Im not buying a new motherboard but I do need a new graphics card. I need AGP and my choices are limited. What is a good cheap card that can support most games like BF2? Also 5.1 soundcard suggestions are welcome...
wow, AGP, that is ancient, which probably means the rest of your system isn't that hot either. But if your games isn't of the more recent and resource chugging kind, see if you can find a nVidia 6800 card. My previous gaming machine (now it sits in the living room as a media machine hooked up to the big-screen) got a 6800 graphics card, albeit a PCIe version, that ran games such as CoD4 and BF2 perfectly well. Or you could go for a ATI 4650 card, I think they still make those in AGP versions. That should do good as well. In either case it won't cost you much, about 40-80 USD, and at give-away prices if you can find it used.
I'm not too good with the terminology for video cards? Whats AGP? My video card is a nvidia G-Force I think
There are 2 types of video cards. AGP and PCI. AGP, like said before, is the older model. The best graphics come from PCI. Im not looking for the lastest technology but something that will run games like Bf2, Black and White, GTA...Probably nothing AGP cant handle. Wont be perfect but I dont have the cheese for perfect. Is there a place I can get used AGP cards thats not incredibly sketchy?
Tiger Direct or Newegg are the two sites that most people use. If you don't want this thread to become a flamefest, don't ask which is better haha. BFG GeForce 7300 GT / 512MB DDR2 / AGP 8x / DVI / VGA / HDTV / Video Card at TigerDirect.com
If you are lucky enough to have a microcenter near you, I would go there. I paid $50 for a pair of 512 RAM sticks, that bestbuy wanted like $80 a piece for. Micro Center - Computers, Electronics, Computer Parts, Networking, Gaming, Software, and more! I have an NVidia GForce 6200. I have all the latest divx codecs, but I'm having a hard time watching streaming HD video online, even though my monitor supports hd. I might look into getting a new graphics card, since I'm just going to buy little pieces and change this computer until I can get a job and other priorities arranged before buying a new one.
OP: Misread your post. An agp card should be easy to obtain, it's 'health' (if used) will be questionable. You'll need at least a Geforce FX 5700 or Radeon 8500. I'd recommend going all out on either an ati x1950xt or an geforce 7950, which ,IIRC, the most powerful agp cards. Idk if I can recommend other forums so in general just find a pc forum that has a sell section and find someone w/ good reviews. What GTA do you want to play? The 8600gt is the minimum for IV. BTW: PCIe (different from PCI) is the best for gpu's. Jamtastic: If it costs more than 20$ in store, check online - you can usually get it cheaper w/ shipping (especially pc parts). Also, there's a big difference between HD videos and HD gaming - videos being a flat file that just needs decoding and gaming needing rendering and more (a lot more intensive). Also, be careful w/ buying parts for old computers. Old parts are generally more expensive and used parts are subject to failing.
If I were you I would save your money. Don't band-aid an aging system for performance that probably won't live up to your expectations. Save up for a new system. The simple fact is that old hardware cannot keep up with new software.
I get less than 10 hours a week now. I have little money coming in. I plan to keep it for maybe two more years as I complete school for firefighting. Once I go to the academy, I can afford a new, and MUCH better system.
That's how I'm thinking about it. The benefits for band-aiding my computer outweigh the problems that would be caused by not band-aiding it. I've been doing much much more work on my desktop (I lost my laptop ) and I was running with only a half gig of ram. So it was worth the investment, and I added a gig. I still need more, but before I was screwed, now I have 24% free ram (at the moment). Not sure if my video card has it's own memory, I could probably give it some of my RAM, and I know there's a huge difference between HD vid and HD Gaming. My card is alright for some older games, like Gear's of War, single player. But trying to play Crisis kept just killin my pc