Graphics card upgrade?

[fimbles]

Hello..

Im thinking of upgrading my graphics card.. the card i have at present is a

Peak ati radeon 9600 pro 256 mb agp card.

I can only use agp.. and im on quite a tight budget.. about 50-60 pounds.
(about 100 dollars i think?) just something with a bit more power would be nice.. to improve my graphics quality/ framerates..

Any suggestions would be great as im not too sure what im looking for..

Ty in advance.

 

[CrossFire851]

The only thing better is a x800 (not to sure) . But it's like $150 or I think about 80GBP.

 

[fimbles]

Ty for your speedy reply..

What do you think of this one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/X1600-PRO-512...6QQihZ018QQcategoryZ67864QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Its not much more expensive than a x800... is it better? or am i wasting my money buying this?

My pc is only a 2.8ghz celeron.. 1 gig of ram...

Severe bottlenecks???

 

[paranoid guy]

A celeron... I'd say save up for a while and then upgrade the cpu, mobo and then maybe get a driectx 10 compatible card, but that seems to be a common response around here. That card would get a bit bottlenecked by the celeron imo. Do you urgently need to upgrade or were you just thinking about it?

 

[CrossFire851]

I think his cely is not his bigest problem. What game(s) are you playing? Also I would get that x1600 reliability is there main factor. How many watts is your PSU? I would say for your setup 16 amps on the 12volt rail with 450 watts should cover it.

 

[fimbles]

My power supply is the stock standard one supplied.. pretty sure its 350 watt..

I play games like battlefield 2 and other pretty graphic intensive stuff.. its not so much i want full anti aliasing and stuff on.. just a decent framerate.

Reason for upgrading?? i just want to get a another year or so out of this machine before i invest in pci express.. it plays battlefield 2 on 1024x768, full distance, medium most settings, no aa fine now.. just want a bit more punch.

When you say x1600 reliability problems do you mean its a dodgy card? or it may be incompatible with my mobo/cpu?

 

[KingCody]

I think his cely is not his bigest problem

a celeron is a crippled pentium. they are no good for gaming.

fimbles... in my opinion it is not worth spending money on a new video card just to have it bottlenecked by a celeron. If i were you, i would keep the system the way you have it until you are ready for a total system upgrade.

16 amps on the 12volt rail with 450 watts should cover it.

a 450w PSU with only 16A on the 12v rail would be a piece of crap. a quality 450w PSU should have no less than double that.

 

[IBN]

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/96496

Get this and be happy.

 

[fimbles]

Erm.. now i am confused??

Is the graphics card i have.

http://www.infotechshop.co.uk/products.asp?partno=Graphics-Card-Peak-PK-CP-4351

Not better than the one recommended in the post above??

I thought it was all about core/memory speeds??

Maybe i dont know as much as i thought???

Ty for all the advice.. i think im gonna go down the save up for a better mobo /processor route..

 

[KingCody]

i think that would be the wisest option.

right now isn't really a good time to buy a video card, because we are only a couple months away from the next generation of cards (directX-10).

the 9600 is still OK for most games, you can hold out a couple more months besides, when the DX10 cards come out, it is likely that DX9 cards will drop in price very quickly, but that's just speculation at this point

 

[Tedster]

I think we need to move this to the correct forum.

I also would not recommend buying a high end graphics card for a low end system like a celeron.

 

[wolfram]

Yeah, any of those cards will se severely bottlenecked by the celeron. You would just waste you money.