Graphics Cards

[Aratron]

im getting a new pc , its got on-board intel accelerator 900 graphics on it.
i also have a nvidia fx 5500 that i could install on the pc.
i have heard that both will struggle to run games that i like , like rome total war.
can anyone recommend a reasonable graphics card?

[dan the acid man]

what's your budget ?

whats the rest of the specs of the pc ? if you know, such as porcessor speed, ammount of memory

[dan the acid man]

also, does your new pc have an agp slot for a graphics card, or just pci

[Aratron]

here is a link to the pc i am getting. its on credit from the catalogue - so now comments please about what a tool i am for getting riped off!!

http://www.greatessentials.co.uk/psnlnet/product.aspx?brand=GUES&cat_id=15170&zone_id=0&pro d_id=216092&fh_secondid=216092&fh_view_size=47&fh_ start_index=47&fh_eds=%3f&fh_usertype=guesc3&fh_lo cation=%2f%2fpersonals%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3c%7b1 5002%7d%2fcategori

can you tell anything from this.
my budget maybe up to 60 pounds

[dan the acid man]

it's hard to say from that, it could have an agp slot, or even a pci express slot, or none, you're best waiting until it arrives then have a look in the manual, or take the side off the case and have a look

[dan the acid man]

to be honest though, with that kind of budget, you're not going to get much better than your fx5500, unless you can find a secondhand ati 9800pro

[Aratron]

so in your opinion what budget should i be looking for, what would you recommend for running decent graphics/games etc? i dont want top-end i just want something decent.
theres a shop round the corner for me says they will fit it for nowt depending on my mother - board. wot would you go for n-vidian or radeon and which one.

[dan the acid man]

well, for cards thats going to give a better performance than your fx5500 to warrant upgrading, then you're looking at ati 9800pro, x800, x850, x1600, nvidia 6800, new, these cards are from £80 to £130ish.

your fx5500 should handle rome total war easily.
what other games do you play ?

[Aratron]

well, for cards thats going to give a better performance than your fx5500 to warrant upgrading, then you're looking at ati 9800pro, x800, x850, x1600, nvidia 6800, new, these cards are from £80 to £130ish.

your fx5500 should handle rome total war easily.
what other games do you play ?

i havent got the new pc.
i have an old pc with the fx5500 in it. but my old pc is totally disabled i can get on the internet and thats about it - i have messages everywhere saying - you are running a counterfeited version of windows xp.
so im gonna out the 5500 in the new pc.
i play rome total war. medieveal total war.
thats about it really.
im not into half life and shit like that

[dan the acid man]

well have a look out for any of those models i mentioned then, another one to look out for is an ati 9600pro or an ati 9600xt.

[Aratron]

i have been recommended 7600gt and 7600gs - by some guy on www.pcgamer.com
do you know what they are - i think about 150 quid or something

i have heard medieval total war 2 is out soon- i wouldnt mind running that on summat decent

[dan the acid man]

a 7600 is a good card, they do go for around £150, but i've not seen an agp one yet, only pci express, so you need to find out exactly what graphics card slot your new pc will have before buying a card.

i prefer ati cards over nvidias, and if i was buying a new card now, i'd buy an ati1800xt, but they over £200, and you'd also need a new psu in your pc, as they need quite a bit of power.

one other upgrade for your pc at a later date would be to get another stick of 512Mb of memory

[Aratron]

nice one, someone else has said that aswell, you mean having one gig of RAM right!?
if i were a rich man la la la la la

[dan the acid man]

yeah, when you get the pc, find out what speed the memory is ( i can tell you how to find out if you're stuck), then all you do is buy another stick of 512Mb when you can afford it, taking your memory upto 1024Mb

[Aratron]

whats the discernible difference then?
i've noticed the latest games require a spare 512Mb but wot will the other 512Mb do?

[TechMouse]

whats the discernible difference then?
i've noticed the latest games require a spare 512Mb but wot will the other 512Mb do?

Depends what kind of memory it is, but some modern systems run with dual-channel memory, so you get much better performance out of them in terms of memory access.

[Aratron]

all i want is to be able to play rome total war and be able to record mixes onto my pc

[dan the acid man]

you'll be fine with 512Mb unless you're going to be playing any new games, as most new games now require 1024Mb.

so you'll be fine with 512Mb for a while

[Aratron]

you'll be fine with 512Mb unless you're going to be playing any new games, as most new games now require 1024Mb.

so you'll be fine with 512Mb for a while

jesus i dint know that.
i'll deff get another 512 k of memory.
so wots all the 120 gb on my harddrive doing ? doesnt that get used when your playing pagems and stuff, and doesnt a graphic card help out say if its 256mb or something?

[dan the acid man]

no, your memory (ram) is used to store data you're currently using, so when you're playing games, data gets loaded into your memory for temporary use, thats why when you're walking on something, and you don't save it to your hard drive, you lose it when you shut the porgram or pc down.

an easy way to explain it is your hard drive is a filing cabinet, used to store all your programs and data, your memory is your desk, so when you're walking on it, you fetch it from your filing cabinet, and work on it all on your desk, when you're done, you take it back to the filing cabinet and file it away, otherwise the office cleaner comes and throws it away thinking its rubbish

[Aratron]

no, your memory (ram) is used to store data you're currently using, so when you're playing games, data gets loaded into your memory for temporary use, thats why when you're walking on something, and you don't save it to your hard drive, you lose it when you shut the porgram or pc down.

an easy way to explain it is your hard drive is a filing cabinet, used to store all your programs and data, your memory is your desk, so when you're walking on it, you fetch it from your filing cabinet, and work on it all on your desk, when you're done, you take it back to the filing cabinet and file it away, otherwise the office cleaner comes and throws it away thinking its rubbish

i have say asked the pc how much ram is available , it will say 212mb out of 252mb. if a game needs 252 to run, i the same still gonna be able to run?

[dan the acid man]

look at the minimum specs for the game you're playing, if it says 512Mb or less you will be fine, im sure the game you're on about only requires 256Mb, so 512Mb will be ok.

although having said that, minimum specs on games is exactly that, the minimum your pc needs for it to run, i'd always want a little more of everything they ask.

but 512Mb for this game will be enough

[Aratron]

have you ever played star trek - birth of the federation?
my fav game period

[dan the acid man]

no, im not a trek fan

[danielmarshall]

The GeForce 7800GS is available for AGP now and it's a great card. If you're wise though you'll spend about half that and get 75% of the performance on a GeForce 6800GS. That works out to $AU380 in Australia. Not sure how much that is in pommy speak. It has all the nice pretty DirectX 9 shader feeatures technology too and should be good enough to run just about anything for a while.