New graphics card ponderings

[Rowsen]

Hi everyone, I'm cashed up from birthday gifts and was thinking about buying a new graphics card. But I'm a moron when it comes to this sort of thing so I was wondering what the Playground would recommend that's compatible with my system and purchasable in the Melbourne area.
I was thinking something Nvidia, since that will allow me to play the copies of Bioshock and Oblivion I got today.

I'm currently running a RADEON 9250 card and a Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00GHz processor on a Windows XP system. I'm not sure what else I should write down to help.

[Flickerdart]

You could use a newer processor, if your motherboard supports anything better.

If you wanted to stick with Radeons, the Radeon HD 5970 kicks ass. If you want nVidia, currently the GTX 480 is the king of the hill, but it's about $500. For Bioshock and Oblivion, you don't need anything nearly that powerful, though. I remember running them on a 9800, and you could probably buy two of those for not much more than a hundred bucks these days. It'd never be able to handle anything much newer, though.

So, do you need something to run those games, or to run new games?

[Erloas]

The computer is clearly fairly old, there is a good chance it still has AGP rather the PCI-E graphics card slot.
Programs like CPU-z and GPU-z should get you the basic information on your computer to see what sort of upgrade options you have.

A quick search of the 9250 only shows AGP cards. Your choice of AGP cards at this point is very very small and probably something you would have to buy online since I doubt any places would stock them.
Though if you search someplace like Ebay you might be able to find some old AGP cards people have and no longer have any need for. In fact I think I've got an AGP x1950 Pro around somewhere (I gave it to my brother at one point but he never used it so I'm not positive where it might be at) but the cost to ship it to Australia is probably more then what they card is worth (but not necessarily what it would cost to buy something new)

Also no matter what you do with your video card a P4 is going to be holding you back, and at this point there is no practical way to upgrade.

At this point your best option would be to save up for a new computer.

Another note is that both Oblivion and Bioshock require at least DX9 graphics cards and the 9250 is a DX8 card so it isn't going to even be able to load either game.

[JediSoth]

I coupled my P4 3.0 GHz with an nVidia 9400GT. I had a PCI express slot in that computer and the 9400GT was the best video card my power supply could handle. If you DO choose to try to upgrade your current system, you have to be aware of how powerful a power supply you have, because if you couple a newer card with an insufficient power supply, you will not be happy with the results.

But, yeah, I have to agree with several others; it's time to upgrade the whole system, ESPECIALLY if you're motherboard won't support PCI-E.

[monomer]

First of all, either an ATI Radeon or a Nvidia GeForce will work fine for any game you want to throw at them, especially if you plan on sticking with Windows XP.

I am not from Australia, but Dansdata (http://www.dansdata.com/) (great site by the way) recommends AUSPC Market, which I will be using for price comparisons.

Secondly, if you are planning on keeping your current CPU/ and Motherboard, you need to know if you have a AGP or PCIe interface. The Pentium 4 is getting pretty old, and it was released during the time when computers were transitioning from AGP to PCIe.

If you have an AGP slot, I would recommend upgrading your whole computer (Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Video Card), rather than trying to slot in a faster AGP card. If you really want to stick with your current components, though, the fastest AGP card is the Radeon HD4650 AGP (http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?input[product_code]=AL-HIS-4670-1GB-AGP&input[category_id]=106), available for $181.50 AUD at AUSPC Market. There is really nothing else that comes close in performance for AGP cards, unless you can find a Radeon HD3850 AGP, which is slightly faster in some cases.

If you have a PCIe slot, then things get more interesting, though I would still recommend upgrading your entire system instead, as your single-core CPU will likely be holding you back when you start looking at the faster video cards.

If you are planning on sticking with Windows XP for some time, you would not need a modern DX11 class card, so I would recommend going with a Radeon 4890 or a GeForce GTX275, which have very good price/performance compared to the latest generation of cards, though they are pretty hard to find nowadays. you could also look at the mid-range cards such as the Geforce GTS240 (http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?input[product_code]=ACH-N240GT-MD1G&input[category_id]=1831), or the Radeon 4670 (http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?input[product_code]=ACH-11138-13-41R&input[category_id]=1663).The main issue with these is the lack of DX11 support, which is only of concern for some modern games which are only usable under Vista/Win7.

For DX11 cards, probably the best price/performance card is currently the Radeon HD5770 (http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?input[product_code]=AL-AM5770-DHV-1024D5&input[category_id]=1796), which is available for $214.50 AUD.

For the high-end cards, your best bets are the Radeon HD5850 (http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?input[product_code]=AL-XFX-5850-1GBD5&input[category_id]=1792) ($405.90 AUD), or GeForce GTX465 (http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?input[product_code]=AL-GXY-GTX465-1GBD5&input[category_id]=1861) ($415.90) though I would only recommend the Geforce if for some reason you really needed to go with an Nvidia card.

If you could let us know what price point you were looking at, it would be easier to give suggestions.

[Erloas]

One thing to keep in mind when looking at upgrade, is the increased cost of older parts, rather then the expected decrease in cost for being old. Hidden in Monomers recommendations is 4670 is $180 in AGP, and $126 in PCI-E. Any other upgrades are going to be similarly higher priced because the quantities of older parts just are high enough for the costs to come down.

And as hinted at, even with a new video card that process is really going to be holding you back. I know when I upgraded away from my P4 I was using the aforementioned x1950Pro and it was not really being fully utilized because the CPU just couldn't keep up. You'll still have poor performance because of the processor and once you do go to upgrade, the AGP video card will be all but useless.

If you really want to play and can't afford a new computer I would first check for used AGP cards, they really shouldn't cost much because they would be hard to sell.

[kusje]

My suggestion is that you either upgrade the whole thing to at least a dual core processor or buy a second hand graphics card that your motherboard can support. It's pointless to blow $500 on a graphics card when the quality of your game play is going to be limited by your CPU speed.

[Rowsen]

Yeah, looks like I'll have to buy a new motherboard and processor. About time I upgraded this old thing.
Thanks for the replies!