Really need advice! (graphics card)

Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:06 pm

Hi I have a really pants computer and i am upgrading everything bit by bit because of the cost!lol Can somebody recommend a decent, inexpensive graphics card please? It doesnt need to be top of the range or flashy! But it does need to be fairly good, to work with the latest games out, ie Broken Sword 3!!

I have tried searching for one myself but to be honest i dont really know what i am looking for.

Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:24 pm

Hmm, I'd say an ATi Radeon 9800Pro, quite good and not at all that expensive (here in Sweden anyway)

Better than that: 6800NU or 6800GT, then you can really kick some smurf ;P
But it depends, what's the rest of your computer like?

Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:30 pm

Its really not very good, but i cant afford a whole new computer so im just doing it bit by bit! Its only 256 mem (cos i already upgraded that, used to be 112) But the graphics card is just bog standard one that came with it! As far as i know its got good quality stuff inside it but just not very fast or anything! (Can you guess tht i know nothing about the inside of my pc!!)

Thu Sep 16, 2004 10:00 pm

Definitely go with a Radeon. I've always liked mine. The type you buy should, as you stated, be determined in part by your wallet. You can check and see what the stats are on your own card through the system info screens (Control panel on Windows, click on "system," then the "hardware" tab, "device manager," and then "graphics adapters" or whatever). You'll obviously want to step up from that.

If your graphics card is built into your motherboard, you'll want to enter setup when the computer boots and turn the motherboard graphics off, or you can open the display settings in Windows and change the active adapter that way.

One thing to note:
Don't buy a card until you open up your machine and take a look at what format your graphics card is (AGP, PCI, what-have-you). Buying the wrong kind of card will be a waste of money or at the very least time. No reason to let yourself get cheesed off because you didn't pay attention.

Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:30 am

If you're on a low budget, you should get an ATI Radeon 9600XT. For $100 retail, it's a very good card.

It's got great performance and quality, but not too powerful enough to bottleneck your CPU and RAM.

Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:27 am

Ok, thanks, im gonna look into that!! I cant find out where my graphics card is but ill get my friend to have a lookie for me!!lol

Thanks for all your help!:)

Fri Sep 17, 2004 2:15 pm

xjox wrote:Ok, thanks, im gonna look into that!! I cant find out where my graphics card is but ill get my friend to have a lookie for me!!lol

Thanks for all your help!:)

It's the card that the monitor plugs in to. Just open up your machine, ground yourself (by touching the metal framework of the computer) and follow your monitor cable into the back of the machine - it'll be plugged into the graphics card.

Sat Sep 18, 2004 2:57 am

if you never have looked in a machine before then i would recommend turning it off and unplugging the power cord (its the big one

)

Sat Sep 25, 2004 10:26 pm

Ha!

You know, that'd be really fun, if there's still some current in the machine and you 'access' it with the power cord unplugged: No more earthing, so you get to be the vehicle for deadly electricity! Yay!

If the power is off you wont get electrocuted.

It would help if you'd tell us how much "low budget" is to you, by the way.

Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:15 am

As long as he's not gonna put his fingers in the PSU I don't think he'll be the target for any deadly currents ;P