Help needed Vid card upgrade

W

Western

Weaksauce
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
87
I have a store bought Gateway desk top. P4, 1mb ram, running win xp. I have a Nvidia Gforce 5950 ultra ( came with the bundle). I am not sure what other info you might need or where to find it??

I want to upgrade my V card within the perimeter of my machine if possible.

Please, any thoughts/ advice? recommendations?

Thanks
 
Well, if you're only running 1 MB of RAM, I think you should seriously consider upgrading this before anything else. What speed is your processor?

PCI-express or AGP? More info is needed my friend.
 
Thanks for the reply,
3.20 ghz
As far as PCI or AGP. How do I tell? The current card plugs into the mb and has an auxillary power cord that is also plugged to the mb.
Thanks for tolerating my ignorance, I'm a painter, not much of a pc guy.
 
Just give me the model # of your PC and I can look up the hardware in it. As far as your question goes, with an older P4 chip and motherboard, newer video cards are going to be bottlenecked by your processor moderately or majorly depending on the card. You will still see an improvement, however it will be mitigated by your slower components. If you're serious about upgrading to play games for the next few years, you'd be better off just buying a newer motherboard and some cheap Core2 chip. You could buy both for under $200 pretty easily. Then you could take advantage of a new video card.
 
2003 called...:p

OP, even a midrange card will mostly go to waste in that pc. sorry but its time for an all new comp.
 
The back has Model# 710 G
Mfg 2004

I agree with the new pc idea, but to many fires going right now. I was hoping I could beef it up but that may not be a reality.
Thanks guy's
 
Western said:
The back has Model# 710 G
Mfg 2004

I agree with the new pc idea, but to many fires going right now. I was hoping I could beef it up but that may not be a reality.
Thanks guy's
Click to expand...
well all that hardware was released in 2003 so thats what I was going by. yeah its best not to waste any money on that pc. ;)
 
No such thing as a PCIe 5950 Ultra, so far as I know... so you're stuck back in AGP land. That means no current mid or high-range cards are available that your machine will support. Whole new machine time, as others have said.

If you want a cheap stopgap solution pick up a Radeon X1900 series card on the cheap, but really, don't pay more than about $40-50 for it. Good news is, the 5950 was such a power hog that your current PSU should be able to handle any AGP card you are likely to find in that price range. Do not spend more than about $50 on it, though, and don't expect to be able to play modern titles at high settings, if at all.
 
Time for a new PC, the good news is that for the same amount of dough you spent 4 years ago, you can get a pretty nice machine.
 
yeah, I just looked up the specs on your Gateway. Your motherboard is still using a AGP interface. AGP is a just about dead video interface. The fastest card that was released for AGP was the 3850 from ATI. However I really doubt your machine could make the most of it.


Man, your computer cost 2 grand when it came out 4 years ago. Nowadays you'd be lucky to sell it for more than 2 hundred dollars. Ain't technology grand? Anyway, not all is lost. For 4 to 5 hundred dollars, you could piece together a modest little PCI-Express system that would destroy anything that your old system could do with a new video card.
If you want, give us a budget and we can point you to cheap quality components that could get you started towards a new lease on gaming life.
 
Looks like you'll be needing a whole new rig, but you are in luck! It doesn't cost too terribly much to piece together a new one, like many have stated here. If you intend to make a new one ask for some advice on here. Everyone here is as helpful as can be :)
 
Thanks guy's for all the input, Ya'll pretty much comfirmed what I was afraid of. I guess I could keep this rig "as is" for the older games I have and office work.
Problem for me is I lack the pc skills you have as far as starting with say, just a tower. I could probably do $1,000 + over time, but agian in 6 months I'd be outdated!

Is it possible for and "old" guy to buy componants that don't have the conflicts ect tra, I hear about with project pc's? I can bearly spell bios and it's obvious since I don't know the differance with AGP or PCI.
 
For people like you, I normally would recommend that if you want, just tell us what you're looking for, at what price point, and we can help you buy all the components you need. Then after you buy everything, just call around the local mom and pops computer shops and ask them what they would charge to assemble a computer for you. Chances are you could find someplace to do it for 75 to 100 bucks. (couple hours of labor). This route would still be cheaper than paying for a namebrand computer with inferior components.
 
Western said:
Thanks guy's for all the input, Ya'll pretty much comfirmed what I was afraid of. I guess I could keep this rig "as is" for the older games I have and office work.
Problem for me is I lack the pc skills you have as far as starting with say, just a tower. I could probably do $1,000 + over time, but agian in 6 months I'd be outdated!

Is it possible for and "old" guy to buy componants that don't have the conflicts ect tra, I hear about with project pc's? I can bearly spell bios and it's obvious since I don't know the differance with AGP or PCI.
Click to expand...
well to be honest you could just buy a pc off the shelf. only problem is the mainstream oem comps have crappy power supplies so you would have to change that to use a decent card. tbh I was thinking about going with an HP d5000 series. they come with a 460watt psu, quad cores and 64-bit Vista and are very reasonably priced for what they come with. http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...ktops&a1=Category&v1=Entertainment powerhouse
 
You could always check into AVAdirect or Puget. They will build you what you want. Either that or do as Johnny78 said. The only problem with having some mom and pop computer store build it for you is that if there are issues with hardware (aka defective or DOA) it may become a difficult situation. As for the outdated computer situation... I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's the very nature of computer tech that your system will be out of date within a few months. You will be fine though. Right now is a good time to upgrade/create a new system if you ask me. You won't have to spend too terribly much and you will get a pretty decent system that you can game on. Let us know what you decide on, I am more then willing to help. :)
 
Thanks agian guy's, alot to think about. My biggest fear is the compatability issues and resolving them.
I had looked at some pc's a few months ago like Alien ware and after reading here I changed my mind, at least as far a AW is concerned. Do you have any feelings about Digital Storm???
Is it possible to get like a good MB pre mounted and loaded without the compatabilitie issues, then I can look around for V cards or what would be the best way to start.
Can you tell why I bought a "boxed" pc..LOL
 
Western said:
Thanks agian guy's, alot to think about. My biggest fear is the compatability issues and resolving them.
I had looked at some pc's a few months ago like Alien ware and after reading here I changed my mind, at least as far a AW is concerned. Do you have any feelings about Digital Storm???
Is it possible to get like a good MB pre mounted and loaded without the compatabilitie issues, then I can look around for V cards or what would be the best way to start.
Can you tell why I bought a "boxed" pc..LOL
Click to expand...


AVADirect sells barebones and motherboard systems that come pre-mounted. You choose the case, motherboard, and any other components. They will mount and ship the system to you after a small burn in test to make sure everything works. They will also update the bios and install the latest drivers for the installed hardware.

Then you are free to install any type of heatsink, video card, processor, or anything else that you did not purchase in the barebone system.
 
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