Suggestions for a new vid card needed

[Noodle Boy]

Hey everyone, I need help getting a new video card to play some HL2, Doom 3, the whole shabang. Anyway My specs are as follows (not very good, as I'm still in high school and I'm more focused on getting straight A's than getting a job lol):

250 Watt PSU
1.6Ghz P4
256 MB SDRAM PC133
40GB Hard Drive
64MB Radeon 9000

Any suggestions as to a new vid card? I can't really get a new motherboard or CPU as my computer is a Dell and the cases don't allow for any mobo upgrades and the like, although I can add more RAM. Hence, I don't think I would be adding a 6800 GT as it would be total overkill for my system lol.

 

[xSyzygy666x]

ick ick ick....you would get a far better performance boost with DDR memory than a new vid card.....i HIGHLY suggest you buy 512 of ddr FIRST....doom3 cant even install w/o 384mb of ram...so right there your out.....here i suggest this...
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-006&depa=1
i just seleceted the cheapest decent brand i could find....

 

[Noodle Boy]

I can't get ddr memory as my stupid dell only supports pc133 ram...is there a difference between ddr memory or regular memory? And yeah I will be upgrading to 512 ram anyway, I just need some suggestions for a new video card...I'd like to get the most out of this system before busting out my bank account for a whole new system

 

[xSyzygy666x]

DDR is sooooooooo much better......i suggest u just bite the bullet and wait and spend that money on a new system....

 

[RedFury]

Well, your pretty screwed at this point in time, your only chocie honestly, is to get a new mobo and DDR, i just upgraded myself from sdram, and the improvment is massive, its incredible how changing my ram can really amp up my speeds, if you get a new mboard, i do reccomend the new msi board:

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=KM4AM-V&class=mb

and it seems to work well with 512 DDR333 Kingston Valueram

i upgraded, and again, it works insanely nice for using an AMD 1800+ Palamino Core

Anyway, good luck

 

[lopoetve]

You need a complete new system. The PSU, RAM, and CPU are all going to hold you back with any video card you buy, really.

 

[RedFury]

yeah, didnt even look at the psu, your going to need at minimum a 300W psu, thats the BARE minimum

 

[vsyncer]

gf 5900xt ...works great in my old Athlon 1.6 system ... and you should be able to play d3 ...

 

[Noodle Boy]

I guess I can just wait to get myself a new system since this one will only last for a few more months...and I'm not talking about games lol

 

[Elios]

ICK DELL EVILLL! >.< yea time for a new PC
best thing to do is build you own but if you dont fell your up to just go to mom&pop PC shope and pick ou the parts you want and have them do it but realy its not that hard
and a 2500+M is at a real good price now or a Sempron
and get 512MB of mem and a 9600XT min
you can re use most of you stuff you have but you will need a new case and PSU

 

[kick@ss]

You're going to need an entirely new system if you want to play any semi-modern game. The 1.6GHz P4 is a massive bottleneck and not even an 6800 Ultra or X800 XT could deliver a respectable level of performance.

 

[kick@ss]

gf 5900xt ...works great in my Athlon 1.6 system ... and you should be able to play d3 ...

An Athlon 1.6 spanks a P4 1.6. The old school P4s were like an "Awful Edition."

 

[darktiger]

If you have the money for a GT, use it on a new system. A mb with a A64 or high end XP should only run you between a 100-150 dollars, 512DDR is always on sale.... Right now at frys there is a P4 3.2, HT, 800mhz with motherboard for 200 add 512 ddr for like 59, You will have like 130-150 left, then spend it on a 9600xt, 9700, or 9800 which every you can afford... I rather have a fast system with a average (9700/9800) videocard, then a slow system with a kickass videocard. Your system would be the bottleneck for that videocard. Especially for new games like HL2/FarCry/Doom3.