IS it worth it for me? Quick responses and suggestions is all I need...

[Ulchieman]

I have a fairly crappy system and prolly one of the worst on these boards....

Amd Athlon T-Bird 700mHz(ouch)
384 megs of Pc 133 ram(ouch)
soundblaster live X-gamer
tnt2 ultra(what i want to discuss)

that's the basics

so I was wondering, is it worth it to upgrade to a Radeon 9500 pro with these system specs, or will the grfx card not benefit me beyond a certain point?

 

[Shooters]

A Radeon 9500 Pro wouldn't be worth it. I say go for a GeForce2 at the most. Of course you could always get the Radeon and hang onto it if you ever decide to upgrade the rest of your system in the future.

 

[John]

Get a new mobo (sd & ddr) and cpu instead.

 

[Ulchieman]

John:

My parents own the computer that I am currently on and the benefits I would get with upgrading it with new mobo and vid card would be limited because of the amount of time I am able to use it. That's why i've decided to buy a new computer so that my parents could kinda screw off and I could use it when I want to. Currently, I have to share it with 5 ppl. My chunk of time is larger than the rest of them and all, but I just want my own so i see no point in spending 500(canadian) on a new mobo+cpu+grfx card

 

[eklass]

conversly, if you're planning to upgrade everything else, a new video card would be a decent start, although wait for the 9800/9600 debut. also, i would recommend going new mobo/cpu/ddr ram first. where do you spend majority of your time? surfing the net or playing battlefield ?

 

[Ulchieman]

not to mention RAM and more....with 350 a month(part-time, im in school) it would be a waste....

 

[Ulchieman]

Eklass: I wish i could play battlefield, but it turns out that U have to have a geforce or higher, and I have no such luck with my tnt2 ultra
all Im looking for is a video card that will last me(and play my games fine) till september when I get my new computer
my tnt2 ultra plays most games pretty laggy(counterstrike is choppy, ouch eh?)
that's why im not spending much
my new com, ill be spending 2500 canadian on it or so....so i dont want to really spend 1000 right now to upgrade this computer which I'll never use again after september....

are there any suggestions for a video card that can play games like bf1942 and should work on games coming out till september?

 

[eklass]

well, for example, my last system had the following specs:

Athlon TBird B 850 Mhz
512MB RAM
Geforce2 MX


Played most games fine, but was starting to slowdown on newer stuff like Battlefield. Now, your system specs are similar albeit a bit slower. That said, I'm sure you could grab a cheap Geforce2 that would work in great combo with your specs. Pricewatch is showing a Geforce2 MX400 64MB for $33.

That is probably just what you need as anythign more powerfull is gonna be cpu limited

 

[Ulchieman]

thanks for the advice eklass.....really appreciate it man.....ill check into that....i think my friend has a left over geforce 2 that i can try out....

thx