Upgrading graphics card

[Chiss]

Ive currently got an nVidia2 card and Im thinking of upgrading it. I was thinking of getting a Geforce FX 5200 or a Radeon 9600, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me whether there is a better card to get. My price range is anything up to about £100 - £150.

[luke313]

Firstly, the fx5200 and the radeon 9600 are worlds apart in performance. The radeon 9600 is much better. For £150, the radeon 9600pro, the 5600ultra, or possibly a 9700non-pro would be the available options. Personally, unless you could find a 9700non-pro for that price, I would go for the 5600ultra.

[acidrainy]

Depends.... do you want to be able to play HL2 or Doom3 on the card?

If not a DX8.1 card like the 4800SE should do you fine....

If you do... the more you can spare will help

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

If you get a good Radeon 9600 pro - it WILL o/c nicely.

Stock it operates at 400mhz core and 300mhz RAM (600mhz DDR)

Reviewers have got the core well over 500 mhz with stock cooling and the RAM in some cases is actually rated at 700mhz by the manufacturer!

[CrapshoT]

for £172 you could get a rad 9700 non pro and soft mod it to a pro like mine
i got minne of *bay they are £162 all in but for £10 extra you get a gaurenteed o/c board with ramsinks
heres the guys homepage
mods please delete if its not appropriate
http://www.kl1128.fsnet.co.uk

[Chiss]

I heard that the GFX5600 U uses alot of power could that cause any problems with my pc???

[luke313]

Tell us your specs, psu, motherboard, cpu etc and then we can help you out

[CrapshoT]

ive got a fx5600 available for £100 inc
if your interested
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?threadid=1261
ran well on my asus mobo no power grabbing or any other problems

[Chiss]

go here for specs:
http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems...cs.htm#1103227

[luke313]

Hmmm...some of the dell cases use 1/2 height expansion slots. So you could be limited to geforce4mx's. Not sure whether all the dell cases have these 1/2 height slots though.

[Austin]

Last I heard Dell's were among the least expandable machines, very often using very low rated PSUs perhaps to prevent you from upgrading anything. If you want to give something a try the budget cards tend to use very little power with little heat output and no unusual cooling. GF-FX5200 is about the best budget option at the mo, easily better than GF4MX or Rad9200 but still way behind a GF4TI4200, GF-FX5600ultra or Rad9600pro which are the cards of choice at the mo. How fast is your partic CPU?

[CrapshoT]

lol the fx5600 is a small card and unlike the rad 9500-9700 doesnt need the molex connection to your supply unit and its still available lol

[Chiss]

CPU is 1.8 GHz

Its a normal sized tower PC, not one of those small tiny ones.

[Chiss]

If I get the GFX 5600 U will I have to cool my pc in a special way like putting a fan next to it ????


Sorry for asking so many questions guys its just I want to be sure about doing this and I dont know much about hardware stuff.
Many thanks for your answers and help so far guys.

[Knoxville]

Originally posted by Chiss
If I get the GFX 5600 U will I have to cool my pc in a special way like putting a fan next to it ????


Sorry for asking so many questions guys its just I want to be sure about doing this and I dont know much about hardware stuff.
Many thanks for your answers and help so far guys.

Aslong as the case is reasonably well ventilated you shouldn't need to put a fan next to it.

[Axion]

Originally posted by acidrainy
Depends.... do you want to be able to play HL2 or Doom3 on the card?

If not a DX8.1 card like the 4800SE should do you fine....

If you do... the more you can spare will help

you dont need a dx9 card to play either game
a 4800se will play both games

so whats your point?