How do I go about choosing a new graphics card?

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Bub1029

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Hi, I have a problem concerning my current graphics card. The problem is that it's an integrated graphics card and as such, is pretty worthless for PC Gaming. It would be much appreciated if you guys could help me find out what graphics card would be best for me. Just give me a list of what you need to know about my computer to work out a decision, and I will gladly type it up.
~Thanks:grinthumb
 
We need to know:
Budget
Current Processor and Speed
What slot (pci, agp, pcie)
Current PSU
 
My budget is somewhere under 50$, hopefully.

I have 1 AGP Slot and 2 PCIe x16 slots.

If the manufacturer is right then the processor is, Intel Pentium 4 630 (3GHz) Processor.

On the PSU sticker there are a few things, but I'm not sure of which you want. It has 350W Max, Max combined power on +5V and +3.3V output is 150W, or the model number is N305N-00.

Hope that helps out nicely.:D
 
What motherboard is that? I've heard of a board with AGP and PCIe 8x, but never heard of one with AGP and 2 PCIe 16x.
 
Any idea what board that is specifically? Wouldn't want someone to recommend something that won't work.
 
Thought that might be the case :)

Maybe a 7600GT or a 6600GT would be worth the expense. I'm not sure how much those cost now, but probably not too much above $50 and either would certainly be above what your onboard is capable of.

If you were budgetless, this is the best (or close to) AGP card you can buy: http://www.google.com/products?hl=e...a=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

Thing is, those get absolutely destroyed by modern PCIe cards for a fraction of the cost. It might be worth considering toughing it out until you have enough money to fully upgrade your system.
 
What would you say would give me the most bang for my buck if I wanted to play something from Valve for example. Their most recent game has the requirements of 128 MB, Shader model 2.0, ATI 9600, NVidia 6600 or better. I chose valve for their prominent place in the market.
 
Well dang. That kinda sucks. Maybe I'd do better saving 200$ for a 360 and playing some of these computer games on that. Of course I still wish I could beef up my graphics card a little bit so it doesn't suck so bad when I'm playing other games or just trying to watch a movie. I appear to be in a pickle thanks for the help anyway you two. This is definitely the tech support forum for me.
 
What games specifically? Sure you can't play Crysis very well (if at all) with a P4 AGP system. But you put a 7600GT in it and you can play damn near everything up until Crysis on it. With a 19" monitor and a 7600GT I'm pretty sure you could max the res, set the details to medium, and still play something like Call of Duty 4.

Not everyone has money to put together systems like yours smash :)
 
Well dang. That kinda sucks. Maybe I'd do better saving 200$ for a 360 and playing some of these computer games on that. Of course I still wish I could beef up my graphics card a little bit so it doesn't suck so bad when I'm playing other games or just trying to watch a movie. I appear to be in a pickle thanks for the help anyway you two. This is definitely the tech support forum for me.

I've yet to get a 360, only because some of the good games for it are released for pc as well.

I bet with competitive pricing right now you could take that 300 after you save up and build something that will last you 3-4 years if you're lucky.

If you have an o.s already that is.

Goodluck
 
Man, looking at Crysis I would think that only a brand new PC could run that, but the game I got those details from was Left 4 Dead. Other games might be Fallout 3, Half-life , Call of Duty, the Lego Games, etc., etc... Hope that gives you an idea
 
Don't know about Fallout 3, CoD, Half Life, Lego, will all run fine with that 2400 or the 7600.
 
Well thanks for the help you guys this should be all that I need. If I could give you something I would, but I can't.
 
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