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Recommend a video card upgrade for my pc

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PCNoob101

Member
My machine is a couple years old. I want to get a 22" LCD and be able to play some games like World of Warcraft on high settings at native resolution . I'm looking for some video card recommendations that will let me do this. Also if you think I'll need to upgrade other parts too. Not looking to spend more than $100 on a video card.




Current build:


Antec TRUE480 480W ATX Power supply

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 2.2Ghz socket 939

ASUS A8N-sli 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX

EVGA 256-p2-n369 GeForce 6600 256MB 128-bit

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel


 
Is your setup AGP or PCI-e ?

If it is PCI-e, I would go for something along the lines of a HD4830 or a 9600GT.
 
Originally posted by: JPB
Is your setup AGP or PCI-e ?

If it is PCI-e, I would go for something along the lines of a HD4830 or a 9600GT.
Click to expand...

His mobo is an ASUS A8N-sli 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX , so yes, it's PCI-e.

Might also want to get an X2 or Opteron and drop it in there. And another GB of RAM.
 
Socket 939 cpus are getting hard to find. Mostly small retailers or ebay now - and the few you find are so expensive you might as well just upgrade your mobo with a current gen processor and be done with it. I found a socket 939 X2 4200+ - $165! And that was the cheapest I could find.

For your current CPU I wouldn't get anything more powerful than an HD 4670, 9600 GT, 9600 GSO, HD 3870.
 
Originally posted by: Leyawiin
Socket 939 cpus are getting hard to find. Mostly small retailers or ebay now - and the few you find are so expensive you might as well just upgrade your mobo with a current gen processor and be done with it. I found a socket 939 X2 4200+ - $165! And that was the cheapest I could find.

For your current CPU I wouldn't get anything more powerful than an HD 4670, 9600 GT, 9600 GSO, HD 3870.
Click to expand...

Uhhh, I guess you didn't look very closely....

Opteron 165 - $99.99 (or Best Offer)
X2-4200 + 1 GB RAM - $100 (still bidding)
X2-3800 - $85 (Buy It Now)
Opteron 165 - $110 Buy It Now, bids start at $50

Just a quick look on Fleabay.

AT FS/T might have some deals. It's not a great value proposition, but it's an easy computing boost.
 
Uhhh, I mentioned ebay... The one I found was via Pricewatch and a small retailer. Who knows what ebay is going to have from one day to the next?

Regardless, I personally wouldn't invest money even in the amounts you listed in out-dated tech. You can get a new budget mobo and CPU for about $200 and it would run rings around any upgrade.
 
I wanted to get a small upgrade now that would hold me over for another year or so. Everything is fine except it is struggling with most games. Do you think if I got a 9600 GT my cpu would be holding it back?

With the new i7 out I really didn't want to do a full upgrade because prices are super high and I don't think it would be smart to get a whole new build of anything older than the i7.
 
Originally posted by: Leyawiin
Regardless, I personally wouldn't invest money even in the amounts you listed in out-dated tech. You can get a new budget mobo and CPU for about $200 and it would run rings around any upgrade.
Click to expand...

+1

X2 4850e $60 + Asus 780G $66 + 4GB G.Skill DDR2-800 $45 = $171
e5200 $83 + Foxconn G43 $65AR + 4GB G.Skill $45 = $193

Add a 3870/4670/9600GT/9800GT for $70-100 and you'll run WoW smooth as silk at 16x10.
 
Originally posted by: PCNoob101
I wanted to get a small upgrade now that would hold me over for another year or so. Everything is fine except it is struggling with most games. Do you think if I got a 9600 GT my cpu would be holding it back?
Click to expand...

I think it will struggle with most games even if you upgrade your CPU. Modern games are written with dual core in mind, and all single core CPUs struggle a bit. WoW 3.x I can personally attest to, will run pretty crappy with a single core CPU, even with an HD4850.

I can also attest to it running quite well with a dual core 939 at only 1.8 GHz with an HD4850.

In other words, WoW really likes dual core CPUs, and once it gets one, it doesn't really matter if it's a crappy dual core or a great one.

Several of my guildmates have gone the cheap route to support high settings in WoW 3.x...
4850e + 780G board + 2 or 4 gigs + 9600GT or 9800GT / 4830

That happens for around $200-300 depending on what options you go for and the rapidly fluctuating prices on hardware in this price range. Worst I've heard from this kind of setup was from one who went 4GB / 9600GT and plays in Linux through wine at 1920x1200. he was getting dips into the high 30s on framerates soloing. Most who go the 9800GT / 4830 / 4850 route are pegging 60 FPS with vsync enabled and 4xAA.
 
 
Beautiful, that setup will glide through WoW (and even many other games if you so desire).

Enjoy the build!
 
Am I going to need to do a reformat/clean install of XP once I install these new parts? If I dont NEED to, is it highly recommended?
 
Originally posted by: PCNoob101
Am I going to need to do a reformat/clean install of XP once I install these new parts? If I dont NEED to, is it highly recommended?
Click to expand...

Yes. I think it's always a good idea to reformat and reload everything when installing new parts. This way you won't have any glitches or conflicts. Enjoy your new computer!:thumbsup:

 
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