Hi, i'm in need of some help on choosing a graphics card...

My mobo is a Msi ms-6533, so it's a 4x agp slot (i'm guessing) currently using an ati radeon 7500.

My new monitor (Dell 2000fp) has a DVI-D dual link connection, so i want to utilise that.

What would be the best graphics card perfomance wise to utilise the monitors 20.1" screen.

Any recommendations would help.

Thanking you all in advance.

depends on the rest of your system aswell.

if you have a good enough psu and good enough cpu then you can go all the way upto the new x1950XT agp cards.

>>>>>>

Intel P4, 2500 Mhz (25x100) (northwood)
512 MB (pc2100 ddr sdram)
I'll have to check my psu wattage, any way to check without opening case?

Would my mobo use an 8x agp card to it's full potential (it will be limited won't it) So is it not better to go with the best 4x agp card? Or does that not matter?

Thanks

Agreed.

System specs?

Oh and my new monitors screen res is 1600x1200. (hope that helps).

8x AGP will work perfectly fine. How about your PSU???

I got no idea about the psu wattage right now, i'll have a check later. But psu doesn't matter to me because they're cheap.

So if anyone has ideas on what i should go for, please post your recommendation.

Also (more importantly) check the amperage on the 12v rail. You're PSU is probably going to be the deciding factor on your upgrade, unless you have it in your budget to upgrade that as well. Speaking of which...what's your budget?

About £100 .. (about $200).. What's 12v rail, all i know about Psu's are the wattage (thought that if i changed that, it would work)


The other day, i was just looking at the Ati radeon 9600pro 256mb, the Asus 9800xt and few others (wasn't sure new agp cards would work)

What agp 8x card should I get?

P4 3.2Ghz
1.5GB RAM
dual 350 Watt PSU w/15A Rail
Audigy 2zs Platinum

I cuurently have a Chaintech Geforce 6600 256MB

bump ...anyone with ideas on what i should go for?

Vicious9power

The watts on a psu are not enough any more. Its how much of the power is going to what part of your system that makes a difference. The newer cards need around 25-30 amps on the +12v rail. An example would be my own system (look below at the sig area). I run it all with a 380 watt psu, but most "cheap" 500 watt psu's wouldnt be able to run it in a stable manner.

If you dont know what a 12V rail is, just open your case and on the side of your psu it will state the total power (in watts) and then it will list a few rails like +5, +12, -12 etc. Next to those or under those depending on the psu, it will tell you what the total amp is that the rail can hold. Let us know what it says.


Also I can tell you now that your cpu would be a major bottleneck to most of the newer cards. your best bet would probably be a 7600 or a x1650pro/xt. But all of this may change once you tell us what your +12v amp reading is.


Arminhama

The amps on your +12v rail is quite low. Last I heard even the 7600 required around 20 amps.

If anything, you may be able to get away with a x800 or x850 from ati, or a 6000 series card from nvidia but im not too sure about that.

In any case, you should really consider getting a better psu if you plan to upgrade.

I figured that would be the case..thanks for the reply

I don't play much games on my pc, just looking for something mid-range that would use the DVI connection ... any suggestions..

well with your system specs i wouldnt get anything new your pc would just bottleneck it, thats R9600pro you saw is a pretty card, my best friend has a R9600pro 128mb that thhing still runs games today its a great card and for you it would be perfect

Right, i got the reading.

Model - FSP250-60GTA (MDN)
Max output 250w

DC Output: +3.3v - 16A, +5v - 25A, +12v - 13A, +5vsb - 2A, -5v - 0.3A, -12v - 0.8A

Any ideas what i could get with this psu (I don't mind upgrading psu)

If it comes to upgrading psu, which should i go for (any recommendations)

Thanks