video card recommendation

[surfboy]

I have a 2 year old Dell Dimension 8300, P4 2.66, 512MB and an ATI 9800 PRO.

I'm currently playing Doom 3 and the game runs ok but stutters at times when there's a lot of monsters on screen.

Can someone recommend a good video card for me to buy in the $250 - $300 price range? (I also plan on playing HL2 and Quake 4)

Thank you.

 

[sisq0kidd]

A whole system overhaul seems like it would be more in order.

That 9800 pro matches quite nicely with your P4 so if I were you, I'd do an A64 upgrade first. Either way though, one of the components will be bottlenecking your computer.

So my advice, save up some cash

 

[touchmyichi]

naww i disagree, a 6800NU would run just fine in there and for just pure gaming alone it would net a lot more preformance than the money spent on a A64 setup while keeping the 9800 pro in. Besides, you can always throw in a higher end P4 or heck get a cheap P4 mobo and overclock that thing. a cheap 512 stick of ram would do wonders as well.

summarized (in order of what should be purchased first)-
6800 Standard- 160
512 pc 3200- 40
decent p4 socket 478 mobo (865/875/SIS chipset)- 60

all that for 260 (perhaps less if you find some nice deals) and you'll be in the game big time . You'll probably be able to get that p4 to around 3.2 at least. But, it will still probably work fine if you just put the 512 ram and 6800 in- a 2.66 ghz p4 is NOT as bad as people here will make it sound.

 

[sisq0kidd]

Originally posted by: touchmyichi
naww i disagree, a 6800NU would run just fine in there and for just pure gaming alone it would net a lot more preformance than the money spent on a A64 setup while keeping the 9800 pro in. Besides, you can always throw in a higher end P4 or heck get a cheap P4 mobo and overclock that thing. a cheap 512 stick of ram would do wonders as well.

summarized (in order of what should be purchased first)-
6800 Standard- 160
512 pc 3200- 40
decent p4 socket 478 mobo (865/875/SIS chipset)- 60

all that for 260 (perhaps less if you find some nice deals) and you'll be in the game big time . You'll probably be able to get that p4 to around 3.2 at least. But, it will still probably work fine if you just put the 512 ram and 6800 in- a 2.66 ghz p4 is NOT as bad as people here will make it sound.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. But that will only delay the inevitable

 

[Nextman916]

I upgraded almost the from the same system, but I didnt change the processor. I basically took my old p4 2.66ghz and i bought a gigabyte mobo for about $60 on newegg and a new heatsink $20. I also bought a new case because my old compaq couldnt fit latest vid cards like 6800gt. Umm i took the old hd from my compaq, all my old drives. New psu for about $60, new sound card for $50. I also grabbed a gig of pqi turbo mem some more case fans, and a evga 6800 ultra/LE agp. I then started overclocking and overclocked my processor from 2.66 to 3.2ghz without any thermal paste. It runs 33-40c so it is a very good overclocker. I also flashed my bios of my vid card to GTU bios 425/1100. This all cost about $500-600 but im now getting 5427 in 3dmark05. I know amazing right!!! Anyways you dont have to go all out and change your whole system. I suggest keeping your processor and upgrade to amd 64 when you are ready to go pci-e. I recommend the 6800gt for your vid card as for now. Hope this helps because my semi-new system will last me probably another 2-3 years and would be the same for you.

I just flashed back to original bios now.

 

[zizo]

Actually, that's not a bad idea. But that will only delay the inevitable

It's alway too soon to upgrade. You should wait till it becomes cheaper. When you upgrade, it's already old. :roll:

I think an extra 512mb stick will do the job, till the next major upgrade, or if you want to spend that money you can get a x800. I bought my x800xt from dell for 280$, and easily overclocked it to more than x850xtpe with AS4. If you can find a deal like that nothing beats this card for this price, and you don't need to upgrade your psu.

 

[exar333]

i would mostly agree with touchmyichi on this....

6800 vanilla -160
512MB ram -40

I would use this as a "stopgap" fix and then just save up some money for a whole new rig in a year or so...this should get u by fine until dual-core becomes standard and multithreaded games are the norm...

 

[surfboy]

Wow, I just posted these and already have gotten several useful replies. What a great forum!

Forgot to mention in my original post that I had planned on upgrading to 1 GB of memory. And it seems like the general concensus is to go with the 6800.

This sounds like a good solution as I'm trying to hold off on buying a new system until sometime next year.

 

[Nextman916]

lol yah it couldnt fall asleep so i just woke up early :] and yes anandtech is great. Also make sure a 6800 will fit in your system first off because mine sure as hell didnt.

 

[knyghtbyte]

i have a 2 year old 8300, if i remember right the mobo should support up to a 3.4ghz P4, altho possibly only a 3.2Ghz (cant remember now).......u should phone dell, ask if they have any kits left for 3.2 for that particular mobo setup, they wont be selling them anymore so you might be lucky and get a 3.2Ghz kit cheap from them.......

then grab a 6800GT cheap and it will all be good

oh and up the memory to a gig, but not thru dell, lol, they charge a fortune for memory some reason.....

if not do a wholesale change, if its mostly for gaming switch to and AMD based system, if however you do a lot of stuff with it i'd stick with Intel (unless you wanna buy an FX57 based system from AMD..lol)

 

[Spacecomber]

You may need to check the specs on your current power supply before you go to anything as fast as (and power hungry) as a 6800GT, though this card might cost more than you want to spend, anyway.

An alternative to the 6800 NU (vanilla plain model), is this pretty good deal on a refurbished X800Pro direct from ATI for $180. The nvidia chipsets generally do better with the OpenGL games, like Doom3, but I think the X800Pro would still be the better all around card, compared to the 6800 NU AGP version.

Space

 

[compgeek89]

My personal choice would be:

Athlon 64 3000+ - $140
nF4 Mobo - $75
ATi Radeon x800 - $170

$385 but the upgradeability with a s939 PCIe mobo is endless.

 

[Nextman916]

no.....his price range started from $250-300 which is what 6800gt are currently priced as....also he would probably be better off holding off till next year and spending more on an a64 processor and pci-e mobo, maybe even sli.

 

[compgeek89]

Originally posted by: Nextman916
no.....his price range started from $250-300 which is what 6800gt are currently priced as....also he would probably be better off holding off till next year and spending more on an a64 processor and pci-e mobo, maybe even sli.

But spending that extra $85 now will save him $85 later, and the 3000+ can be upgraded later. But whatever.

 

[surfboy]

so it sounds like people either like the 6800 or the x800. would i be able to use either of these cards with my current power supply (250 watts)? or would i have to upgrade that first?

 

[compgeek89]

upgrade that

 

[jevans64]

Upgrade the PSU to a decent 400 watt or better PSU. Enermax or Antec are decent PSUs AND make sure they will work with that Dell since I can't remember whether that Dell is proprietary or not.

If Doom3 is your main game, look at a 6800GT. You could take a BIG chance and get a Leadtek 6800LE and try to open the extra pipes. The second option would be one of those ATI Store x800pro refurbs for $180 ( use 1439 to get an additional 5% off ). The x800xt PE refurb ( in my sig ) I got from ATI Store for $233 shipped hits 560 core 590 memory easily with stock fan / paste.

After this I would probably suggest starting from scratch with a new rig instead of getting a faster CPU. The 3.2c's are still going for around $270.

 

[surfboy]

thanks for the info!

 

[videoclone]

Just get an extra 512Mb's ram ... then turn down graphics settings and walla .. all done.... ^_^

Save the money for that little bit better cpu, motherboard and vidcard upgrade next year .. the stuff you get now wont last long enough to bother. I'm starting to slow down in games on an Athlon64 3200+ 1gb ram and 6800 Ultra And will be upgrading next year.
I dont see how what your going to do will help

I think a clean format with new drivers and a little tweaking will do lots
Dell's run choppy unless reformatted on arrival. ( Darn Pre Installed Crap )

The best value performance is what you get for free.
Anyways ... hope this helps.

 

[VIAN]

I say, at least double your RAM and get a 6800.

 

[knyghtbyte]

Originally posted by: videoclone
Just get an extra 512Mb's ram ... then turn down graphics settings and walla .. all done.... ^_^

Save the money for that little bit better cpu, motherboard and vidcard upgrade next year .. the stuff you get now wont last long enough to bother. I'm starting to slow down in games on an Athlon64 3200+ 1gb ram and 6800 Ultra And will be upgrading next year.
I dont see how what your going to do will help

I think a clean format with new drivers and a little tweaking will do lots
Dell's run choppy unless reformatted on arrival. ( Darn Pre Installed Crap )

The best value performance is what you get for free.
Anyways ... hope this helps.

i've never had a Dell that ran choppy on startup.....only one i had a problem with was the one that blew up on arrival, that was attributed to a fault between the vid card and the mobo.....which they sorted by giving completely new parts....

oh and your Dell PSU is very conservatively rated, it should be able to handle up to a 6800GT. But it would be advisable to get a higher rated one to be safe, but be careful, i cant remember exactly what it is now, but Dell do their PSU's in an odd way in regards to labelling the wiring or something.....best to check up on that before u attempt it....