needa new graphics card - what to look for?

[steppen22]

I have an old pc. For some reason, I refuse to buy a new one (it's suitable for 95% of my business).

I want to update the graphics card.

I have

geforce 4 integrated gpu, 64 mb.

And agpx8/pci ports (not pci-e).

I'm aware agp is not great, but I'm not going to get a new motherboard.

What are my options?

I don't want tto spnd too much on a graphics card, but I want to get something that's going to make a significant difference (if it's only nominal, it's not worth the hassle)

I would like to play more modern games (I could play Mafia, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Hitman 3, etc with only minimal sturrering etc with the intergrated chip) but I'm aware that agp won't allow me to play the most modern games. Which is fine.

What do I need to "look for " in a graphics card (like with a pc you look at ram, hd, etc)


What graphics card would you buy in my shoes?
____________________
no regrets, no retreat, no apology.
I've made mistakes in the past, and I apologise for FUCK ALL.

[Pernig]

I would spend £30-50 on a new motherboard, try and keep the same processor socket that you already have so you can upgrade that later, and you will have a lot more options available graphics-card wise.

I had a GeForce 4 MX with 256mb memory, it played Mafia pretty well at about half-detail.

I can only think of a couple of AGP cards out now that are decent, if you don't wanna upgrade the computer just yet. There's some ATI ones here that should play the games you mentioned pretty well:

https://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-94-268-0

Also check eBay for second hand AGP graphics cards. You might be able to get a decent one really cheap.

My personal recommendation is to invest in a mobo and graphics card now, and save your money later when your graphics card isn't obsolete in a couple of years' time.
____________________
H100 Breaking for spares

[WildGoose]

You don't say what your current computer spec is apart from the card and sockets?

I imagine for about £30 you could get an AGP card that will run well beyond anything your PC would keep up with.

Of course the more sensible option would be as suggested above, AGP is dead, just like my socket 939 motherboard
____________________
So in other words, he stopped you for being flagrantly in posession of a motorcycle in direct contravention of the Hippies, Darkies and People Whose Face I Don't Like The Look of (Police Powers) Act. 1976

[tsmith]

the best AGP card is the 512MB ATi Radeon HD3850

it's also the only directx10 card available for AGP.


GeForce 7950GT used to be the best, but is directx9 only. Also a bit slower than the 3850

[bazza]

[tsmith]

depends on the PC. There were plenty of AGP based boards supporting dual core CPUs available - most of them had VIA chipsets.

Even an Intel based machine with, say. a Pentium 4 clocked to 3+GHz equipped with an ATi 3850 card will run the latest games quite well as long as you don't exceed 1024x768

[Neorion]

I used to have a 6800gt card which was great.

As for dx10 meh I doubt you would get much benefit from a low end card trying to run high end games.

As for dx10 on XP have a look here

https://www.technospot.net/blogs/download-directx-10-for-windows-xp-from-alky-project/
____________________
VFR FI 2000- Shiney Red Thing
"some things man was never meant to know, for everything else there's Google"

[GodzGift]

[bazza]