Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Upgrading video card enough for current lot of PC games?

Upgrading video card enough for current lot of PC games?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Upgrading video card enough for current lot of PC games?

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Word :    Username :           
 

Hi. Sorry for this newbie-esque question but...

I have the following configuration in my machine:

AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 Ghz socket A processor
3 GB/RAM
Radeon 9200 SE with 128MB DDR video card

My question is:

If I just upgrade the video card to something with like 512 MB of RAM (just picking that # out thin air, so to speak), will this be enough to play the current batch of first-person shooters out there on my PC?

Or, do I also need to upgrade my processor?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
LouLoomis


Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.

u need a whole new computer.

Reply to rescawen

total new pc needed

------------------------------ I took a step back to look at the bigger picture and realized i needed better glasses
Reply to obsidian86

Yes, probably a new machine.
However, let's assume that you have neither the cash or the inclination to upgrade.

I'm assuming that this machine contains an AGP slot, rather than PCIe.
In which case you could get better performance by picking up an AGP 4670.
Whether this will 'be enough to play the current batch of first-person shooters out there on my PC' is open to debate.

Some would say no due to the CPU limitation. But you'll be able to play things you had no chance of playing on a 9200, albeit at reduced details and resolutions.

------------------------------ GA-X38-DS4 (BIOS F3)||E8400 C2D (3.6GHz)||6Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 4-4-4-12||320Gb WD Caviar||2x 750Gb WD Caviar||Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750W||2x HD4870 512Mb(Crossfire)||HT Omega Striker 7.1
Reply to jay_l_a

Lol, k... Take your computer to the desert, bring your dad's shotgun, saw off the top of it (shotgun) bring a case of full shells, and just throw that sucker (computer) to the floor, and blast it. After your dry (empty on bullets) load her back up, and start blasting her.

Reply to pluke the 2

Your CPU would limit how good a graphics card you could utilize. You can buy any one that fits you just can't use any but the very slowest to their full extent.

I've got an X2-4800+ CPU which is considerably more powerful than yours and the fastest card I can possibly make use of us the HD4770. In fact, I have a couple games that run my CPU at over 90% meaning for those games I can't use much more than my HD3870.

There may be some games you can play with a graphics update but none of the main titles.


Message edited by photonboy on 09-26-2009 at 03:33:00 AM
Reply to photonboy

Thanks for the help everyone. I appreciate it.

Regards,
LouLoomis

Reply to louloomis

pluke the 2 wrote :

Lol, k... Take your computer to the desert, bring your dad's shotgun, saw off the top of it (shotgun) bring a case of full shells, and just throw that sucker (computer) to the floor, and blast it. After your dry (empty on bullets) load her back up, and start blasting her.



oh dudee..!
sarcasm ! [/]
lol..rather than that..he can sell those parts to someone ! :P

------------------------------ http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr299/nawal_23d/pc.jpg
Reply to Nawal_23d
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Upgrading video card enough for current lot of PC games?
Go to:

There are 404 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them