PC Graphics Card Help Please!

[sdfb6]

A couple of days ago I decided to not play FFXI on 360 w/ a regular TV, and instead invest the money in a nice graphics card. I'm in college so I can't shell out a lot, I was thinking the best graphics card I can get from $100-150. I don't know almost anything about them, except that it's either ATI or NVIDIA.

Specs:

Pentium 4 @ 3.06 Ghz
504 MB Ram
Microsoft XP

Can someone please help me and tell me what is the best thing i can buy for that price? and what score do you think i'll get bench wise? Thanks so much!

[TBoTB]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

You have a good processor to start out with, your ram is ok but minimal to todays standard so it could become a choke point (if you get a high end card later on) but wont be a problem now (video card wise). I would recommend ATI Raedon 9600s, i think the regular 9600 sells for about $80-$100 if im not mistaken. Or, if your buying online you can ge a 9800pro 8x AGP which is a pretty good card for $140 at http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=320741. I Dont know anything about Nvidia's video cards to the extent to give you advice on them.

[neighbortaru]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

how do you only have 504 MB of RAM? is some of it being used by integrated video? if that's the case, first make sure your computer has an agp or pci-e (16x) slot.

[TBoTB]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

how do you only have 504 MB of RAM? is some of it being used by integrated video? if that's the case, first make sure your computer has room for an agp or pci-e (16x) slot.

Thats true, you dont want to buy a card and have a system that dosent support it. An AGP slot is about 7/10ths the size of a PCI slot but the most noticable difference is that it is brown while all the other slots are opaque'ish. Another concern is the that you have enough room for the card. ATI is pretty good with its card size in lenth and width, the hight is almost all the same for any card.

[sdfb6]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

Thanks so far, like i said i'm bad with knowing the places on computers. I have an HP Pavilion a1120n. Here it is:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...PX759AAR%23ABA

I"m turning my computer off for a minute to take pics if i have the avaiable slots or not, please stay tune, lol, thx

Double Post Edited:
Ok, i took a picture, there seems to be two brown slots, but i'm not sure what that means. I was worried about graphics cards, but i don't even know if i can take them?? Am i good??

[neighbortaru]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

if those are your only slots, you're screwed. those are 3 (regular) PCI slots.

can you take a bigger picture? like of the entire motherboard?

[sdfb6]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

Yeah, i just read that my PC doesn't have them. I really am screwed i can't believe it. First the xbox 360 + FFXI + HDTV is $1000, so i'm thinking graphics card, but i can't even do that , so now it's...it's...stuck with my PS2! This sucks but thanks a lot. I guess i can't do anything about it then. The PC was $600, i thought it would at least have a slot

[neighbortaru]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

most cheapo computers don't have much in terms of expandablitity/upgradability. PS2 isn't so bad, at least you can play...

[sdfb6]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

lol, yeah, i just got back to PS2 for this month just to see if i want to go to 360, oh and i really! want to come back, i just wanted to come back to a graphics up! Now i'm kinda stuck, i guess i better go buy a PS2 controller.

AHHHH HA! i've heard of a PCI to AGP converter. Has anyone heard about that or knows if one exist / will work for me / stick with ps2 lol? thanks

[neighbortaru]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

don't bother. if you are going to spend your money on neutering your AGP to work on a PCI slot, then you might as well buy a PCI card (which is pretty stupid anyway).

[sdfb6]

Re: PC Graphics Card Help Please!

LOL, I just ran the newest bench mark on low resolution and i got a 2826, tough PC, is that good? The way the bench looked sucked on low, lol, but what do you think? sorry if i'm sounding stupid.


I got a "Decent Challenge" PC 1800 on high resolution. I don't have a graphics card, but on the benchmark the graphics looked awesome. IF I LIKED THE WAY THE GRAPHICS LOOKED, IF I BUY FFXI, WILL THEY LOOK THE SAME? ALSO, DO I NEED TO HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD, IS IT A MUST!!!??? becuae i liked how the high res looked