Buying a New Video card

[akaivan]

Hey everyone im gettin this video card off craigslist for 25$ Its a evga Geforce FX5200 128mb. It will be a big upgrade from my pci 32mb lol. I need this video card to run battlefield 2 with smooth and clean graphics with no lag or problems. I want good detail, but nuthin to special like 512 mb. is this a good deal? And how would the graphics look like? got a link? I have an ecs motherboard with open agp, and also can i keep my current video card for a boost to go with other video card? thnaks for looking

 

[mailpup]

That card is too low and is not supported by Battlefield 2. So "smooth and clean graphics with no lag or problems," - no.

It should be an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 or greater or ATI Radeon 8500 or greater. And these cards are minimum. Even they won't be without lag problems.

 

[akaivan]

ok but is this a alright card? and what will it run? i play kinda recent games, but not to knew. I also play american army.! And will it play war rock???

 

[notcorn]

$25 is good value for that particular card but for games like BF2 it just isn't enough
consider a 256 meg card for reasonable draw distance with maybe 128 bit memory for improved performance but even with the Fx5600 and Fx5700 series cards you expect low end graphical settings.

 

[spartanslayer]

I have a Geforce 6600 GT, and I still have problems running Battlefield 2 at the lowest settings, because of my processor! How fast is yours?

 

[notcorn]

I run Battlefield 2 with reasonably low settings too but I do get a decent framerate.My system is relatively low end with a 256 meg Radeon 9250 and 2.4 Ghz P4 processor with 1Gb of Ram.

 

[akaivan]

my specs is a p4 2.4 set on 1.8(the MOTHERBOARD!!!! dont ask y!lol) And i have like 750 sumthin ram.. :dead: ..............i guess im never gunna be able to play battlefield one day in a couple of years

 

[notcorn]

You have enough RAM and adequate processor speed all you need now is a newer graphics card the Fx5200 you mentioned isn't bad but unfortunately isn't supported for BF2. If you don't want to play BF2 the 5200 is bargain otherwise aim for an Fx5700 or a radeon 8500 or better. I’m sure you'll find any of these cards for an AGP slot at a low price. By the way what speed is Your AGP slot?

 

[akaivan]

i really dont know th speed, is there a way to check??

 

[DonNagual]

Download and run CPU-z on your system and click the "mainboard" tab, then look under "graphic interface" and it lists your transfer rate in there.

 

[akaivan]

under graphic interface everything is blank?????? :dead:

 

[notcorn]

Well the most straightforward way to know is to check your Motherboard model
and try to find it's specs if you don't know your model I would recommend using a tool called Belarc advisor. It's free program for computer analysis and you can download it at www.belarc.com. This program is 900kb in size. your AGP speed will help you find the best AGP card but having said that I've seen even the low end 2X speed slots Run BF2.My own is a mere 4X and contains an 8X speed card. Most cards are backwards compatible anyway so it may not be too important.

 

[DonNagual]

What is your motherboard make/model? Does it even have an AGP slot? If not, that would explain why. You would be limited to PCI graphics.

 

[DonNagual]

Is this your board?

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/Productsdetail.aspx?detailid=51&MenuID=16&LanID=0

Looks like you have an AGP 4x slot.

 

[akaivan]

yep thats it, is that compatible????

 

[DonNagual]

You mean, will an FX5200 work in there? Looks like you should be fine, assuming your PSU has enough extra juice for the upgrade.

I had an FX5200, with an AthlonXP 3200+ and a Gig of ram. Games were barely playable, with massive lag in the framerates. I ended up dumping that card after a few months of suffering with it.

 

[akaivan]

ok sounds like i shouldnt go with the card...... i need to find a new mobo now.

 

[akaivan]

I think im going to buy this....mobo its one of the cheapest things there and all i can afford. will this be compatible with my current sytem specs??????? look in my profile. If this isnt good please tell me and what do you recomend?

 

[twite]

what socket is your mobo?

 

[akaivan]

my current one is a 478

 

[twite]

then the mobo should work

 

[akaivan]

ok but is it good? do you recomend anything?

 

[DonNagual]

Upgrading your mobo to the same socket doesn't make sense to me. If you are going to upgrade, you should do the whole package, and get the latest socket type.

I am assuming that right now, you don't have that kind of cash lying around. So let me ask you a few questions:

1. First, why is your CPU clocked at 1.8ghz?

2. How many watts is your current PSU, and who made it?

3. How much money do you want to spend TOTAL to upgrade your system?

If you can answer those three questions, I (we) can point you in the right direction.

I am leaning towards telling you to get a 9800pro graphics card, and upgrade your ram (keeping your current CPU and motherboard). But first, I want to know why it is clocked at 1.8Ghz.

Here is the list of CPUs your motherboard supports. Is your current CPU not on that list? http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Produc...16&LanID=0&DetailID=51&DetailName=CPU Support

 

[mailpup]

The CPU socket is right but you might want to upgrade your RAM. Your old mobo at best supported 184-pin DDR DIMM socket, DDR266/200 DDR SDRAM. The new mobo will support DDR 400 (PC 3200) so you'll want to take advantage of that.

Also, in looking at your profile I saw that you currently have 256MB RAM. The minimum requirement for BF2 is 512MB RAM with 1GB recommended.

 

[akaivan]

1. my cpu is clocked at 1.8 becauase it doesnt suport 2.4 for an intel, wel thats wat i read??? LOOK here

2. my power supply is 350w

3. im hoping to spen around 120$ to get it finished.

So i was looking for another mobo that will support 2.4 ghz, and will support 8x agp. Ans i cant afford another cpu so i wanted to keep mine. Im on a low budget im only 15.lol im tryin to sell my ipod min for the cash to finish my computer... :dead: