any gamers or tech guys around?
 

if i decide to buy a heavy duty gfx card, does it improve ONLY games? or will it also speed up other stuff that i use daily?

As well, which would you recommend?

anything here?

Mainly just games or for improving DVD playback. If you get one of those ATI All In Wonders you can play around with video on your PC too. (editing, make your PC into a Tivo, etc.)

it will improve everything.

what are they called? have a link?

if im gonna do it, might as well do it right lol

Ati all in wonder

http://www.atitech.com/products/multimedia.html

unless you're serious about watching tv and doing vid capturing through a coax port on your computer, i wouldn't get an all-in-wonder. adds a lot of price to the vid card.

actually, from what i hear the leadtek wintv capture card thingie works a lot better than ati's tuner/capture, and has an fm reciever built in as well. runs about $50 for the card, and then you're also not tied down to keeping a video card just because it captures video (i.e. upgrade video without losing capture capabilities).

if you're looking for a card that's fairly inexpensive, but will provide good performance for most games and the like (although it's not a 9700 or 9800 pro, fo sho), get the gigabyte radeon 9200se 128mb. plenty of ram, and a decent gpu for most stuff.

the standard version is like $70, the vivo version is around $80. there's also a 64mb version as well that's a little cheaper, don't know where those are right off.

right now, i'd say that's about the best bang for the buck. 9700's are nice, but with a 1.6ghz processor, chances are you're going to max out the cpu before the video. my old original radeon 64mb (dubbed later as the radeon 7000) ran most things like half life and the like at 1600x1200x32 no problems.

oh yeah, the gigabyte 9200's have a standard d-sub and dvi output.

so your saying the 9800 is the way to go?

lol

the cash isnt a problem, i just want something that covers all bases.

i have no interest in capturing movies, so the all in wonder isnt for me.

the 9200 gpu should be sufficient for what you're doing.

personally, i run a 9700 128mb pro. there's not much difference between this card and the 9800 pro 128mb. very little, in fact.

the 9800 xt 256mb is a sweet sounding card, especially at $500 and a free copy of hl2 with the retail box, but the 256mb doesn't make the card any faster than the 128mb model, from what i hear (it also looks fucking crazy with their new wild-ass hsf).

again, i think for your system the 9200 would be adequate. a retail box 9700 pro is still around the $300 mark. i think you'll run into issues with your system before you'll run out of video, especially to merit running a 9700 or higher gpu.

get the gigabyte, save some cash, have some fun, then build a new box :) for $80, it's a pretty good video card.

i cant believe my 1.6 is no good anymore, god damnit!!!

kindof. if you're considering spending $500 on a video card, you just as well spend $150 on an abit nf7-s, $85 on a barton 2500 (or 150 on a 2800), and get a couple sticks of corsair xms 512's. just as well get a 7200rpm 8mb cache hdd as well (the difference between a 7200 2mb and 7200 8mb hard drive is INSANE).

btw, level loading times don't have much to do with your vid card. dc takes about 30 seconds or so for me to load a map (bf1942 mod). that's all in the processor, mem and hard drives.

im not even joking when i say it took ATLEAST 25 minutes to load a map.

i am so clueless with hardware, is it posible to just buy a new processer and pop it in there?

:/

ATI - RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB AGP Graphics Card

best graph card in town, the one I got :thumbsup

If you talking about upgrading your processor and video card ... you should just buy a new box and use your existing monitor

lol monitor is the worst thing in my entire system, its a 17in but VERY big, like 1.5ft deep or some shit, and weighs so much its arching my desk lol

damnit i dont want a complete new pc!! not even about the money, im just very comfy with this one heh

Word of advice, the minute you get the new card, replace the heatsink and fan assembly with a good aftermarket thermaltake one, the life of the card will dramaticaly increse

they are known for frying eh?

nope
if you wish to overclock, which I HIGHLY doubt you need
then concider changing fans and such

You are comfy with it but want a new video card, processor and say that the monitor is the worst thing about your system.... Hmmm don't sound to comfy to me :)

i just wanna play this damn 1942!!!

lol

damnit

What's your budget dude? If it's not high, get a Radeon 9200 like somebody mentioned before, and you can play pretty much any game you want. Otherwise if you want the best of the best, get an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800. Also, you may want to upgrade your 1.6 in about 3-4 months, when you'll get fantastic prices on very fast processors/motherboards.

Blah! Don't but a card from Overpriced Buy! Try www.pricewatch.com can always find way better deals then Best Buy, waaaaaaay over priced.

do'nt settle for anything less:

http://usa.asus.com/products/vga/r9800xt/overview.htm

lots of ati fans here heh i got a geforce 4 ti4400 ill be updating to a fx series soon and have a geforce 3 ti200 in another pc still runs flawlessly my leadtek geforce 4 ti4400 myvivo is a good card has all the ins and outs and is alot cheaper of course now then when i bought it but if i suggested soemthing it would be in lines of a maybe geforce 4 ti 4200 agp 8x as it can clock up there with alot of the faster cards and it is a hell of a deal for the money

but like someone mentioned, the game takes forever to load, which has nothing to do with gfx card. means i need processor also?

I have a radeon 9200 vivi 128mb.

I recommend 9600 PRO.

9800 is worse overall. just make sure it's a PRO and not the standard. :2 cents:

Actually, load time can depend on many things, INCLUDING the vid card.

If your vid card has lots of memory (128 or 256MB), it can most likely load the map and textures into the memory on the card. This combined with a fast hard drive makes for the fastest load times.

If it's like a 32 or 64MB card, it will load what it can on the card, then use the system memory, and quite possibly, a swap file on the HD. This makes for slow load times, and in your case, 25 mins to load a map sounds like it's swapping to disk.

I would recommend what BigFish recommended, and possibly a bit of new memory as well.

I have a GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256 on one machine with an AMD 3200 XP processor, and an Asus Radeon 9800 Pro in another machine with an AMD 2800 XP processor, and the Radeon outperforms the GeForce by a long shot in 3DMark 2003 (Benchmarking tool)

Your processor is fine for BF1942, but you might need to upgrade it in a few months, once the next cooler game comes along.

it's the stock fans that are know for frying out slowly, as they frie out over a few months time the heatsink gets hotter and hotter until your card starts causing blue screens, byt hen, it's almost too late

SHIT, i was just in bestbuy and saw the 9600 pro, but remembered people saying the 9800 was the way to go so i didnt buy it ...

damnit, i could have been playing my game right now!!

lol