Upgrade question

[nala310]

Hiya,
I am looking into upgrading my computer in the next month or so. I was wondering what GFX card is recommended. I currently have a PIII 866 Mhz, plan to go to PIV, 256 Mb Memory, plan to double that and an ATI Rage 128 Pro card. Running Windows XP. Thanks for any help.

[Chrono Archangel]

Well Anything from Radeon 9600 and up or GeforceFX5600 and up is always recommended

[ka0s]

What kinda budget are you on?
But if your not looking to spend much, theres a R9600 on newegg for under $140.

[stilz]

you might wanna tell us your budget as well as the games you want to play, also how long you plan on keeping the card etc. those factors will affect a lot on your selection out of the 100's of cards.

[hushypushy]

first, get at least 512mb RAM. if you are serious about games, the bottom lowest card you should get is the FX5600 (nvidia), 9600 (ATI). they have 9800pros on newegg for ~200 so if you live in the US check em out (www.newegg.com)

[nala310]

I'm looking at spending aroung 250$ per upgrade (gfx card, processor, etc). I know someone who'll install it no charge and I can get a good discount on the parts. I'm hoping it lasts at least 3+ yrs. I mainly want to be able to run PS2 (when the emulator works on the only game I have Smackdown:HCTP ), N64 at a better speed and graphic quality. My current specs are in the first msg in the post. Here's what I am looking at prices, what is most important, to least important?
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz 236$
ATU Radeon 9600 Pro All In Wonder 298$
Pioneer DVR-A06 DVD 4X 207$
256Mb 133 Mhz SDRam 180$

I know I need the DVD for playing PS2 games ( I want a burner so I can move VHS to DVD) But what is most important for the games, the gfx card, memory or processor. Thanks.

[Clements]

Originally Posted by nala310

I know I need the DVD for playing PS2 games ( I want a burner so I can move VHS to DVD) But what is most important for the games, the gfx card, memory or processor. Thanks.

RAM becomes less important above 512MB but greatly improves the general performance of your PC, graphics card determines the frame rate in PC games mostly and also the image quality, the CPU determines speed of games to a lesser extent, but controls the frame rate in emulation and video encoding and so forth.

For me personally, I put them in this order:

1) Processor
2) Graphics Card
3) RAM
4) DVD-R

Your order should reflect what you are using your PC for; I selected CPU as most important since I emulate many advanced systems on my computer that require a fast CPU. For PS2 emulation no CPU is viable since emus aren't advanced yet.

Your computer has an incredibly weak graphics card, so upgrading this will give you the most benefit. However your CPU isn't that powerful and could be a problem with N64 emulation. You could buy a budget graphics card like an GeForceFX 5200 (128-Bit) and use the remaining money to buy the fastest PIII processor your motherboard supports. This way the overall performance of your PC will probably be much better just than getting an expensive graphics card for a low-end system (you'll have a CPU bottleneck).

Bare in mind that:
Pentium 4s are overpriced;
You are likely to need a new motherboard for a P4 CPU upgrade.

[Gamer1]

get an athlon64 2800+, for $173 it's a better deal, and would last longer than 3 years, i bet.

the 9600xt ($150) is a better deal than the 5600ultra(200), but if i had $200 in cash i would consider getting a 9700pro or a 9800pro, or a 5900xt. but since you are looking for an aiw, go for the 9800pro aiw for $330
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-297&depa=0

sdram? are you serious?
ram is way overpriced right now, $97 for 512 ddr 2700 for kingston valueram... you should not get any right now, and the cheapest is $78... but if you have to... don't go sdram, go ddr...

[nala310]

Thanks for all the help. I went to check out prices and stuff and I was quoyed 269.99 for a p4 2.8 E ,but I need a new motherboard and the memory. As Gamer1 sais above, I was recommended DDR 400 512Mb Ram for 119 and the motherboard for 109. So all told I'm looking at 500 for the main portion. The GFX card I looked at was ATI Radeon 9600 Pro for 279.99 and the 80Gb drive for 100. Also the DVD burner I looked at is an LG, which is what my CD burner is and I like it, for 155. I'll probably get the P4/memory/motherboard first, hopefully next month, as I wasn't planning on that much. If I didn't need to get the memory at the same time it wouldn't be so bad. The GFX card will have to wait till summer, and the HD and DVD burner I'll wait till X-Mas/Birthday (same day) for those. Once again thanks for all the assistance. You guys rock. Have a great one.

[Gamer1]

dude, you are getting ripped off. $100 for an 80GB hard drive? i got my seagate 80Gb with 2mb of cache for $70, i could've gotten a sata version with 8mb of cache for $80, but i didn't have a sata port.

trust me, you don't want prescott, use the money you could save by going to amd and getting a better priced hard drive from newegg or a local computer shop and get yourself a 9800 aiw pro. for $100 i could get a sata 120GB seagate or a western digital hard drive.

cuz, what's the point of getting an intel when a more powerful cpu like the athlon64 and a leaving you with enough money to get a better videocard.

today, games aren't dependant on cpu anymore, if you want to push framerates, you get a faster videocard.

[nala310]

Well, all the prices I was told were with installation included. I'd rather let them install then mess around with it myself, or at least till I finish my course and now what the heck I'm doing. I'll probably get more money knocked off the price of the processor, motherboard, memory and GFX card as I'll trade mine in for the credit. Like I said I'm looking at 500$ before trade in on the P4 2.8 and 512Mb Memory and motherboard, including installation. I should get a little back for my P3 877, 256 Mb memory and ASUS motherboard. So it might go down a hundred or so.
I just can't see doing all the parts in one shot, when I get more money come summer then I can the GFX card and I could probably install it myself, same with the HD as I'll be finishing my course by Summer. Plus the trade in on my old card (ATI rage 128 pro AIW) I don't know, I don't want to get a new computer as this one is only 3 1/2 yrs old.
Is there a really big difference between the 9600 and 9800 ATI cards to make it worth the extra cash? Also is there a noticable difference between ATI card and Nvidia, besides the name. Just wondering as this is all new to me as I have never upgraded anything other then going from CD to CDRW 48X to CDRW 52X. My last computer was a 386 with 8Mb memory and 60Mb HD! I went and bought this baby in 2001. P3 877, 256 Mb Memory, ATI Rage 128, 40Gb HD.
Thanks again for the assistance. Also please note my prices are in Canadian, and as I said includes the installation. That might be why it looks expensive, I don't want to call it a ripoff as I don't think my friend would do that. New store, needs good reputation, right?

[Gamer1]

i see, so definately, the hard drive is a good price then. when people talk dollars... they usually mean us dollars.

there is a 20-40% performance difference between the 9600 and the 9800... yea... it's alot...

besides the name, nvdia and ati are architecturally different. for a quick summary, ati conforms to the dx9 standard and performs better in dx9 specific calls like pixel shaders 2.0, i know chrisray can do a better job between the difference of ati and nvidia.