Radeon 9600 Upgrade

[PCnoob]

Hey im new to this forum and i was pointed this way by a friend. I'm looking to upgrade my Radeon 9600 to something better i was looking to spend $200-$250 on a newer card theres so many cards out there i need help narrowing it down any help is much appreciated.

 

[mwmorph]

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=217999
best card at your price point.
$300 -$50 rebate.

I'd say this is about 3x as fast.

 

[dme92189]

if your willing to pay a little more, find a deal on a 7800gt, maybe 270 with a good deal.

 

[nts]

Originally posted by: dme92189
if your willing to pay a little more, find a deal on a 7800gt, maybe 270 with a good deal.

Since he has a 9600 he is probably on AGP

I second the X850XT, this is the fastest AGP card (behind the XTPE)

 

[Powermoloch]

Lol..ppl need to read these days..but yeah. X850xt agp will do good...just make sure that you have a top notch (ok) power supply.

 

[PCnoob]

Thanks guys reading around thats what i was going to start to look into
Yes, i do have AGP
How do i check my powersupply?

 

[mwmorph]

take off the side of the case and see what the +12v rail(s) are rated at.

 

[PCnoob]

i took off the side and took a look at it and i couldnt really identify the power source could you give me a better idea what im looking for?

 

[mwmorph]

top left corner, a big metal box with a lot of wires, yellow and black mostly comin g out of it. connects to all th edrives.

 

[PCnoob]

alright i think i found it but i found a few numbers on it there was 5v +12v -12v 3.3v i think another 5V i was gunna take a pictrue of it but the glare was too bad

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: PCnoob
alright i think i found it but i found a few numbers on it there was 5v +12v -12v 3.3v i think another 5V i was gunna take a pictrue of it but the glare was too bad

under or next to +12V, it will say something like 14A or 19A or something similar like it says for the rest of the numbers, Higher is better and the brands pretty important too. tell me what the brand is and the number. for a X850xt, i'd get around 18A at least, 20 to be safe on a 1 cpu, 1 hard drive, 1 optical, 1 video card and 1 sound card system.

 

[zagood]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: PCnoob
alright i think i found it but i found a few numbers on it there was 5v +12v -12v 3.3v i think another 5V i was gunna take a pictrue of it but the glare was too bad

under or next to +12V, it will say something like 14A or 19A or something similar like it says for the rest of the numbers, Higher is better and the brands pretty important too. tell me what the brand is and the number. for a X850xt, i'd get around 18A at least, 20 to be safe on a 1 cpu, 1 hard drive, 1 optical, 1 video card and 1 sound card system.

Probably going to need higher amps on that. 26a for single rail, around 32a or more for dual.

PCnoob: what that means is, newer power supplies have two +12v rails. You'll see specs like "+12v1: 18a, +12v2: 16a." Combined should be at least 32 amps (a).

Please tell us what computer you have. Sounds like you didn't build it yourself, so you should have a tag on the make/model somewhere on the case.

-z

 

[PCnoob]

Actually my father's friend made it for me out of a few different extra parts he had so i could play some computer games i got 2 years ago its mostly dell i think the motherboard is changed and it has a audigy soundcard and i got this 9600 as a gift a while back but the harddrive, case, powersupply and CD and DVD drives are dell

 

[inveterate]

SAVE ur money,,, and Buy an Athlon 64 setup when u get to college

 

[Zimdesign]

I just bought a BFG GeForce 6600GT OC 128MB to replace my 9600 Pro.