Graphics Card

[antimatter]

Hi there,

 

I've recently taken to looking for a new graphics card, mostly because my graphics card is...well, let's put it this way: I have to play Halo 1 on low.

I'm a little tired of all my friends making fun of me for having a terrible graphics card, and not to mention I want to play some serious games.

 

Can someone help me? I'm thinking of getting a Radeon, or NVIDIA.

My price range is around 60 dollars, I can't really spend anymore, thanks to a lightsabre related science project that cut me down from what I've been saving up. Here are some of the games I want to play

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2: episode 1, episode 2

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

BioShock (at least the demo)

 

And for now, that's about it.

I've looked around a bit, but I'm not really as computer-savvy as my friends, that is, I can't really tell the difference between some cards, that are supposedly "totally different, man".

 

Thanks in advance.

[insane_alien]

do you have an agp slot or a pci-e x16 slot for graphics?

[antimatter]

I'm pretty sure I have an agp (according to my friend), though I'm not sure about the other part.

[insane_alien]

if you have agp then you won't have pci-e x16

 

get a nvidia 7600GT. they are one of the best graphics cards for agp for the price range you are looking at. make absolutely sure you are getting the AGP model as you won't get a pci-e one to fit in on that computer.

[antimatter]

Thanks for the advice, but will it run the games I want to run? I know Half-Life 2 isn't too demanding, but the BioShock demo is quite...impressive.

 

Uh...my computer is being...my computer, and I can't seem to find a link to the card, would you mind posting the link?

 

thanks

[Klaynos]

Is it just your gfx card that is holding you back on these games, are you sure about that?

[antimatter]

Yes, I am absolutely positive. I have a fast computer with decent memory, and everything else runs fine. It's just the graphics card, I can't play anything with it!

Do you have any ideas?

I don't really want to pay that much money, and there's only a few games (BioShock, HL 2) that I want to play.

[insane_alien]

it'll play halflife2 for sure, my nvidia 5200FX can manage it(just about). i don't know about the biosock demo as my computer just can't do that one.

 

heres a link to one

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127243

[antimatter]

Ah thanks, that will come in handy.

 

In Half-Life 2, I heard there were some glitchy cut-scenes (especially the g-man ones), is this true?

[insane_alien]

i never seen any glitches. maybe it was because i had the game on low settings to save my ailing computer. it is possible that i mistook a glitch for my computers lack of power.

[Softix]

make sure u have enough cpu power for some of those games before u go and buy a graphics card cause u still might get alot of lag

[khelben1979]

Get an AMD Radeon 3850 instead for the best graphics performance! If, however, you insist on nVidia, you should get the nVidia Geforce7900GS.

 

I myself has an nVidia Geforce7800GS on my system over here and it's pretty fast on my soon to be 5 old computer over here.

 

Bjorn3D has an article concerning the the Radeon 3850 over here.

[antimatter]

I decided to get a Ati Radeon x1650, it's fine for what I'm trying to do. I am thinking however, of upgrading my RAM to 1gb (currently I have a rather sad 512 mb).

Can anyone give suggestions on this?

My friend says I should either stick with what I have, or make the jump to 2 gb, is he right?

[Pangloss]

Most computer systems today are built with 2gb. Most power users and developer types are inching towards 4gb systems, but of course that requires a 64-bit OS for full utilization.

[antimatter]

I'm not much of a power user, and the point of the computer I use now was that it was a really good deal, and very upgradeable.

So that's really why I got it. The need to upgrade only started now, when the games I want to play, and software I need to use require more and more RAM.

I've already upgraded graphics, it's either RAM or CPU next.

[Pangloss]

Well you'll definitely be able to take full advantage of 1gb. 2gb maybe, depending on whether you run stuff at the same time or in the background.

 

The way to see whether you need to upgrade RAM or CPU is to watch how often your hard drive chugs away while you're working. If it kicks in whenever you switch between programs, or you have really long, drawn-out down times between program/file closures, then it may be running out of memory and paging a lot. (You can actually log that and analyze the data systematically, but it can be a bit of a PITA to set up the right tags to watch, etc, so most people just sorta feel their way through it.)

[antimatter]

I have a very bad feeling it's been paging quite a lot lately...

I should probably check it out once I'm done cleaning this god-damned virus off the computer I'm using.

I'll check by running one of my games that lags, and then opening taskmngr and seeing what's going on.

[Softix]

Most computer systems today are built with 2gb. Most power users and developer types are inching towards 4gb systems, but of course that requires a 64-bit OS for full utilization.

 

yeah, I agreed with you.. only low spec pc built with 512mb spec nowadays. All new pc spec built with minimum 1gb RAM. and upgradeable to 4gb max.

[insane_alien]

you can buy machine upgradable to 8GB. i've seen a few. (though they are still sold with a 32-bit OS for some reason)

[Softix]

you can buy machine upgradable to 8GB. i've seen a few. (though they are still sold with a 32-bit OS for some reason)

 

how we want to know either our OS in 32-bits or 64bits? sorry, I'm quite noob.

[insane_alien]

how we want to know either our OS in 32-bits or 64bits?

 

err do you mean 'how can i tell if my operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit?'

 

if you don't know then it is very likely you are using 32-bit(unless you use a mac) i have no idea how to find the info on a windows PC but on a unix-like system just typ 'uname -a' into the CLI

[Pangloss]

It's displayed in the System control panel applet. Go to the Start Menu and open the Control Panel, then double-click on "System". It shows under "System Type", about halfway down the panel, as either "32-bit Operating System" or "64-bit Operating System".

 

Bear in mind that a 64-bit operating system will only run on a processor designed for it. Switching to 64-bit can also introduce application and driver compatibility issues. (In fact you have to get all 64-bit drivers for your peripherals.)

[Softix]

It's displayed in the System control panel applet. Go to the Start Menu and open the Control Panel, then double-click on "System". It shows under "System Type", about halfway down the panel, as either "32-bit Operating System" or "64-bit Operating System".

 

Bear in mind that a 64-bit operating system will only run on a processor designed for it. Switching to 64-bit can also introduce application and driver compatibility issues. (In fact you have to get all 64-bit drivers for your peripherals.)

 

which one? why I cant find it? only got

General, Computer Name, Hardware, Advanced, System Restore, Automatic Updates and Remotes tab only... :confused:

[Pangloss]

I was talking about Vista. Under XP you go to the General tab and if it's a 64-bit version of Windows it will say so up at the top under "System". 32-bit systems don't say so.

[Softix]

I was talking about Vista. Under XP you go to the General tab and if it's a 64-bit version of Windows it will say so up at the top under "System". 32-bit systems don't say so.

 

owh..sorry my bad ...anyway, thanks for your information..