Help with graphics card upgrade.

[siggyphoo]

Hi all, I bought my pc in 2004 from tiny pcs and have only started using it again in last few months. I have updated all my drivers and operating system. I have also updated ram from 512 to 2 gig which seems to help a little but not a vast imrovement. Also made page file to 3070 as recommended. Let me show youi my pc specs before I continue.

 

Operating system....windows xp professional sp3

 

Mother board.... Microstar International / model..pt-2200 / version..1.0 / CPU AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+ / CPU Socket 754 / system slots..2 isa 5 pci / memory max cap...4096 / max mem mod size 1024 / WARNING accuracy of DMA cannot be guarenteed...??? what is this ??

 

BIOS vendeer...american megatrends

 

Memory 2 x kingston ddr pc-2700 1gb

 

Maxtor 160gig hdd

 

Number of GPUs 2...???

display adapter...all in wonder 9200 series

video processor..radeon 9250/9200 series agp

video memory size...256mbs

 

there is a also a secondary display adapter by radeon???

 

Well i think thats all info, so , my question is, if this was your pc what would you do to upgrade it? I would really like to upgrade to better graphics card, if so, which one? also, I am thinking of upgrading to windows 7, how should i go about this and which version would you recommend? do I need more ram? should I go with the 64 bit op sys or stick with 32 bit? I am struggling to play games on this pc. I have latest updates for my graphics card using paretologic driver cure but i cant start the tv software. Would be very grateful if anybody can help me. :D

 

Hope you all had a great christmas and all the best for the new year ....Thanks Siggy

[maynardvdm]

Hi

 

If it was me i would get a new socket 1156 motherboard (Asus or Gigabyte) and get the new Intel Core i5 750 and also a Nvidia GTX260 or 275 graphics card.

 

This is my choice because i am a fan of Intel and Nvidia, but the ATI graphics cards are also good. I just think that the Intel processors is much better at this stage than AMD.

[Shellack]

Re: help with graphics card upgrade

 

In some case's AMD out performs Pentium chips, a Intel Pentium 3.0Ghz gives you about the same benchmark speed as a AMD 1.8Ghz, so Pentium is not always better. If its graphics your after an upgrade to a 512 AGP enabled card will give you more grunt, but speed wise there are a lot of factors, RPM on the HD, RAM etc. If games are running slow and chunky monkey then thats the 256MB Card struggling to handle all the effects like shadowing, anti-aliasing etc, dis-enabling some of the more graphically intensive options in the Game configuration file can in most case's help improve the overall performance. Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of modern computers and microprocessors that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory for reading and/or writing independently of the central processing unit. Many hardware systems use DMA including disk drive controllers, graphics cards, network cards and sound cards.

Edited January 6, 2010 by Shellack

[siggyphoo]

Hi, thanks for the speedy replies, could you by any chance drop a link for me to the best and easiest to fit graphics card for me? I think my HDD is 5200 speed , I may get a 7200 one. Also I have counted and cleaned 3 fans inside my pc but they are still constantly on and although not a whirring sound , does sound like a permanent hair dryer. I only realised how noisy it was when I entered a friends house and noticed that their Dell was nearly silent. Should I change the fans?

Thanks Siggy.

[siggyphoo]

Ps. forgot to say....I really dont want to change the mother board as I really am not that clued up and seems like it would be a hard job.

Thanks Siggy.

[siggyphoo]

Hi again, just seen this on Amazon, can you please tell me what you think and why do I need AGP?

Thanks Siggy.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3850 512MB AGP Graphics Card: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo