ATI Radeon HD4350

[alexxville]

Okay so I have a ATI RADEON HD4350 pci express graphics card and I am tired of dealing with this low end card. I am looking for something better that can actually handle at least call of duty black ops/modern warfare 2 at 100fps with 1024x768 res or 800x600 res (since that is what I play on, thanks to counter strike). My budget would be i'd say 60-100 and from what I've heard, the nvidia series are far more reliable for gaming than ati.

Anyways, my rig is:

AMD PHENOM x3 8750 2.4GHz processor
4GB DDR2 Ram
ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB PCI Express x16
500w PSU
Windows Vista Home Basic SP2 32-bit
Current res is 1024x768

I was actually considering the nVidia geforce 9600GT since I saw a couple of gaming videos and see that it handles games like GRID pretty well. I'm more of a fps gamer though and I play competitively.

Thanks a lot

 

[tigrc]

GTS 250 > HD 5670 > GT 240. 1GB of DDR5 ram for all of them. Take prices into consideration and choose

 

[stillerfan15]

Tigrc nailed it - all depends on what you can spend and is your 500w PSU reliable? An older or off brand could cause problems IMHO,
Dave

 

[alexxville]

yeah my PSU is actually reliable. the only thing that i noticed about my computer also its when i play a game or i do something that can cause the computer to use more cpu than usual, the cpu fan becomes really loud and it USED to shut off my computer at random when i used to play counter strike source while the computer being really loud. i dont know if that is caused by over heating or a doo doo cooling. i have the stock cooling btw. Dell Inspiron 546 Minitower is what I own.

 

[tigrc]

Most probably the cooling. If you can, leave the case open at all times, this will reduce the temperatures. That's what I did for my PC and no random shutdowns since (I have a 5 year old PC).

 

[alexxville]

oh okay thanks, but i was also considering buying a new cooling since idk, i do not like the stock one haha. wouldnt leaving the case open at all times bring in dust? even though it already has dust inside, wouldnt it make it worse?

i want to also know if it's possible for me to overclock my cpu from 2.4ghz to 2.8? i just want to make sure i get the best from the cpu since i heard the tri core i have is actually a quad core with one disable core.

 

[tigrc]

Well, I'm running my PC open for about 2 years now. No issues whatsoever, except for the performance, which is what you would expect for a 5 old PC
Yes, I heard something about unlocking that 4th core, but you will have to do some research, as I know nothing about it

 

[alexxville]

Oh okay cool thanks a lot . I'll leave the case open to see what it does. My computer is only about a year old, well a little over a year old since I received it like last year 8.18. I'll def. research that

 

[tigrc]

Ok, good luck and have fun with your 1 year old PC I am considering a RAM and GPU upgrade for myself until I can build my own gaming PC

 

[alexxville]

Okay thanks good luck with that too m8