mobo support 4x AGP only, purcahse good card or upgrade?

hi,

I'm new here. I have a machine that is running on P4, Intel mobo with 1GB of memory, but my current graphic card is an old card model, most of the games are not supported. Which decision should I take? Buy a latest & powerful AGP graphic card or get a new machine?

i was in the same spot, had a p4 3.06GHZ, intel mobo and a AGP 4x slot. I was gonna upgrade to a 6600GT and buy 512mb more RAM to get to 1gig. I gave up and got a new PC

upgrade cons

1) you probably need a new p.s. for the vidcard (if you can mount one in the case)
2) rdram (if you have it) is 3x more xpensive than newer ddr2. even ddr1 is becomming more xpensive than ddr2.
3) pci-express will be the standard for the next 10 yrs or so. its a safe investment over agp.


new build cons

1) if you go amd, the cpu,mobo & memory will be outdated in a few months when amd goes to ddr2 and begins 65nm production.
2) intel is currently switching to 45nm productiion.
3) windows o.e.m. versions (if you have one) dont work on other machines. you must buy a new copy which will then be outdated in a few months when vista (64-bit) comes out.

thats all i can think of right now. maybe someone can add stuff.

I have an old P4 1.6ghz Willamette that has a crap Shuttle Mobo with 4x AGP slot and only 512mb of DDR333 RAM. I use to have a Geforce 2 MMX400 64mb in it and I use to keep up with all my mates in games like NFS:U 1&2. Eventually I bought the Geforce FX5200 and I was then able to play BF2 on low res with surprisingly little lag and run previous games like NFS:U2 at medium settings

If your a guy who plays games everyday of the week and spends every dollar you get on games, buy a new system... You've no cash to waste upgrading old technology. But if your someone who just likes to play games on a casual basis with mates at the local LANs and you just want to keep up with them all, a cheap upgrade is probably more suited.

Mate of mine is running an AMD Socket A Duron 1Ghz with 512mb DDR400 RAM, and an FX5200 and he still plays games like BF2, COD & AVP2 at our LAN parties. He might not have the same frame rate or crisp graphics like my 6600GT powered AMD system, but you only need enough frames and pixels to get a head shot