intel Pentium 4 515 2.93 GHz CPU )Current processor, I have no info on my motherboard. My computer is a Compaq Presario SR1250AP Desktop

Much Thanks, My knowledge on Graphics cards is pretty much nil. Perhaps Halflife2.net could reccomend any good cards that can be fitted in? Much Love.

 

[Druckles]

HD 4870

My recommendation.

Also, Google does work for this kind of think. Try "graphic card reviews" to start you off.

 

[Paulaner]

HD 4870
My recommendation.

The best card in town, right? Wouldn't the CPU bottleneck the system? I'm asking because I too was considering upgrading my old card. My CPU is an Intel Dual Core 2.4 GHz. Should be fine.

 

[Sanada]

The 4870 would be bottlenecked by both of your CPUs. It might be better to go for the 4850 or even a 8800GT if you can't upgrade the CPU.

 

[Druckles]

Or just hang on to a 4870 until you upgrade your CPU.

 

[Krynn72]

4850 is best.

 

[MRG]

Let me first begin by appologizing to you Azner. I am sorry if my following comment is rude. I'm really trying not to be & it's not directed only at you..

However, I feel compelled to ask the following question:

Why is it, members here on these forums ask the same questions over & over & over & over? Every other day, there is a new post asking 2 very specific questions, which are always answered more or less the same. The only difference is the person asking. Those 2 often asked questions are as follows:

1) Looking to upgrade video card. Need ideas.
2) Looking to upgrade to a new PC. Need ideas.

Why is it you do not first look to see if your question has already been answered? Do you really want help or do you just want the attention of having people answer your post? HalfLife2.Net has a large base of very knowledgeable people, who i'm sure would be more than happy to help any given member here, but when you keep asking the same questions over & over without first using the forum search function (Or simply look at the first page in the hardware section) it's extremely annoying & actually rude. We take the time to answer the question(s), only for them to be asked again over & over.

If you have questions, we want you to feel free to ask them, but we or me if i'm the only one to feel this way here on these forums (Though I highly doubt that), would appreciate it if you would first do a little research & not be lazy, prior to aksing your question.

So to answer this question once again. Here is some information I hope will prove useful.

A friend of mine has brought to my attention an article over at HardOCP.com which has put together a great *little* review of some of the best video cards on the market. For those looking to upgrade their systems in the near future, you might find the following info useful when it comes time to buy that new Video Card.

Admins - If this is useful, perhaps sticky it?

150-$300 Price Range
Radeon HD 4850 - $150
GeForce GTX 260 - $215
Radeon HD 4870 - $250
Radeon HD 4850 CrossFire - $300

$390-$550 Price Range
GeForce GTX 280 - $390
GeForce GTX 260 SLI - $430
Radeon HD 4870 CrossFire - $500
Radeon HD 4870 X2 - $550

$780 - $1100 Price Range
GeForce GTX 280 SLI - $780
Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX - $1100

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

Personal note: After reading the entire article, I am so Fracken stoked that I have a 4850. A big thanks to Top Secret!

-MRG

And here as well:

A few places for you to look.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=147470
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=147250
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=146885
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=147114
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=147032

ATI Video Card info
http://www.amd.com/us-en/
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/131
http://www.educypedia.be/computer/videocards.htm
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2198759
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ATI_graphics_processing_units

nVidia Video Card Info
http://www.nvidia.com/page/products.html
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/132
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards/3dmark06-v1-0-2-hdr-sm3-0-score,538.html

-MRG

 

[Azner]

Let me first begin by appologizing to you Azner. I am sorry if my following comment is rude. I'm really trying not to be & it's not directed only at you..

However, I feel compelled to ask the following question:

Why is it, members here on these forums ask the same questions over & over & over & over? Every other day, there is a new post asking 2 very specific questions, which are always answered more or less the same. The only difference is the person asking. Those 2 often asked questions are as follows:

1) Looking to upgrade video card. Need ideas.
2) Looking to upgrade to a new PC. Need ideas.

Why is it you do not first look to see if your question has already been answered? Do you really want help or do you just want the attention of having people answer your post? HalfLife2.Net has a large base of very knowledgeable people, who i'm sure would be more than happy to help any given member here, but when you keep asking the same questions over & over without first using the forum search function (Or simply look at the first page in the hardware section) it's extremely annoying & actually rude. We take the time to answer the question(s), only for them to be asked again over & over.

If you have questions, we want you to feel free to ask them, but we or me if i'm the only one to feel this way here on these forums (Though I highly doubt that), would appreciate it if you would first do a little research & not be lazy, prior to aksing your question.

So to answer this question once again. Here is some information I hope will prove useful.



And here as well:

I understand how you feel and i do not feel provoked, but i would also like to state that i did try to go on reviews, basically since my knowledge is nil, i had no idea what the different slots were of it there were such things or if any type of card could work, I mean like for RAM you have DDR1 DDR2 and more and you cant just get any card. I also used the search button. Im sorry to have made another noob thread and i fully understand what you are saying. Also Thanks for the help.
edit
I used search button to search my current card to find out if anyone had made threads, results werent good. Anyway much love MRG <3

 

[MRG]

I understand how you feel and i do not feel provoked, but i would also like to state that i did try to go on reviews, basically since my knowledge is nil, i had no idea what the different slots were of it there were such things or if any type of card could work, I mean like for RAM you have DDR1 DDR2 and more and you cant just get any card. I also used the search button. Im sorry to have made another noob thread and i fully understand what you are saying. Also Thanks for the help.
I used search button to search my current card to find out if anyone had made threads, results werent good. Anyway much love MRG <3

I greatly appreciate your mature & well thought out response Azner & i'm very happy to see that you did not take what I said to heart. After downloading the owners manual for your PC & reviewing the specs of your systems motherboard, I have come up with the following info:

ASUS PTGD1-LA

1) CPU/Processor Socket LGA775
Supports Intel Pentium 4 processor up to 3.6 GHz
Front-side bus (FSB) 800 MHz

2) System RAM
Supports PC3200 (DDR 400 MHz) /PC2700 (DDR 333 MHz) / PC2100 (DDR 266 MHz) DDR DIMM type
Maximum HP/Compaq approved memory is 4 GB

3) Graphics Expansion slots
One PCI Express x16 graphics PEG slot
No AGP slot, Video graphics Integrated

4) Storage
Serial ATA Two serial ATA (SATA) connectors, each supporting two ports Hot swap function.

5) Audio
Onboard audio Realtek ALC880 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC[/quote]

As you saw, your motherboard has a single PCI-Express Graphics Slot. this is good as it will allow you to use all newer mainstream video cards, such as ATI's 4xxx series (4850 & 4870) & nVidia's newer 8xxx & 9xxx series. (8500, 8600, 8800, 9600, 9800 ect.) Of course older PCI-E video cards will also work just fine. Keep in mind, that your older Pentium 4 CPU will be holding you back, as it'll not be able to keep your next gen video card, fully fed with data. You may have heard of this being called "bottlenecked." I highly advise you to have your motherboards Bios flashed to the newest version, as they often provide improved compatibility & performance.

To use the new video card to it's fullest potential, you'll want to upgrade to a new(er) CPU, RAM & Motherboard. However, if you have the fastest CPU your motherboard supports (or you can afford) installed & a minimum of 2GB of DDR-3200 system RAM installed, (More if you use Vista) then you should notice a very large boost in performance over your current Asus ATI Radeon X300.

How much RAM do you currently have installed?
Whats the speed of your CPU?

To check both, simply R.Click on "My Computer" & click on properties. It'll list out a generic overview of your OS, CPU make, model & speed & the amount of RAM installed. If you like, list out the above info & i'll see what I can do to help your current PC run as fast as is possible.

Let me know if I can help in any way.

-MRG

 

[Paulaner]

Thank you for the advices.

 

[Azner]

Intel Pentium 4 2.93GHz and 1.75GB of RAM(I started with 256Mb of RAM, and added on 1Gb of RAM, which then my friend proceeded to salvage a 512Mb RAM Card for me. Thanks MRG. So basically PCI Express can surport the series you listed above. How do you define whether a card can, say if i have the details of a card, how can i tell whether its slottable into a PCI Express slot, does it have a name or something to define its slot type? Thank You!!!
Also im not running Vista(I guess the pentium 4 gave it away?)
edit
I suppose "Interface: PCI-E 2.0 (x16)" is its type? Although the last time on eBay i encountered graphics cards with DDR 1-3

 

[MRG]

Azner,

To begin with, your CPU is definitely holding you back from fully benefiting from a newer video card. I would highly advise you to contact Compaq & to ask them directly, whats the fastest CPU your motherboard will support. Tell them that you read the owners manual & you know that it said a "Pentium 4 processor up to 3.6 GHz" but ask them to tell you exactly which CPU's will work as there are a rather large base of older LGA775 CPU's on the market and there is a possibility that Compaq has released a Bios for your motherboard that *might* support a larger range of CPU's. You can pick up older Pentium 4 CPU's online for pretty cheap, which might be an option for you if you do not plan to be able to spend a larger sum of cash to upgrade to a faster/newer tech CPU, RAM & motherboard. Some info to keep in mind is also the size of the Cache on the CPU. More than likely your CPU has 512kb of L2 Cache, which was the standard amount. If you were able to find a CPU online for cheap (or at a yard sale even) that was clocked faster than the CPU thats currently installed in your PC, even a 3.4gHZ would provide you with an increase in performance. The more so if the CPU had the also common 1MB L2 cache.

Keep in mind, that you may need to upgrade your PSU. (Power Supply Unit) As the stock one that came with your PC, will simply not have enough power to keep everything fed with enough *juice* to run correctly. Whats the wattage of the PSU thats installed in your PC right now? It'll have a sticker on the side of it. To view it, you'll need to take the side cover off of your PC's tower. See the left side of the pic for example:

The next step you'll want to do, is to remove the RAM that you have currently installed & to buy either a 2GB or 4GB kit of Dual Channel PC-3200 RAM. (DDR) All depends on how many RAM slots your motherboard has & at the moment, I forget how many yours had. Standard amount was 4 slots. Keep in mind that your motherboard supports RAM modules up to 1GB per stick, so a 2GB Kit would have 2 sticks of 1GB DDR RAM. Your motherboard does not support the newer DDR2 or DDR3 System RAM. The type of RAM on your Video Card is *Totally Different*. So to clarify, you can have a video card with DDR3 or faster RAM, installed into your PC. It's the System RAM that has to be the older DDR. PC-3200 also known as DDR400, is the fastest RAM that is offically supported by your motherboard. Mixing & matching RAM like it seems you have done, will also kill your performance, as your PC will only run the RAM at the speed of the slowest RAM installed. So say you had DDR266 & DDR400 installed together, the PC will run ALL the RAM @ the VERY SLOW DDR266 speeds. You don't have to upgrade, but it would honestly be very foolish not to, espically since you are looking at a powerful new video card. The saying "You're only as strong as the weakest link" very much applies here. To maximize performance, you'll want to have RAM installed thats the same make, model & speed.

However, due to the age of your PC, I don't advise you to spend alot of money trying to upgrade it. A faster video card is fine, ( as you can use it in your next PC provided too much time does not pass & your new video card is now old & slow like the X300) but if you want a true performance boost, you'll want to upgrade to a newer CPU, RAM (DDR2 or even DDR3) & Motherboard. (Which really isn't that expensive, if you do your homework)

Sorry to ramble on. Hope it helps. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

-MRG