Should I Upgrade Video Card in Athlon XP 1700+ Box

[cowdogmoof]

I want to be able to play Half-Life 2, WoW, and UT2K4 on my current box. I'd like the games to look decent but I don't need to have every setting maxed out and am even willing to run these games at 1024x768.

The question I face is this: do I need to upgrade my entire box to play these games or can I simply upgrade the video card in my current machine (to something like a 6600). I'm not sure if my CPU will be able to keep a modern video card saturated.

Current Box
Athlon XP 1700+
NForce 2 Chipset
1 GB RAM
GeForce 4 MX 64 MB

Thanks!

 

[numark]

That sort of machine should be able to run the games well in terms of CPU power and memory. The best thing to do is upgrade to a high-quality AGP video card and you should be able to run things fine. I was able to get a Radeon 9500 with an Athlon XP 2100+ to play HL2 at quite decent quality, so you shouldn't have a problem. Eventually, though, I'd look into getting a new computer in the next year or so, simply because games are going to start requiring much more power than the Athlon XP will eventually be able to handle. This holds especially true with the new PCI Express video cards. However, for now, a better video card will quite likely be a wise investment.

 

[intogamer]

get a 9600XT or a 9800Pro
also upgrade the CPU? they are pretty cheap

 

[Cerb]

The CPU is a touch on the slow side, but the GF4 MX is where the major problem is. Given current prices, a 6600 would be an ideal solution (lightly OC'd 1800+ and a 5900XT, here 🙂), as anything much cheaper will have significantly worse performance for the money. However, w/ PCI-E here and AGP on the way out, an AGP 6600GT or better would probably not be the best way to go.

numark is 100% right on the upgrade thing. Within a year, it will be a must for those of us still sticking w/ XPs.

 

[cowdogmoof]

Anybody have recommendations on where to buy Athlon XP's these days?

Mwave seems to have the best prices.

 

[razor2025]

AMD dropped huge % on their remaining Socket A CPUs. The 1000 units cost of 2500+ Sempron is $50, so street price will be sub-$60. You should definitely get that CPU (overclock a bit). ZipZoomFly has the Chaintech 6800LE AGP for $130-140. My friend bought one and successfully unlocked all his pipes without a problem. That should take care of your video card problem. If it doesn't unlock, it' still a good card, and problably more than enough power matching a 2500+ Sempron. If it unlocks, then you got yourself a super bargain and a card that'll complement the top CPUs of the moment.

 

[Malladine]

6600gt or 9800pro and you'll see a giant improvement. My 1700+/9800 non pro/1gb system ran HL2 with rarely a stutter. Load times and intense battles were better with my 3000+ though, might want to consider a cheap cpu upgrade along with the gpu. Should be able to upgrade cpu and gpu for under $250.