Which videocard will best suit my old PC

[geir35]

I have an old pc which plays the good old games failrly well, but I wonder which videocard will make best use of my hardware? I have the following:

Mainboard : Abit AN8 Series (NF-CK804)
Chipset : nVidia nForce4
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2200Mhz
Physical Memory : 3072 MB
Video Card : Radeon X800 Series
XP Pro

Should I consider upgrading to Windows 7?

 

[coozie7]

It depends on what games you are playing and what others you want to play, the CPU is really very weak for more up-to-date titles.
I would not get anything more than a HD4650 GDDR3 version at most, even then, it's going to be held back by the CPU.
Depending on your circumstances it might be better to consider a full upgrade:
MB/CPU/RAM/card (and possibly PSU as needed), keeping the case and drives.
Shop carefully and you could easily do this for under $300, less if the PSU can be reused.

 

[rewindlabs]

Yeahp coozie ha pretty much hit the nail on the head...you would be best off upgrading before even sinking a dime into the system....albeit i have a 2.6ghz X2 with a 9800gtx+ and 2GB's of ram that runs Fallout 3 like a dream....you should be able to reach that clock speed no problem with your processor hell iv even ran fallout 3 at my cpu's stock speed which is 2.2ghz and fallout 3 ran fine...but a new cpu/mobo/ram and gpu would be the best upgrade by far....

 

[geir35]

It depends on what games you are playing and what others you want to play, the CPU is really very weak for more up-to-date titles.
I would not get anything more than a HD4650 GDDR3 version at most, even then, it's going to be held back by the CPU.
Depending on your circumstances it might be better to consider a full upgrade:
MB/CPU/RAM/card (and possibly PSU as needed), keeping the case and drives.
Shop carefully and you could easily do this for under $300, less if the PSU can be reused.

Thanks for Your answer. I have a more "powerful" pc, but I just wanted to do a light improvment of the older system, thinking that I might have not get the full effect of the graphics card. But the question is wether I will gain anything with ie. a newer HD 3850 or not?

 

[coozie7]

Your 'less powerful' system is actually well balanced, very weak for current games, but well balanced.
There will be some improvement with a card upgrade but ultimately it's the CPU that is going to be the limit.
Like I said, the HD4650 DDR3 is going to be an improvement and will enable you to use higher filters (AA/AF) to improve image quality-no more 'jaggies'! Just do not expect to play Crysis or Farcry2 with it.
Here is a list of cards showing relative performance:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-geforce-graphics,review-31583-6.html

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

I used to have that CPU, and the best card i ran with it that ran beautifully was a 7600GT (S?)
that was the limit, any better GPU and i would bottleneck my system. you should be able to get that card for less than 20 bucks (second hand i don't think they sell it anymore)

 

[geir35]

Your 'less powerful' system is actually well balanced, very weak for current games, but well balanced.
There will be some improvement with a card upgrade but ultimately it's the CPU that is going to be the limit.
Like I said, the HD4650 DDR3 is going to be an improvement and will enable you to use higher filters (AA/AF) to improve image quality-no more 'jaggies'! Just do not expect to play Crysis or Farcry2 with it.
Here is a list of cards showing relative performance:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-geforce-graphics,review-31583-6.html

Which CPU do You suggest if I want to keep the motherboard, and would it then be possible to choose a more powerful graphics card?

 

[coozie7]

Your only choice without a MB/CPU/RAM change is E-bay or Craiglist and look for an faster Athlon X2, but check the motherboard manufacturers site for CPU compatability.

 

[megamanx00]

A 3850 or 4650 would be o.k for that system, but you really need to overclock the CPU because then that will be the bottleneck.

 

[geir35]

It have to be a PCI-E card.

 

[enayet_redeemer]

You can go and buy Athlon 64 X2 6400+ if it is available, this might be the most powerful processor for your board. If your PSU is at least 400Watt you can buy Geforce 9600GT (My previous config was like this one), if not then 4670 would be the card.

 

[enayet_redeemer]

Oh, sorry. I forgot to ask. Is your mobo has AM2 socket? If not then my previous opinion was wrong.

 

[ahslan]

...i believe his socket is 939...so forget upgrading to a more powerful cpu...I ended up selling my 939 rig in order to build an AM2+ rig because I couldnt upgrade my cpu to something worthwhile...

 

[Jaysin]

Another vote for the 4650.