Graphic card upgrade for 8yr old computer?

[munlin333]

Hello.

I have some old desktop here:

1.33ghz Amd Athlon, 1gb of memory and 1TB sata(via ata converter) disk.
Im quite happy with it

BUT I wish to play some "newer" games like: Morrowind, Olbivion, Quake 4, Doom 4 and GTA Vice City, San Andreas (games from 2001-2006 era mostly). I will be happy with 640x480 resolution with 20 FPS


What cheap (can be used) graphic card can you suggest for me for such old configuration on Amazon ? Im looking ofr something below 40$?

ps. Im not sure what kind of PSU i have in my computer, so please dont suggest any cards that requires a lot of energy.

Thank you soo much my friends!

 

[Onus]

You might be able to find an agp version of the HD4650. The cheapest one on Newegg is $70, and they don't have any open box right now.

 

[munlin333]

ps2. I have only agp slot avalible.
ps3. And "Half life 2"!

 

[englandr753]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that system wont play half those games with any video card that will fit into it.

You either are stuck with a pci slot or a very slow agp connection. Either way, any decent video card (if you have at least agp) that I can suggest will be greatly bottlenecked by that processor.


I recommend you keep your 40.00 and start a savings for a new system. Keep that old system for general use or sell it. Just don't expect to get very much for it.


Or you can put another 40 with it as jtt283 suggested...

 

[munlin333]

What other and cheaper cards can you suggest? I want only to get 15-20 FPS on lowest details in 5 year old games hehe

 

[englandr753]

Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-Radeon-X850-XT-256MB-DDR3-AGP-Video-Card_W0QQitemZ280486019991QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item414e450397#ht_1235wt_1165

or this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/BFG-7600GS-7600-GS-OC-nVidia-AGP-8X-512MB-512-MB-Video_W0QQitemZ330418268459QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item4cee76a92b#ht_3238wt_1165

a little slower but still good:

http://cgi.ebay.com/XFX-GeForce-6800-XTreme-256MB-DDR3-AGP_W0QQitemZ200454766489QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item2eac08ff99#ht_679wt_1165

Thats about as good as it gets nearing your 40.00 price range. Shipping will get you on the middle one. At least you know what to look for so shop online and see what else you can find in those ranges...

 

[megamanx00]

A 1.33 GHz athlon ?

I say get a Radeon 3650 AGP. Those are pretty cheap. If you don't mind ebay you could try looking at Radeon X1900 AGP cards or nVidia 7900 or 6800 AGP cards. Sure there are ATI X800 cards, but those are SM 2.0b so games that need SM 3.0 won't run on them. Now with that CPU you are not going to be able to play Oblivion (probably not even 15fps with really low settings) and you won't enjoy Quake 4, but Morrowind, Doom 3 and GTA Vice City, San Andreas should run fine. I ran those games with a Duron 900 @ 981 MHz with a GeForce 3 Ti 200. Of those only Doom 3 had alot of trouble and that was late in the game.