What Graphics Card?

[vialli25]

Hi, I have a relatively old omputer seeing as it's 4 years old. I want to be able to play the latest PC games on my machine but wondered if it was just a graphics card I'd need.

My PC Specs are

WinXP HE
1GHz Pentium 3
128MB RAM
40GB HDD

and I currently have a GeForce 2 MX. Now I know this is shit compared to what you guys have now, but all I wondered is, would it be ok for me just to upgrade the graphics card or would that not improve the performance of my games that much? Would I have to upgrade my RAM and processor aswell?

Cheers, James

p.s I know I'm a newbie so go easy on me...

 

[bubba0315]

I don't really know where to start, so here it goes. You definitely need a new gfx card, if you like nvidia, then get a 5700, or if not, then go for ATI 9800 pro. You'll need some more memory, for sure, and to play the "latest" games, you'll probably need a different processor. I might be wrong on the processer, but better safe that sorry But for now, get at least 512 RAM in your system, as well as a new vid card, and you should be alright.

Hope this helps

Mike

 

[U-Toast]

if ur on a budget, u can get a nice amd xp system for cheap, a xp 2400+ is like 60$. Then get a mobo for it, doesnt cost that much. Get 512 ram, bout 70$ for performance ram. And gfx card.. if on a budget, get a 9600 xt, or 9700 pro.
Hope this helped

 

[beedubaya]

Putting one of the latest graphics cards in a system that old won't do you much good. Your processor is a Pentium III at 1GHz, which is way outdated. I would suggest that you build a new system, getting an Athlon XP processor if you are on a budget or an Athlon 64 processor if you have the cash. Then I would get the GeForce 6800 GT, which will give you a magnificant gaming experience.

 

[Raekwon]

beedubaya, you really like the 6800GT dont u had bad experiences with the X800Pro?

not to be harsh, vialli25 but i dont think you can expect to play the latest games on a P3 1Ghz. altho... a friend of mine had a P3 450Mhz with 512Mb PC133 and an MX440 AGP8x and that ran everything appart from farcry, not very well, but it wasnt a really good graphics card. still tho, if you have the money i would definately recommend upgrading your system to an Athlon XP2500+ and a 9600XT or a 9800Pro, with 2x256Mb ram (dual channel). that would be a decent system.

 

[didi]

Well,vialli25, if u want to play latest games, sure first thing is get a good graphic card at least radeon9800 or FX5900. Second thing is your ram, at least make it to 512MB.
But for what i seen, i suggest u to change a new system which mobo support agp8x, DDR ram or dual channel.

 

[WeHa]

well cpu is not really signficant to play today games. just upgrade ur graphic card to atl least ATI Radeon 9700 or nVidia GeForce 5700. and next ur RAM must be at least 512 MB. that's all

 

[Raekwon]

well, it does have some importance, the amount of info that can be sent to the graphics card has to be able to be processed by the CPU first, so it does have significance. but no, you dont need a really fast one to get good results, though it would help significantly.

 

[vialli25]

k thanks. I will most probably wait until christmas and get a brand new pc. Seeing as I don't have money to throw away, I can't really upgrade my system by much at the moment.