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Newbie to videocards..

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L

Liquid_Metal

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Dec 3, 2005
What topic says. Me = Needing new video card. Right now I have...um, some thing called a 'SiS650' 64mb shared graphics card. Came with the system, obviously...and I need an upgradey, badly. Any recommendations on a CHEAP but GOOD video card? I wanna actually play games on this thing. :l
 
Thanks.

Um, Intel Pentium 4 - 2.5ghz, 256mb ram of DDR333 (Only running at 190 though..), 40gb hardrive. I'm upgrading the memory and ram as well. Plus I have Windows XP home edition.

I need something about $100 - $150 if possible. Or something close.

Oh, and I want to upgrade it so I can actually play some decent damn games on it.
 
you will need to find out what kind of slot you have on your motherboard

worst case you only have pci slots

if you have agp or pci express slots, you're in business
 
A few questions:

1. What kind of motherboard do you have? or What kind of graphics slot do you have?
2. What games will you be playing?
3. What kind of power supply do you have?
 
See, that's the thing with pre-made computers. >.< I don't know anything else about it apart from the main specs.

I want to at least play Doom3...those kinda standards.

There an easier way to find out what motherboard I have without having to take my computer apart?
 
CPU-Z will tell you basic information
http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php

Sisoft Sandra will go into a bit more detail
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/

Just a couple of things. Memory and RAM are the same thing, it sounds like you are quite new to overclocking and upgrading computers, so I would suggest that before you go any buy anything, you establish exactly what bits you already have, and talk it over with the people here.

Also is the memory running at 190 by default or did you set it at that yourself? Do you know if it is running at DDR190 or actually 190Mhz (it should say in BIOS, or wherever you got the numbers from yourself). Because DDR333 is at a clockrate of only 166Mhz and running it at 190Mhz [without doing other things] could make your PC unstable. I'm only asking because usually the slowest most systems will run memory at is DDR200.
 
No, it's in ram. I didn't set it up either...I got told that Windows XP did this by someone. Kinda irritating when you buy a game which you should be able to play, and your hardware is failing on ya..
Do you think it would be XP? Or something else?

Okay, got the info on the motherboard:
Manufacturer: NEC COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL
Model: SiS650
Chipset: SiS|650
Southbridge: SiS|ID0008
Sensor: Winbound|W83697HF

BIOS
Brand: American Megatrends inc.
Version: 3.0m
Date: 09/11/2003

That mean anything to you?

And the actual Ram is 190 according to this, as well.
 
Couldn't find any info on an NEC board with that chipset (except for a notebook comp listed on the SiS website), but the boards I found with it all have an AGP 4X slot for video. So you should be able to run a video card that uses the 4X/8X interface.
 
Open the computer and check for a brown slot all the way to the right that's offset from the rest. If so, you have AGP. If you don't have one (that is, all the slots are white), you're stuck with PCI.

In the $100-$150 range, in AGP, you want the eVGA GeForce 6600GT w/128MB. That should be plenty for you. If you're stuck with PCI, BFG GeForce FX5500 OC is your best bet.
 
Thanks. Been looking around for the eVGA 6600GT...it's a bit hard to find an Australian site which has them.. . I did see one going for $80 on Ebay, though. But can't buy right away...so do you guys know any Australian sites which would stock it permanently?
 
Yeah, looks cheap. But that site REALLY hurts my eyes as well. >.< And I DO live in Melbourne as well.
 
OK since you are blessed/cursed with AGP :) consider the 6800 or 6800LE. The LE retails for similar to the 6600GT and the 6800 is a bit more. The 6800LE is ever so slightly better than the 6600GT and the 6800 is quite a bit better.

A 6800 will run Counterstrike Source with all graphics options on high at 1024x768
It would also run Battlefield 2 with everything on Medium/High at 1024x768

They are also great cards for simple and impressive overclocking. The memory won't overclock much, but the processor will. You can also do something called a softmod which doesn't always work (though you can easily change it back) but gives you a huge performace boost by turning the card processor into the same one that is on a 6800GT. You can't do this to a 6600GT.
 
One thing, if you still aren't sure if you have an AGP slot, open your PC. You will have to do it anyway when you fit the card and RAM. Also consider a second hand card, the extra power could be worth it in the long run.
 
I only recommended the eVGA model because that fits your budget, at least from US retailers, but I'd have no idea what the prices and availability are in Australia. You might be able to find a 6800XT for under $150 also. It's slightly better than the 6800LE but loses to the 6800NU. It's a lot tougher to find for that price, though.
 
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