x300 question

[TheMainFrame]

Hi my buddy has a ATI x300

He is now playing wow and notices on some parts that the game tends to et a tad jumpy.

He has a dell with a 3.4G 550 CPU and 512MB DDR2 PC4200 with the x300

should he just upgrade his graphics card?

[dicecca112]

if he can afford it I would say yes, I think its equivalent to a 9600, the x700 is equal to a 9800 I think

[felinusz]

Has he tried lowering the game resolution, and level of detail? Which drivers is he using with the card? An X300SE should be able to handle WoW, although at higher settings it would be somewhat slow.

The 'jumpiness' is likely occuring when the X300SE is accessing system memory for use with graphics information - the X300SE is designed to use a certain amount of system memory when all of the onboard video memory is in use.

Which version of the card is it - how much actual onboard graphics memory does the card have?

[TheMainFrame]

Has he tried lowering the game resolution, and level of detail? Which drivers is he using with the card? An X300SE should be able to handle WoW, although at higher settings it would be somewhat slow.

The 'jumpiness' is likely occuring when the X300SE is accessing system memory for use with graphics information - the X300SE is designed to use a certain amount of system memory when all of the onboard video memory is all in use.

Which version of the card is it - how much actual onboard graphics memory does the card have?

Im preety sure its the X300 SE with 128MB DDR

The game is on the default resolutions and such and lowering is not an option... If it needs to be lowered then he figures he needs a new card :) and i agree hehe

What would the Nvidea equevelent of an upgrade be? 6600?

And would a X600 be a noticable upgrade?

[dicecca112]

equivalent would be the 6200 so yes a 6600 would be the logical nvidia choice. I would say no to the x600 and go at least for the x700

[felinusz]

Yes, an X600 would be a noticeable upgrade :). However, I would personally like to reccomend an X700 Pro - for the cost it is an excellent video card and a signifigant upgrade over the X300SE. I've been quite happy with mine so far, and have found it to be more than adequate for any game, at decent level of detail and eye-candy. Not to mention that the cards overclock nicely :). Either an X700 or a 6600 would make your friend quite happy, both are great bang/buck video cards.

The nVidia equivelant to an X300SE is their 6200 line of video cards - they use pretty much the same system-memory using technology that the X300SE series of cards does (originally it is actually nVidia's technology, ATi "copied" it after nVidia released it and marketed it). Like the X300SE series the 6200 cards are built with a small amount of physical graphics memory in order to lower product cost; the cards use system memory when neccessary in order to compensate.

[TheMainFrame]

apparantly he is a Nvidea fan and decided on the 6600. He also picked up 1GB of DDR2 from OCZ and everything is on the up and up.

Thanks guys for all the input :)

[IrishAssassin]

6200 ownz an X600 when it's unlocked. If you don't want o spend that much, get a 6200.