Graphic Card Upgrade

gremlin666_2

Im looking to upgrade my Graphics Card but don't know which one to go for. How do you find out which will work on your PC? :think:

My current Card Is : Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440-SE - 64Mb Memory

Ram - 1Gig

Processor - Intel Celeron 2.60GHz

PC - Packard Bell I-Extreme

isofa

You need to make sure you buy one compatible with the slot in your PC: PCI, AGP etc, check the specs that came with it, or the spec of the card already installed.

Your card appears to be a 4x AGP card, so look for something similar unless the motherboard can support faster (e.g. 8X AGP)

The GeForce4 MX 440 came in various versions: http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce4mx.html

gremlin666_2

I new to upgrading graphics cards so dont have a clue how to find out if my mother board will surport a faster card is there an easy way to find this out? Mine is the 4x AGP version. Im looking for one with more than 64Mb of memory as i play alot of games and with each new release a more powerfull card seems to be needed.

Zagu

Id use PC Wizard to find out what you have. Post the results on here and Im sure you'll get some good advice.

superscaper

Don't expect to play the latest games though. You'll need a better PC for that.

hippyadam

superscaper wrote: »

Don't expect to play the latest games though. You'll need a better PC for that.

Alas he is correct, most of the newer generations of games will leave most AGP cards (which your appears to be) for dead. However if you want a good mid range card i would reccomend the ATI Radeon 2600 Pro which retails in the region of £70 to £90.

Oh and a RAM upgrade would probably help too and its cheap as chips at the moment...

To get an idea of the inner workings of your pc i'd use Sisofts Sandra http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/ , its free easy to use and will be able to check all the settings of your hardware to give you an idea of what your pc will support....

ormus

afaik the radeon 2600 is only for pci express.
the best bet/value for an agp slot card is a radeon 9800 pro or a nvidia 7600gt.
maybe only on ebay now.

yes you can get a Radeon X1950 XT (agp), but at at 200ish quid, you might as well upgrade your system first?

mjr600

Your system is v v likely to based around an AGP graphics card slot.

The best bet £ for £ are the radeon 9800 pro (off Ebay) or a nvidia 7600gt as mentioned above, although for £40 you could get a cut down 7600gt in the form of a 7300gt.

It would also be worth replacing the processor to a used Pentium 4 from Ebay, your motherboard will probably be based around socket 478 so a P4 2.8 or P4 3.06 will do.

With the processor and graphics card upgraded you will be able to play Half Life 2, Doom 3 and similar games at almost full settings.

gremlin666_2

Thanks for all the advice just need to make my mind up now :beer:

banger9365

they do a ati radoen hd 2600xt for agp at @ £66

PZH

gremlin666 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice just need to make my mind up now :beer:

Depending on what card you go for - check that your Power Supply Unit ( PSU ) is up to the job as well.

Most cards require a spare Molex power connector ( Same as what plug into hard drives, etc ) but usually come with a splitter if you don't have a spare one. And a lot of the recent card releases now use TWO molex connectors and subsequently, when in heavy use, they will draw a bit more power.

PH