Need upgrading help GPU?!

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HolyPurp

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Jun 11, 2014
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Hey guys,
I am looking to upgrade the GPU on my old XP desktop so I can upgrade it to windows 7 and be able to use dual screens. I can currently use dual screens while running XP but was unable to when I upgraded to Win7 so I downgraded back.
I currently have my GPU plugged into a AGP slot and I also have a PCI slot available as well.
Any suggestions?
 
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Obnoxious
Thank you for your response. As expected, unfortunately your system is seriously outdated. I'm not entirely sure on what GPU I'd recommend for your system, as the P4 would bottleneck most, even AGP cards. I'd look on eBay and search for AGP graphics cards which are in the Nvidia 6/7000 series or above, or AMD/ATI HD cards.

To run Aero effects in Windows 7, you'll need at least a Nvidia 6000 series GPU. If possible I'd also max your RAM, which I'm assuming is 2GB DDR. DDR1 RAM are dead cheap now, so maxing it out for Windows 7 would be ideal.

As mentioned earlier, these AGP graphics cards are quite expensive as there aren't many being sold; hence more people are willing to spend more. For the same price you're getting an AGP card, you...
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Obnoxious

Obnoxious

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Please may I ask for your complete computer specifications? If you're on a Pentium 4 machine, it may not be worth upgrading your GPU at all, as your CPU could severely bottleneck the GPU.

Generally however AGP slots are obsolete and you won't find many modern GPU's for it; even if you do find a decent GPU on AGP, it'll most likely be overpriced due to the lack of retailers selling AGP GPU's, hence eBay could be the best place to look for these cards.

Also what motherboard do you have, if you know? This way I can look into whether you have a PCI or PCI-Express slot, or if another upgrades could provide a better performance. Personally I think you could benefit from a new computer build, if you're willing to spend more funds. With that said, do you have a budget in mind?

All the best. :)
 
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HolyPurp

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This is an old system that was used in a friends of mines business before it was closed so i requested all the old tech, just trying to bring out the most of it not the best.
 
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HolyPurp

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Cant find where to locate the motherboard but it is a pentium 4 3.00 GHz
 
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Obnoxious

Obnoxious

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Thank you for your response. As expected, unfortunately your system is seriously outdated. I'm not entirely sure on what GPU I'd recommend for your system, as the P4 would bottleneck most, even AGP cards. I'd look on eBay and search for AGP graphics cards which are in the Nvidia 6/7000 series or above, or AMD/ATI HD cards.

To run Aero effects in Windows 7, you'll need at least a Nvidia 6000 series GPU. If possible I'd also max your RAM, which I'm assuming is 2GB DDR. DDR1 RAM are dead cheap now, so maxing it out for Windows 7 would be ideal.

As mentioned earlier, these AGP graphics cards are quite expensive as there aren't many being sold; hence more people are willing to spend more. For the same price you're getting an AGP card, you could pick up a much better PCI-E card; however unfortunately your system doesn't support PCI-E.

Again I think eBay would be your best bet for purchasing AGP cards.

All the best. :)
 
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HolyPurp

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What if I were able to get the AGP/PCI bridge apadter to make it PCIe?
 
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Obnoxious

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I've not seen any AGP to PCI-E bridges/adapters, even so, that would make a PCI-E card transfer data slower than regular PCI-E cards, in fact it would transfer at the maximum speed capable of an AGP slot. As stated however, I have unfortunately not seen any adapters; I have found PCI-E adapters to accept AGP cards, but not the other way around.

I also agree with the GPU found by logainofhades, that is a decent card and probably one of the mid-to-high end offering on an AGP slot.

Again, I'd look for any AGP card which is Nvidia 7000 series or higher, or any AMD/ATI HD card. You don't necessarily want to spend the most funds on a GPU, since the Pentium 4 will bottleneck the GPU's performance.

All the best. :)
 
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HolyPurp

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If I wanted to improve the processor past the Pentium 4 what do you think I should move onto that is affordable and will I have to change the motherboard as well? If so, what should I look into?

 
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Obnoxious

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If you want to improve your processor, you most likely will need a new motherboard. With a new motherboard, you'll have a PCI-Express x16 slot for graphics too. It's completely up to you if you desire to go with Intel or AMD. You should purchase a modern motherboard, since latest motherboards can be purchased for similar prices as elder motherboards; hence there is no gain by purchasing an elder motherboard, other than your current components being compatible.

As mentioned newer motherboards use SATA (rather than PATA/IDE), and motherboard's can have a different PSU connector (24-pin instead of 20 pin etc.) You want to upgrade your current motherboard without having to replace most of your components, otherwise you'd be better off with a new build. So could you please reply with if your current HDD/SSD/ODD's are using SATA or PATA/IDE connectors? Also what is your current PSU, and do you have any SATA connectors? Unfortunately with a system as old as the one you've mentioned, you maybe limited to molex and IDE connectors. If that is the case, you'd probably be able to get an older 775 motherboard to support them; but I'm not fond of purchasing elder motherboards which cost just as much as newer/modern boards.

If you have SATA connectors (which I unfortunately doubt in a P4 system), then upgrading to a newer motherboard would be straight forward.

All the best. :)
 
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