World of Warcraft: Hardware upgrade for decent FPS

[Thema]

Hey everyone, this is my first post here at Techspot.com, I've used it for reference a few times but never actually posted. I've been playing World Of Warcraft and am looking to get a little more FPS, just so the game works better. Here are my PC stats.

U8668D - A33 VER:7.5
VIA P4M266A + VT8235
Socket 478,Micro ATX
Video, AC ' 97 Audio, LAN
2DDR, ATA - 133, USB 2.0

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440
Celeron(R) CPU 2.40GHz
768MB of RAM
40GIG Master HDD
80GIG Slave HDD
19" CRT Monitor running at 1200x1600 (Not going lower tyvm!)

I'd like to hold around 30fps while raiding and stuff, just don't want it below 20. Reasonable, I believe. Looking to upgrade my graphics card before anything else, if anything else. On the back of my motherboard box it says AGP8x compatible, but I've been told my mobo only likes AGP4x. Hopefuly you guys here at Techspot.com can help me out, I'd love to get WoW working a little harder. Thx in advance. <3 My budget is around $150-250 AUD, But I'd like to spend as little as possible (Tight ***, yup) just so I can notice a decent improvement like I did when I bought my last stick of 512.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Something like a GeForce 6800GS or 7600GS should fall into that price range and give a huge performance increase over a GeForce4 MX (which is basically a GeForce2).

 

[Thema]

Sounds promising, will that slot right in where the MX440 was originally?

 

[Thema]

Found a 7600GS on Ebay, for $200.

Specification:

Clock rate

400 MHz
Memory Clock
533 MHz
Chipset
GeForce 7600 GS
Memory
256 MB
Bus Type
AGP 8X
Memory Type
DDR 2
Memory Bus
128 bit
Highlighted Features
DVI Out , TV Out , DVI Out

This AGP8x business confuses me, because I've been told my motherboard only supports AGP4x, but can go in backwards or something, I'm really not sure. More information? Also, I see heaps of 7600GS cards around, all in different boxes with different looking cards. Kinda confusing.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Newer AGP cards are 4x and 8x compatible. Also, the 7600GS is not an absolute requirement. Get a 6600 or a 6600GT instead. They will run the game perfectly well and save u some cash too. The different boxes are because of the different third-party manufacturers. The cards in them are basically the same, only the clocks differ slightly. Good ones include XFX, eVGA and BFG.

 

[Thema]

Whadda bouta X800GTO?

 

[Thema]

And is my motherboard PCI Express compatible?

 

[JMMD]

As far as I can tell your motherboard has an AGP slot. If you take a look at it there would be a brown slot nearest to the CPU.

 

[Thema]

AGP is PCI Express?

I want this one http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MSI-Geforce-...QQihZ006QQcategoryZ111510QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

For my BIOSTAR U8668D motherboard, possible? Sorry I just don't wanna buy something I can't use, can you gimme the low down on why what won't work where grr.

The nearest slot to my CPU is white with a yellow inside sector, and my GFX card is in it.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

A PCI-Express slot is different from an AGP slot. Since ur running an MX440, u have to have an AGP slot, since MX440s are only available as AGP cards. Also, avoid eBay and get that same card (in AGP form) from a computer store or an online one. That link u posted is for a PCI-Express card so u won't be able to use it anyways.

 

[Thema]

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/4549901000377b02273fc0a87f9c0681/Product/View/XH6908
Would that card be a step in the right direction?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

No. It's very weak to run the game lag-free. Look around for a Radeon 9600PRO/XT or a Radeon 9800SE/PRO instead or for the GeForce cards I mentioned before.