Need to upgrade from a 32mb vid card to 256mb, help...

[Parker03GT]

I'm looking for a decent 256mb vid card. My games are just too choppy now. I don't need the most expensive card out, just something around $100-150ish if that's possible. Thanx

[kram 2.0]

Do you know whether it will have full support of AGP 8X? If you don't know, can you post your full sys specs?

If you do have AGP 8X for your graphics port, I'd recommend the <a href="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-338&depa=0">Sapphire Radeon 9600XT</a> at 135 USD.

kram

[Parker03GT]

I don't know if this helps.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8200/techov.htm#1101668

[timbit]

well, it has an agp slot... as to 8x or not, hard to tell... the 9600xt supports agp 4x as well. if your computer was made in the last few years, i'd say it's prob ok, but i'm not sure... maybe someone else knows how to figure it out?? anyways, i second kram's recommendation. the 9600xt is a nice card. not the greatest for sure, but on a budget it's great. i have the ati version (pretty much the same) and i play far cry on high settings, ut2004 on almost completely full settings (1024x768 for both).

[Vigo]

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8200/specs.htm#1102296

The agp slot is a 4x. You're looking for any card that is 4x/8x compatible (2x/4x if you were thinking cheaper... much cheaper).

I wonder if it would be worth the money to go to a 9600 card. You're still limited to 4x data transfer (bandwidth). And there are other factors to gaming... system memory and cpu (clock and bus) will be the same...

I replaced a 3dfx Voodo3 16 meg card in my athlon 500 with a 64 mb MX400 card (mad dog or some other junk brand). I noticed very little difference in gaming... load time was of course the same (500mhz processor, wasnt expecting much) but animation and movement on some higher end games was still choppy and sluggish. Though the mx400 should be a HUGE improvement, since the agp slot was 2x, the memory was 256 sdram and my processor was slow... I saw little improvement.

So I wouldnt suggest blowing that kind of money on a card that won't run as effectively as it can due to system limitations. I'd rather look at the 9200 or maybe an MX4000 or comprable nvidia card (not the 400, the 4000). Something 2x/4x or a cheap 4x/8x card with 64-128mb of ddr memory.

I just don't think spending the extra money for a good 128-256mb card will be worth it... I don't think in your current system you can really get what you need from those cards. What card do you have now? Is it an nvidia geforee3 chip? Might say it on the sticker if its still glued to the machine. Probably a ti440 or close to it.

Try the 9200 from ati if you really want a 128mb card. I just dont want to see you waste your money on something more and get very little out of it.

[Yuanji]

i think a 9600XT won't be bottlenecked by 4X

[imbest123]

Not even a radeon 9800 xt is bottlenecked by 4x agp. i havent seen 4x agp vs 8x agp with the new video cards though but there is no difference when running 4x or 8x agp on a 9600 xt.

[Parker03GT]

Thanx for the help guys. I went with the 9600 XT from newegg and have them shipping it my way. Hope all goes well. I'll know in a few weeks. :D