Upgrade

Current system:

AMD 64 X2 4200+
1GB RAM
Geforce 6800

Currently noticing it chugging a wee bit in a few games. Can anyone
recommend a graphics card around about £100 that'll make a difference?

Would a GFX card in this sort of price range make much of a difference
to my setup?

Been a while since I've done any GFX card upgrading so all this talk
of GS GT 8800 7800 just confuses me!


TIA.

--
Deeg

Deeg wrote:
Current system:

AMD 64 X2 4200+
1GB RAM
Geforce 6800

Currently noticing it chugging a wee bit in a few games. Can anyone
recommend a graphics card around about £100 that'll make a difference?

Would a GFX card in this sort of price range make much of a difference
to my setup?

Been a while since I've done any GFX card upgrading so all this talk
of GS GT 8800 7800 just confuses me!


TIA.


Another gig of ram wouldn't hurt.

Another gig of ram wouldn't hurt.

No, get a 8800gts or whatever the fastest non-2900 ati card is. You can
get ram later if any stuttering is noticed.

rms

rms wrote:
Another gig of ram wouldn't hurt.

No, get a 8800gts or whatever the fastest non-2900 ati card is. You can
get ram later if any stuttering is noticed.

rms


Another gig still wouldn't hurt. PHHHPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rev. G.G. Willikers wrote:
rms wrote:
Another gig of ram wouldn't hurt.

No, get a 8800gts or whatever the fastest non-2900 ati card is.
You can get ram later if any stuttering is noticed.

rms

Another gig still wouldn't hurt. PHHHPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Before anyone just arbitrarily just sticks another gig of memory into a
machine, they should run task manager to check memory use. If it looks
like its getting high and running some tasks over to swap, then add
memory.

Its been my experience that when a computer starts to run out of memory
and into swap, it experiences a whole lot more than just a stutter.

Another gig wouldn't hurt, but could the money might better spent on
correcting the problem. Better to figure out the problem and address
it.

Cessna 310 wrote:
Rev. G.G. Willikers wrote:
rms wrote:
Another gig of ram wouldn't hurt.

No, get a 8800gts or whatever the fastest non-2900 ati card is.
You can get ram later if any stuttering is noticed.

rms

Another gig still wouldn't hurt. PHHHPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Before anyone just arbitrarily just sticks another gig of memory into a
machine, they should run task manager to check memory use. If it looks
like its getting high and running some tasks over to swap, then add memory.

Its been my experience that when a computer starts to run out of memory
and into swap, it experiences a whole lot more than just a stutter.

Another gig wouldn't hurt, but could the money might better spent on
correcting the problem. Better to figure out the problem and address
it.

Well you see I was running a 6800 with 1 gig, playing BF2, I then added
another 1 gig and haven't had a stutter since. The OP didn't say what
games were stuttering. Besides RAM is dirt cheap.

"Rev. G.G. Willikers " wrote in message
. net...

Another gig still wouldn't hurt. PHHHPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


LOL, I love that response! But I also have my doubts that an owner of a
6800 series card would get serious performance gains with a new card with a
budget of only £100. If the OP wants to extend the life of his current rig,
I think 2GB of RAM is in order as well as a video card that is in the £150
range.

Rev. G.G. Willikers wrote:
Cessna 310 wrote:
Rev. G.G. Willikers wrote:
rms wrote:
Another gig of ram wouldn't hurt.

No, get a 8800gts or whatever the fastest non-2900 ati card is.
You can get ram later if any stuttering is noticed.

rms

Another gig still wouldn't hurt. PHHHPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Before anyone just arbitrarily just sticks another gig of memory into
a machine, they should run task manager to check memory use. If it
looks like its getting high and running some tasks over to swap, then
add memory.

Its been my experience that when a computer starts to run out of
memory and into swap, it experiences a whole lot more than just a
stutter.

Another gig wouldn't hurt, but could the money might better spent on
correcting the problem. Better to figure out the problem and address
it.

Well you see I was running a 6800 with 1 gig, playing BF2, I then added
another 1 gig and haven't had a stutter since. The OP didn't say what
games were stuttering. Besides RAM is dirt cheap.


BF2 demonstrates remarkable improvement in quality of play with 2G of
system ram vs. 1G of system ram. The memory footprint of BF2 has peaked
at 987M that I can recall, possibly more. This is mostly due to the way
BF2 handles audio assets.

Other games with smaller memory footprints will not see such dramatic
gains as BF2, but Windows XP plus applets and tasks plus a game can
easily go over 1G of physical memory requirements and force disk paging.
2G benefits those games by preventing paging due to total memory
commitments.

To answer the OP's questions: a 6800GT is sub-par compared to any
current video card, replace it with almost anything and see improvement.

Wax wrote:
"Rev. G.G. Willikers " wrote in message
. net...
Another gig still wouldn't hurt. PHHHPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


LOL, I love that response! But I also have my doubts that an owner of a
6800 series card would get serious performance gains with a new card with a
budget of only £100. If the OP wants to extend the life of his current rig,
I think 2GB of RAM is in order as well as a video card that is in the £150
range.


Agreed. The OP does not list his mobo. If he is restricted to AGP, the
upgrading the video card might not increase perf. If he has PCIe then he
might be able to find a deal in that price range.

"Rev. G.G. Willikers " wrote in message
news

Agreed. The OP does not list his mobo. If he is restricted to AGP, the
upgrading the video card might not increase perf. If he has PCIe then he
might be able to find a deal in that price range.


Good point, knowing if the OP has PCI-E or AGP is a big piece of the puzzle.