Upgrading home PC for some games

[gsteffens]

This is regarding my friend's computer. This is his rig.

Gateway GT5040 Specs - DealTime


He has had it a couple years and day to day it works like a charm. Just today we tried to run Battlefield 2 on it and after looking the specs over found it actually has no graphics card.

I was thinking we should upgrade the RAM to these

Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

and then also upgrade the video card.


This computer is not going to be a dedicated gamer like the one I built, but we would like to at least bet BF2 going and room for some others. Any good basic video cards that won't break the bank that you guys can reccommend?

Thanks much in advance!

 

[Fat.Clown]

note
ram will only run at max of PC2-5300 speeds (DDR2 533Mhz)

Vid - 8800GS

also have your friend checkout the power supply in the gateway, to see if it is enough to run it

 

[Trotter]

BF2 doesn't need a whole lot of card to run. It requires at least an FX5700/Radeon 8500 or better, so any card from the Nvidia 6xxx, 7xxx, 8xxx, 9xxx would run it, as would and ATI 9xxx, 1xxx, 2xxx, 3xxx, 4xxx.

If you are wanting eye candy, shoot higher. Several in my clan have been running it on ATI 9150's, some on ATI 1950PRO's. We've got some running on 8600's (one moved up from a 9150 and was blown away by the difference). The more powerful the card, the easier it will run and the more eye candy it can handle.

 

[SleepingWRX]

Newbie needing upgrade help

Ok now that gsteffens has prompted me to now I have joined. I am the one looking for some help here. We tried to fit his graphic card in my computer, but it was too big...:freak: His card was a bit too thick and as he has told me might be too much for what I want to do. I just basically would like to run BF2 and that's the only game for now I will be playing on the PC. (just can't get away from my PS3 most days) Just a little background on the computer - I didn't pick it, my mom bought it, used it for a few months, then changed jobs and didn't need it anymore so she just gave it to me. I'm not going to complain, it was free and has worked quite well so far. Thanks guys...I'm somewhat of a newbie when it comes to internal components, and I just quickly browsed Newegg and saw a ton of options sooooo...any help would be appreciated! (I won't be offended if you "dumb it down" for me)

 

[Trotter]

Re: Newbie needing upgrade help

OK. First off, tell what the make and model of the computer it is so we can look up the specs of it. And then tell what the card is (make and model and interface [PCI, PCI-E, AGP, or have no idea]). We'll be able to tell you a lot more with that information.

 

[gsteffens]

This is the type of card we are looking at, should this do what we need?

Newegg.com - JATON Video-PX8400GS_EX GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Low Profile Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards


The main issue is fitment. My gigantor MSI 8800GTS won't fit, and like you said I guess BF2 doesn't require that much "card" to play.

Please take a look at the computer specs link up top and then this card and let me know if it would work. Thanks!

 

[SleepingWRX]

.....

 

[SleepingWRX]

Bump...can anyone tell me if that card will for sure run BF2? I really would like to start playing and don't want to spend $55 if it's not going to at least run the game...

 

[Trotter]

Yes, it will run it. However, here is more card for less money:
Newegg.com - CHAINTECH GSV85GT 512MB GeForce 8500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

 

[Drizzt]

8500 gt will run crysis on lowly settings. It's a decent cheap card.