AGP or RAM

[wolfman1984]

Celeron 900mhz
Win98se
512MB RAM
10g HD --> to be ata 100 40gig
AGP ATI Rage Xpert 2000 32mb Mem

I'm going to be upgrading soon. Though I have a problem. Reading through this site i've learned AGP uses it's on board memory and your system memory all together as one big pool.
I've noticed running some high graphic games some "choppyness" when the screen gets cluttered with objects. I don't know if I should buy a newer AGP card with 64mb memory or just add more RAM to my computer. Any suggestions? I have to make a choice either between AGP 64mb or system ram (256mb - 512mb I might purchase)

HELPPPPPPPPPP

[Alaron]

I would upgrade the video card. 512megs of RAM (PC133?) is plenty for gaming. That Rage card is a poor performer in games today.

What motherboard do you have? Do you happen to know if the AGP slot is 1x/2x/4x? If not the motherboard can tell us.

I would recommend going up to either a Geforce3 Ti200 or a Geforce 4 Ti4200 if you do a lot of gaming. These cards will peform much better then that Rage. If you only do moderate/lowgaming look at Radeons. The 7500 or the 8500.

HTH :)

[wolfman1984]

My motherboard supports 4x AGP,
I'm on a tight budget, the Radeon 7100 is the only one in my
budget. my ram is only run at pc 100mhz, but it does the job.
I only have like $100 to spare for a vid card if that,

[wolfman1984]

I have a TUV4x Asus motherboard
Sockert 370 Motherboard
Apollo Pro133T Chipset

I just look up a Radeon 7500 DDR AGP card,
would that be a wise investment in my case?

I run games like the newest Nascar and watch movies.

[wolfman1984]

Okay I'm replying to my own posts lol,
My ram only runs at 100mhz but my board supports 133,
reason is I only have a celeron 900mhz, which only runs 100

[homie27]

I suggest bumping up your video card. A GeForce TI 4200 can be found on Newegg for about $125 which is very close to your budget. The TI4200 is a great card for the $$.
Can even be overclocked to get speeds/performance a closer to the TI4400.

[Charger]

Go with a Geforce 3 or 4 Ti series card. You have plenty of memory. In BIOS, have you increased your AGP shared memory to 64, 128 or even 256?

[wolfman1984]

I can't afford the Geforce cards at the moment, maybe down the road. I'm gonna go for the Radeon 7500 AGP 64mb.

PS. In my bios I have the option to set my agp mapped memory to 64-128-256, but what does that mean/do?

[Alaron]

Read Lord Prisms post in this thread. It explains about AGP options. http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?threadid=41228&highlight=agp+cache

Bump up to a Radeon 8500. They ccan be found for under $100. It will perform better then that 7500, and you wont have to upgrade for a longer time. There is an 8500 for $89 here: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=48&manufactory=1126&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

Newegg is an excellent vendor. :)