I have quite an old pc, with only 512mb memory. Ineed to upgrade my video card(agp)but have no idea wat to get?

Question

Like i said i have an agp x4 slot, but have no idea what spec agp card it will take. Am i restricted on the new cards memory? will i need extra power to run it? Cards prices seem to vary so much i dont know where to start. I should also mention that my pc is maxed at 512 memory so i cant upgrade that and that budget is an issue many as the pc itself is worth very little so dont want to be forking out on an expensive new card. Anyway heres my PCs spec if it helps.
FC-PGA 370 Socket Intel® Pentium® III and Celeron™
Intel® 815e Chipset
66 / 100 / 133MHz FSB
2 DIMM Slots
168Pin, 3.3V, PC133
Max memory 512GB
No ECC Support
Integrated i815e 2D / 3D Video Controller
64bit, 230MHz RAMDAC
4x AGP Slot
Integrated i815e and AD1885 AC97 Audio Codec
SoundBlaster Compatible
1 x Line In
1 x Line Out
1 x Microphone
1 x Games Port
ATA 100 IDE Controller
1 x 4xAGP Slot (64Bit)
3 x PCI Slots (32Bit)
1 x Shared PCI / CNR Type A (Communications Network Riser, 66MHz)
2 x USB
Integrated i82562ET LAN Controller (Variant A Boards Only, Available in Professional PC Range)
AOL Support
WOL Support

Answer 1

hi piers

ok your pc isnt as fast as some of todays however in this case it may work in your favour,this will mean the graphic card you require will not have to be one of the fastest agp cards,since if we do select one of the faster agp cards it may cause bottlenecks as the card will be significantly faster than the cpu and this would cause lag and stuttering in games

as you can see you require a x4 agp slot,however i would be far happier if i knew your motherboards make and model,since then i could be sure which type of agp interface you have(agp 1.5v or agp 3.3v)

for now i will go with the 1.5v spec as this is what most agp cards are compliant to

as you have limited budget we shall keep cost down to around £60

1)graphic card..agp cards have begun to dissapear as the pci-express cards get better however there are still some excellent and cheap agp cards to choose from

for you i have recommended 2 and the first card is the "nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB DDR - AGP "( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/AGP/nVIDIA+GeForce+FX+Series/nVidia+GeForce+FX+5200+128MB+DDR+-+AGP?productId=7883) which at around £20 represents excellent value

ok its specs are not amazing but in comparison to your p.c it should work fine,and this card also supports pixel and shader model 2.0 so it will run the vista aero interface aswell as some modern games

another decent agp card is the ATI Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB AGP ( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/AGP/ATI+Radeon+X1600+Series/ATI+Radeon+X1650+Pro+512MB+AGP+?productId=29190) and to be honest this is the card i would recommend you get

it has some excellent specs including a 500mhz core clock and 512mb of ddr2 memory running at 400mhz or 800mhz ddr effective

however with most agp cards costing around £50 including delivery and vat i would recommend you go with a motherboard bundle upgrade

a motherboard bundle is a motherboard with a processor pre-fitted so all you need to get is some memory and you can use your existing hard drive and dvdrw or cd rom

the AMD Athlon 3200+ processor and ECS GS-761 Motherboard Bundle( http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=341741&CatId=2956) is only £48 and with some compatible memory( http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=236207&CatId=3178) in the shape of a 1gb generic ddr sdram module and you have a pc basis of a system thats around 10 times more powerful than your current pc

and with this motherboard you get a pci-express x16 graphics slot so gone are the slow agp card and you can now buy some of the superior pci-express cards

and as pci-express cards are significantly cheaper than the agp cards this investment will save you money over a few years

in all this will cost around £90 and then if you want a mid range pci-e card then say around £180

any problems let me know

good luck mate !

Answer 2

Well, the rest of your PC's specs are so low, it raises the question of what you want a new video card for? Newer games require a faster processor and more than 512mb of memory anyway.



Among AGP cards, the best is the ATI Radeon 3850 but that's pretty pricey (and overkill given the rest of your system specs). I'd recommend the Radeon 3650 for a lower-cost alternative. You might also consider a Radeon HD 2400 Pro, but that's much slower.

Answer 3

while you're staring at television, and in basic terms surfing.. No.. Now.. in case you intend to enhance to Vista interior the destiny.. this won't be the case.. As Vista will require a miles better card to get the further 3-d features of the working device. Frankly, after having been utilising Vista for the previous 300 and sixty 5 days, and fooling around with the three-d good factors, they are particularly Eye candy, and don't likely grant lots in productiveness advancements. yet, that should replace as Programmers study to apply the recent strategies in Vista and make advancements to the utility that's provided. So appropriate now No.. yet once you try to get into Vista.. Then later down the line, it would be a clever pass.