Help Choosing New Graphics Card Please!

[Super_Shuttle69]

Hi!

I have quite an old PC and I am looking to upgrade my graphics card for casual gaming.

My current spec is:

Pentium 4 2.53
2GB RAM
Radeon 9600xt 256mb

The graphic slot is AGP X4 and I only have a 200w power supply.

At the moment, I can play games like COD4 and Oblivion at 30+ fps with settings turned up. I would really like to be ably to play GTA 4 - I know my computer specs are WAY below the minimum requirements, but being able to play it at decent fps is all that bothers me, not the graphical detail. It needs to be a shader 3.0+ card for GTA 4.

Any help will be greatly appriciated!

Thanks.

 

[dirtmountain]

With a 200w power supply you really can't do much better then what you have.

 

[edeawillrule]

The fact that your specs are way below the minimums should tell you something. You need a modern system to even run GTA 4 in the first place much less with good fps. Even on low detail.

 

[Christopher11]

With 200w power supply i wonder how are you able to run even a Ati 9600xt.

The minimum requirement for you would be to change your power supply...

A 200w is nearly not enough for a card which can run games like GTA on mid-low details. Actually, the only card which is capable of doing so is Radeon Hd3850 agp.
But your 2.53 ghzz processor will definitely bottleneck it and so will you 4x agp slot.

So my reccomendation for you would be to completely change the system now. It is very old... for about 300$, you can get a Pc which is just uncomparable with yours.

 

[WR2]

What is your upgrade budget?
There are better AGP cards out there but none that will run on your 200W PSU.

 

[Super_Shuttle69]

Thanks for quick replies!

I'm not looking for a new PC at the moment, just looking to prolong the life of this one.

The problem I have with the power supply is that I have a Shuttle computer - so the internal power supply is very small.

My power supply dimensions are:

L: 19cm
W: 4cm
D: 4 cm

Is it possible to get one that size or can you buy an external power supply?

Thanks for the help

 

[Super_Shuttle69]

Just had another look at my power supply and it is 250w not 200w!

I'm guessing that doesn't make any difference anyway?

 

[rewindlabs]

Try going for one of the psu's that are external and power only the graphics card...you can probably find a way to fit one of those in there and i believe its only 50$ or so...then you can use any agp card you want...and no your not playing gta iv...