BattleFurby

I currently have a nvidia geforce 4 ti 4600 and, well, it runs Magic the Gathering Online splendidly.

But it runs Guild Wars and, even Neverwinter Nights with some hiccups, and thats with things pretty low on the settings.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my pc..

...it ran WC3 and AofMythology like a champion.. 2 years ago.

But I think its time to upgrade for a little more oomph.

Advise me!

I know there are new things like pci express and sli but wtf, i don't think my 2 year old Talon from FalconNW supports it.

What can I get for my pc that has the most bang for the buck?

Let a noob know.

subdismal

Welcome to PR, BattleFurby. Even though this is your second post, I figured I'd welcome you now anyway, heh.

Check out this discussion from PR; The Video Card Top 20's. I'm sure you can find some good information there! I'm actually not a video card guru at all, but can definitely put you in the right direction!

Cheers!

$SOLID$ Necro

NVIDA has the 6600GT smokin for under 200$ or if you can swing it, the lower end of the 6800 series is still reasonable and very powerfull (under 300$)

ATI has the X-800 series, anything less is not worth bothering with unless you are on a super tight budget.


http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2499&p=4

reflux

Remember prices are dropping loads now that the nVidia 7 series cards are out, so keep your eyes peeled for a bargain.

BattleFurby

Ok, I'm really new to this stuff and am trying to assimilate a whole lot of stuff.

But.. lets say I go with the a card that has this interface... AGP 4x/8x.

This card, in fact...

Geforce 6600GT 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X

And my mobo says it can chill with a 4x.

Does this mean that it will run as 4x?

And am I wrong to assume that if my mobo was 8x it could possibly run much better?

And, oh my goodness, I've got a another question...

What about my current psu, which says two things on it, but I don't know which it is running at... 170Wats and next to it it says 300 Wats with under total power output.

I read a few reviews of some of the higher end gpus and was shocked that I may need to buy an entirely new psu to even run a big dog card. So the final question for the moment is what is the rec. power supply for a Geforce 6600GT and the like.

adios!

Slaymate

8X AGP is faster, but how much. On a high-end system the difference may be noticable. On an older system you'll probably not notice the difference. Not knowing what the make/speed of your cpu is I can only guess. But your cpu would probably bottleneck the card more at 8X than running at 4X.

Edit:
On a budget I would recommend this P/S.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104986
If you can spend more then I would go with this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103934

BattleFurby

Okodoky, Miss Summers.

I think the very last question I have related to all of this, is..

My mobo says it supports agp 2x/4x (1.5V only)

My concern is the (1.5v only) part.

Wtf does that mean? Obviously it means 1.5v only, but.. how does that relate to newer cards?

Pharaoh

Quote: Originally Posted by BattleFurby ...it ran WC3 and AofMythology like a champion.. 2 years ago. But I think its time to upgrade for a little more oomph. Advise me! What can I get for my pc that has the most bang for the buck? Let a noob know.

Upgrading a 2yr old PC may cost you as much as building a new one from scratch.
In order to play the new games coming out you may also need to upgrade the CPU as well.

Another thing to think about is your motherboard. will it take the RAM that may be needed for your upgrades?

Oh and you did not post the specs on the rig you have.

What CPU and how much Ram do you have?

Slaymate

Quote: Originally Posted by BattleFurby Okodoky, Miss Summers. I think the very last question I have related to all of this, is.. My mobo says it supports agp 2x/4x (1.5V only) My concern is the (1.5v only) part. Wtf does that mean? Obviously it means 1.5v only, but.. how does that relate to newer cards?

That's all standard. You'll have no problem.