My friend has a GeForce Ti4200 (128mb). He want's to upgrade, but like many of us he doesn't want to break the bank either. I recommended either a Radeon 9800 Pro (example: http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/components/graphicscards/productView.htm?quicklinx=2HGH), or a 9800 XT. Either that or wait for the 6800's or X800 XT's to drop in price...
Anyway, 3 questions:-
1) In the 9800 series, what is the difference between the Pro and the XT? I also notice there is the 'Ultimate' version, again what is this?
2) His MoBo is a Gigabyte GA-7DXE, and only features AGP 4x bandwidth. So, if he were to go out and buy a top-of-the-range AGP 8x card, would it be crippled necessarily?
3) Silly question, but what EXACTLY does more virtual RAM on a graphics card do? So it's faster than system memory, but at the present what advantage does a 256mb card have over a 128mb card? Would I be right in saying that we're entiering an era when games will take advantage of more virtual RAM (Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Quake 4, Unreal 3)?...
EDIT: The rest of his vital specs are: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ @1.67 ghz, 1gb of DDR, 300w PSU.
Thanks.
Anyway, 3 questions:-
1) In the 9800 series, what is the difference between the Pro and the XT? I also notice there is the 'Ultimate' version, again what is this?
2) His MoBo is a Gigabyte GA-7DXE, and only features AGP 4x bandwidth. So, if he were to go out and buy a top-of-the-range AGP 8x card, would it be crippled necessarily?
3) Silly question, but what EXACTLY does more virtual RAM on a graphics card do? So it's faster than system memory, but at the present what advantage does a 256mb card have over a 128mb card? Would I be right in saying that we're entiering an era when games will take advantage of more virtual RAM (Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Quake 4, Unreal 3)?...
EDIT: The rest of his vital specs are: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ @1.67 ghz, 1gb of DDR, 300w PSU.
Thanks.