Video Card Upgrade

[arcenite]

I posted in the past a question about what upgrade I should put into this computer for a fairly cheap price tag. I've decided a video card is a good idea, but what is the best video card i can get, that won't be "bored" with my cpu, meaning my cpu can't give it enough juice to run at it's max. I was advised an ATI Radeon 8500LE. Is that the best I can do? Can I do better? Is that an overshot? I am running a 733mhz P3 w/ 768mb PC133 ram, with my current video card being an ATI Radeon 64mb DDR ViVo. I am not currently bothered by its performance, but I was wondering if there was something I can buy where I would noticable increase in performance, keeping in mind my CPU speed. Thanks! 🙂

 

[Deeko]

Well, your CPU is going to drag you down. One advantage to getting a faster card is that you can literally have perofrmance hit free FSAA, because you are CPU limited, not fill rate limited. The 8500 would probably be a good choice, especially if you are trying to keep the price down.

 

[arcenite]

Would I see a noticable increase in performance in gaming

 

[arcenite]

Well I compared my system on madonion.com to identical systems (except for the 8500LE) and there was a 1000-3000 point gain in the benchmarks. So that has me sold, i'm looking at the 8500LE. I was curious though as to if anyone knows anything about the brand Sapphire, and if they are up to par with Built By ATI boards. Thanks! 🙂

 

[blackhawk]

So far the ATI boards have the fastest ram and highest performance/prices leaving the third party people with less price/performance. This is where the saphire and others fall. Check for actual ram specs at the manufacturer but you can compare by price to give you the idea of where the best performance lies.