will i be able to crank my settings if i upgrade?

[Lorax]

hi all, i was running a p4 3.0ghz with 512 ram and an ati x600 pci-e card. i've never been a heavy PC gamer but i've been enjoying TF2 lately on mostly minimal settings. i'd like to run it with some more eye candy.

I bought some more ram, up to 1.5 gb, but haven't seen a noticeable increase for TF2. next i'm thinking of a new video card, either a x1650 or hd2600, but wanted to make sure it'd be worth the investment.

what do you guys think? thanks.

 

[sutahz]

Off the top of my head.. and I've never been great at matching video cards to cpu power, I'm guessing a 8600GT/2600pro should do ya.

 

[happy medium]

7600gt/2600xt matches good with a pent 4@ 3.0.

 

[Lorax]

thanks, i'll be on the lookout for falling prices.

 

[happy medium]

Theres a guy in the for sale/trade forums selling 2, 7600gt's for 100$ Mabe you can give him 50 bucks for one . Thats a great deal.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2143576&enterthread=y

 

[Lorax]

just to update (and close the thread), i got a x1650 pro, 512mb from buy.com. couldn't quite justify the extra cost for a better card due to how little i play games.

tf2 plays at ~40fps on 1024x768, most settings turned up. thanks to everyone for their input.