Recommendations! Video Graphics Card

[Mojojly]

Hello ya'll! I've got a Compaq Presario 5430 with a 64 mb Nvidia GeForce 2 MX graphics card that came with it. I've noticed that I'm unable to play more and more newer games because I believe my graphics card won't run 'em. (I hear sound but no pic (black screen)). I want to stay with NVidia cause I've had no problems (knock on wood) and just looking for an affordable graphics card upgrade.Any recommendations! Thanks.

 

[iNoob]

Could you post some system specs? I can't seem to find the specs for the Presario 5430 motherboard. I'm guess it's because it's too old. Just need to know if that motherboard is AGP 2x/4x or AGP 4x/8x. If your board supports 8X AGP, then you can take full advantage of some of the newest AGP cards which can run in AGP 4X or 8X. Such as these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143045
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150127
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150096
or see them all at Newegg AGP4x/8X Cards section

but if your board can only support up to 4X, then buying those cards would be a waste of money. You could look at these instead:
Newegg AGP 2x/4x GPU section

Note: Newegg only ships in the US, so if you live in Canada or elsewhere, you're out of luck. Try www.tigerdirect.ca and www.ncix.com for Canadian shipping.

Keep in mind that upgrading your video card has the potential to improve your framerate significantly, but in order to take advantage of that potential you have to make sure that your system is not being bottlenecked by other parts, such as your CPU or RAM. A process is only as fast as the slowest step in it. So if you have, 256MB (or even 512MB) of RAM, try to upgrade to 1GB if you want good gaming performance. If you have an old CPU, you might want to replace that too.

 

[Mojojly]

Specs

Here are my specs: Intel Pentium 4 1.8 ghz, 512 mb memory, 80 gb hdrive. I'm not sure where to look to find out if its AGP 2x/4x or 4x/8x. Any suggestions??

 

[swker98]

we need to know your budget in order to point you in the right spot

we also need to know what games you like to plau

 

[LipsOfVenom]

P4 1.8 GHz seems to point in the direction of using a motherboard with AGP 4/8 x. Budget does play quite a large factor in the end and different brands (NVidia/ATI) will seem to outperform each other on different games. So many choices. The Nvidia 6800GS seems to be a favorite of mid level cards now...and it's available in AGP so that seems nice. I don't know the ATI equivalents though.