single best graphics card for this game

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by ABBAFAN

i dont know about the motherboard unless thats the mainboard which on mine is GA-K8VT800 PRO

That board has an AGP slot.

i have a 64 bit cpu but id like to get pentium 4 or something like that.is that ok with most games?

You can´t put a Pentium 4 on that board, it doesn´t fit. You could upgrade it with a faster AMD CPU for Socket 754.

Fastest AMD socket 754 CPU is the one I've got, an AMD 3000+; it's 2.0 Ghz.

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by Engel der Vernichtung

Fastest AMD socket 754 CPU is the one I've got, an AMD 3000+; it's 2.0 Ghz.

Wrong! you can get an Athlon 64 3400 and 3700 for socket 754, rare as rocking horse **** though.

[Boris]

ABBAFAN, do you know how fast your CPU is?

From what I've seen the fastest Athlon 64 for for socket 754 available is the 3200.

If you have that already, I might consider not even bothering with a CPU upgrade. If you have something like a Sempron, you might want a bit more power though.

If you just have to have the best, then know you have to get a new motherboard as well. This could turn out expensive though. If you want to buy all current generation stuff, then you will need a new motherboard, new graphics, new CPU, AND... new RAM, since the newer boards are DDR2.
That could become real expensive.

So you options are:

Buy an older but faster AGP card, keep the old motherboard and CPU.

Buy a more recent motherboard with PCI-E, that supports DDR1... maybe a socket 939 or something. They still have decent CPUs for those. This would stunt your future CPU upgrades, though the next gen graphics cards would run fine on this too, if you wanted to upgrade again sometime.

Finally, if you have money to burn, buy the latest stuff, new Motherboard, RAM, CPU and graphics card.

[Tachyon]

If all else fails...

STEAL SETH'S PC!!!!

[_Seth_]

Originally Posted by Tachyon

If all else fails...

STEAL SETH'S PC!!!!

:rotfl::rotfl:Well, i did some research...Have to change my motherboard to be able to use the GF 8800 GTX...... Will cost me § 150 more........
So if you want to steal my pc, be my guest....I have insurance, and that would pay me enough to get a new rig in excellent conditions!!!

[ABBAFAN]

my cpu is a AMD XP3400 64 bit is this powerful enough?


If i simply upgrade the graphics card to a more powerful one
which supports pci and works with a 64 bit processor which one is best?

how much more of an improvement would the 7950GT from Nvidia be over the current one? (fx6200 AGP)and does this have pixel shading?

[stabiz]

I dont think you get the 7950Gt to PCI. (or the X1900XT)

The best AGP card is the nVidia 7800GS 256MB, which is a kick ass card. It is many times better than the one you have.

But the best thing would be to get a new motherboard that supports PCI Express. If you want to get it cheap, get one with AMD 939 socket. (Then you would have to change the cpu too, but the 939`s are cheap now)

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by ABBAFAN

my cpu is a AMD XP3400 64 bit is this powerful enough?

If it´s really an XP then it´s a 32-bit CPU. The "Athlon 64 3400+" would be the 64-bit version. AFAIK an XP3400 doesn´t even exist. The "Athlon 64 3400+" is a good middle-class CPU.

If i simply upgrade the graphics card to a more powerful one
which supports pci and works with a 64 bit processor which one is best?

You need an AGP card, not PCI. Like stabiz said, the nVidia 7800GS 256MB is the best AGP card.

[Tachyon]

Originally Posted by _Seth_

:rotfl::rotfl:Well, i did some research...Have to change my motherboard to be able to use the GF 8800 GTX...... Will cost me § 150 more........
So if you want to steal my pc, be my guest....I have insurance, and that would pay me enough to get a new rig in excellent conditions!!!

Why do you have to change ur motherboard? It supports PCI-E doesn't it?

Btw, ABBAFAN, i'd suggest waiting a little more longer, there's no point in buying any card that wasn't designed for DX10, you need to think of this as a longer term investment (unless ur filthy rich and change ur GPU every month).

[MarshalLaw]

I have a Genforce 7600GT 256 meg card, uses PCI express. Good card for the price around $200.00 or less. I've been happy with it so far. Plus I have 2 gigs of memory Ram as well. few if any frame rate slow downs.

[GT182]

I just upgraded to a GF 6800XT 256mb 256 bit card from eWiz..... went thru PriceWatch.com. Graphics are great in SHIII, IL2 and FS9. I just found MOHA Pacific Assault and can't believe the graphics in that with this card. Card supports dual minitors and both connections are DVI. For 139.00US and change you can't go wrong.

My old GF FX5600Ultra 256mb card was and is still good but I couldn't pass up a bargain like the 6800XT.

[AS]

Frankly, I would save the money and buy a cheap out-of-date card. I´ve got a 2 year old plain GeForce6600 that came along with a standard PC and SH3 plus GW runs just fine. Considering Direct X 10 and Windows Vista coming your way I would sit and wait a couple of months and buy a DirectX10 card for cheap money then. You all know how fast hardware issues go...so be patient.

My two cents, AS

[stabiz]

I somewhat disagree, AS. I would get a really good DX9 card now (check out auctions, the must-have-the-best-card-guys are dropping their really good top end cards like crazy these days), and put off Vista and DX10 for at least 6 months. Let the unreasonable prizes for DX10 cards drop, and let MS fix the unavoidable bugs first.

Games will be made for DX9 for a long time yet.

[Tachyon]

Originally Posted by AS

Frankly, I would save the money and buy a cheap out-of-date card. I´ve got a 2 year old plain GeForce6600 that came along with a standard PC and SH3 plus GW runs just fine. Considering Direct X 10 and Windows Vista coming your way I would sit and wait a couple of months and buy a DirectX10 card for cheap money then. You all know how fast hardware issues go...so be patient.

My two cents, AS

Et tu AS?

I've got a Geforce 6600 too , decent card....but don't expect to run Oblivion in settings other than low-medium