I am looking to update my GFX card, what should I get?

[acer r]

Currently I am running a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600. It's about 4 years old and really wasn't a good card to begin with. I am now looking for a new card that is just a step below top of the line. I am looking to spend about $180.

Specs.

Os: Win Xp Home
MB: MSI 865PE Neo2
1 gig ram
P4 2.4

 

[Shakermaker]

Currently I am running a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600. It's about 4 years old and really wasn't a good card to begin with. I am now looking for a new card that is just a step below top of the line. I am looking to spend about $180.
Specs.
Os: Win Xp Home
MB: MSI 865PE Neo2
1 gig ram
P4 2.4

Is that an AGP motherboard? I wouldn't go overboard. Your system prolly can't handle a 7600GT or better. I'd go for a card from the GeForce 6800 series.

 

[Asus]

7600GS probably would be good. It's just under the 7600GT and is for AGP.
They will be making a 7600GT for agp soon I hear (it's PCI-Express only atm).

I think the 7800GS is the highest AGP card out there but it costs too much for how well it performs imo.

7600GS AGP card on Newegg (US site)
Performance that compares a 7600GS and the 7600GT

This shows the 7600GT compared to the 7800GT (last years high end card)
7600GT (PCI-Express) on newegg

 

[acer r]

How much more use will I get out of those compaired to my old 5600?

 

[DrDevin]

I would say that you are looking for a short term card at best.

Your motherboard features an AGP slot which does not allow for the use of truely new and high end cards. AGP is now considered mostly obsolete. I would know I have an athlon XP 2500+ and a 6600gt. So I am going to build a new system very soon.

Next, your CPU would become a bottleneck if you were to buy the top end AGP card, so you wouldent get your moneys worth out of it, AGP cards are also more expensive then the same PCI-E card.

If you still wanted to keep your system and play any game that is out now (but not games that will be released in a little while ie. Crysis) I would get a cheap 7600gs like ASUS said (or possibly a 6600gt if you can find one really cheap), "just a step below top of the line" would cost $350 or so.

With CPU prices dropping I would look to a new system, you could keep your RAM, HD, and optical drives and replace the CPU, motherboard and graphics card for $400 or so. You would be getting more price to performance.

 

[acer r]

I see.

 

[Asus]

To give you an idea the X1600 pro and 6600GT are a bit better than a 9800 Pro.

 

[diluted]

Your slow processor will bottleneck a very fast card anyway.

 

[acer r]

What speed processor should I look towards?

 

[Asus]

Well going to MSI's website says your board (with the latest bios) supports Up to a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 (Prescott).

Here is a Pentium 4 3.0GHz at newegg. for $115 (it was $200 the other day). That would just get you by. Although keep in mind that future games (like Crysis) consider a 3GHz CPU min. spec to run the game.

I'd expect to pay around $150-200 for a good CPU (Athlon X2 3800+ or Core 2 Duo E6300) and then you'd need to find a good motherboard ($70-150) that uses the same Socket. And DDR2 memory. Sorta adds up.
Those all use PCI-Express graphics cards now instead of the AGP slot.

So keep that in mind. Might want to save up.

 

[bosox188]

With AMD's recent price cuts, you can get an Athlon 64 and motherboard for a pretty cheap price now. Check on newegg, I think you can get an Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ for $90 and then get a decent PCI-E mobo for like $50 or something. I don't really look at motherboards much so someone else could help you there.