Best graphics card match for my system

[firelance]

hi,
i hav a system thts pretty old 3 yrs or so....
P4 1.6,256mb DDR,32mb onboard graphics S3 prosavage(old aint it?)
mobo ECS make,VIA chipset,120 GB maxtor..

i upgraded from 512 mb sdram recently to 256mb DDR..problem is i wanna a graphics card to make my system complete....and my mobo has issues..it wont take an 8X card(i've tested).....and i hav this gut feelin tht the mobo wont recognize more than 64mb ram( the mobo is ancient u see and buyin 128mb GPU will be a waste of bucks for me)

so suggestion is a GF4 Ti but tht thing is difficult to get at this point of time..... i seem to hav some revulsion towards GF4 MX series and ATi R8500 seems kinda too old.......
do u guys hav any ideas..of course if nothin else opens up which is the better of GF4 MX series,R8500,R9200/9100..........

i'm open to suggestions from the techies out here..maybe a relative grading of 5 cards comnpatible with my !@#$%!! mobo.
thnks

-firelance

 

[mailman1]

dude!. instead of keep putting some, and some more money into your ancient pc isnt very practical. Save your money. and get a new mainboard,cpu,ram,gpu later.. i was considering buying more ram for my computer, but i really want the whole thing new. so ill rather save the money. because the ram isnt useable on the next computer im going to buy.

sure if you really want a better computer to play some game youve bought or is going to buy. The way to get there is 512 mb ddr ram. and a gf4ti dont worry about the 128 mb ram .. if you find the card to be sold anywhere

 

[firelance]

best card to play GTA vice city

hi,
thnx mailman for ur reply but am not a hardcore gamer.
right now i wud just like to get better effects for games like GTA,and ok effects for UG2 etcetra....doom 3 at high resolution will havta wait.....
i understand tht suggesting an apt card for my ancient system is a sweat but if u a techie it shud be a piece of cake.
if u cud actually gimme a range of cards tht wudnt bottleneck my system i wud be grateful.
waitin for a reply.
thnx!

 

[mailman1]

well.. the new cards are GPU's ... so that they shouldnt bottleneck your system. But putting an expensive card in is kinda waste. you have a Pentium 4 cpu in there. And you have DDR ram, but only 256 of it. Your computer is not that old. But your Graphic card sux. For your system i would buy a radeon 9600 - or even higher. Or geforce 4 TI if you find it. But stay away from the Geforce FX.. ive heard strange things about them.

I dont know what OS you are using . but you have less ram (but faster) in your computer now. If youre using WINXP . 256mb is nothing. And you might downgrade, to windows 2000, windows ME. or even windows 98. Then your computer will really speed up, compared to windows XP. If you go with win 98.. remember to find drivers for your network card ... that was a pain in the *** last time i installed win98.

 

[firelance]

yo,
mailman thnx dude,tht wuz useful info but maybe ATi R9600 is way outta my league in terms of price
:hotouch: ..sorry i forgot to mention my price range......i put in a mail coz i read some threads suggesting an ATi R8500 for a P3 933 system and i felt justified in asking for a better card for my system(its 1.6 Ghz after all!!)
A R9600 will certainly not bottleneck my 'puter but i kinda feel my system is gonna bottleneck that amazing card..u see my DDR speed is only 200 Mhz and i think the clock speeds of R9600 is way beyond tht.........
hopefully i cud stick to something between R9000 and R9500?
but if the prices of a GF 4 Ti and R9600 r comparable i think i'm better off with a 9600 coz of the DX 9 support
wht do u think?
thnx buddy!