Upgrade Advice - nvidia geforce 6800 256MB

[EuanT001]

I'm looking for advice please, I have a slightly older machine by today's standards (Dell Dimension XPS Gen 4) but it runs well and at present I don't intend (& can't afford) to buy a whole new machine.

I currently have an Nvidia Geforce 6800 256 MB (Core clock 325 mhz & mem clock 600 mhz) in the machine and am running an Intel P4 HT 630 core speed 2992.6 Mhz with a Dell OU7084 Motherboard chipset i925x.

Running Windows Xp Pro

I want to improve the graphical performance as the machine is falling behind.

Can anyone advise me:

1 - what is the best graphics card that I could upgrade to (without breaking the bank) and that would fit my system?

2 - could upgrading the cpu improve my performance (and if so what would you recommend) or would the motherboard limit the improvement possible?

Many thanks

Euan

 

[rolli59]

If you have a PCIexpress slot HD4650 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141113 or HD4670 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141114

 

[rolli59]

I did a little check on your mobo and it is PCIexpress but you will not be able to make a worth while upgrade for your CPU since it does not support Core2duo. So your best bet is the GPU and ram if you do not already have 2GB (suggested minimum for XP) installed.

 

[EuanT001]

That's great, thank you very much....as it happens I've got 4GB of ram installed (although I'm aware windows will only recognize 3GB).

Looked at the two cards you mentioned in your first post and will probably aim for the 4670, however one other question related to it.....

I'm located in the UK and if Newegg can't ship to me here in the UK, then dabs.com can however when looking through dabs for the 4670 it comes up with:

http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-at...ci-express-2-0-dvi-654S.html?q=Radeon HD 4670

Is this as good as the card on newegg?? - i noticed that the dabs card is only DDR2 rather than DDR3 on newegg

 

[nforce4max]

Well you are out of luck when it comes to newegg but eBay isn't bad plus shipping in the UK isn't that bad. Even though I live in Texas I have bought items from UK sellers but like usps the Royal mail does gouge people.

 

[rolli59]

The card you linked to is DDR2 it is faster if it has DDR3 here is one http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-ati-radeon-4670-hd-512mb-pci-express-hdmi-6CZB.html?q=hd4670 The size of the memory 1GB versus 512MB matters less than the speed difference between DDR3 (faster) and DDR2 (slower)

 

[shubham1401]

The best i can suggest is a HD4670.

 

[megamanx00]

Get a Radeon 4670. It's hard to recommend anything more for that system since you will generally be limited by that old CPU.