what to upgrade

Post by **zamadatix** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 3:41 am

i want to stop using the family computer for gaming but my computer... well sucks and i dont know which i should upgrade first (itll be a while in between with money right now) i have 512b ram but 128 is reserved for vram and i have a ati radeon xpress 200 graphics card.

so which is in worse shape my ram or my graphics card (running xp sp2 but soon maybe win7 dual boot)

Post by **win98** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:02 am

RAM as the graphics card is using part of it then do the graphics.

Post by **logicaL** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:06 am

I would say they are in an equally bad state. From the sound of what you have you need DDR2 RAM and probably have a spare PCIe slot. I would go with the RAM first...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227199

This would probably be your best bet. Its from a quality company, and even has a MiR to bring it down $20 further.

Post by **win98** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:01 am

If you have pcie graphics then get ahttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... eon%204850 as its good value for money for gaming and then all you will probably need extra is a new power supply if yours isnt up to scratch calculate your power needs http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp with the upgrades suggested included then open the case and see if you have a decent power supply and its wattage and amps on the 12v+ 5v+ rail etc. If its not made by a brand of atleast medium quality as listed http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.ph ... 1f&t=82666 then it won't be as stable as a good one. Post your cpu type etc and then we can give you psu recommendations if its required.

Post by **zamadatix** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:39 pm

considering i can get 2gb ram for 30$ (google) i think ill go for it first the graphics card is gonna kill me though... im not a saver lol

Post by **alterbridge86** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 3:56 pm

Ram is a good first choice, but if you really want to do "gaming" that integrated graphics chip isn't going to get you very far...next upgrade must be an HD4850 - I have one and it is an excellent card for relatively cheap price. Good luck!

Post by **Piotr1312** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:26 pm

A good card to playing is the GeForce 9800GT/8800GT too, in addition to this it is much cheaper than the Radeon HD4850.

Post by **win98** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:44 am

Piotr1312 wrote:A good card to playing is the GeForce 9800GT/8800GT too, in addition to this it is much cheaper than the Radeon HD4850.

But when you put in the price performance ratio into the mix then its only good if you don't have the cash for radeon but wanna game or have a motherboard which won't do ATI for some reason.

Post by **QuiescentWonder** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 6:10 am

If you get a video card you free up RAM, and the RAM is going to run faster, as it's not being used by the video anymore.

Post by **happy dude** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:10 am

The only good thing your gfx chipset can do is run Aero Glass and older games, Sims2 is ...OK on it. And yes, I know, its in our family computer (not that I use it much)

Post by **Ambig** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:20 am

What's you're ENTIRE system specs.

It's senseless to make a recommendation without knowing the CPU (you don't want to pair up a 2.8 Ghz P4 with a 4850. It's a waste of money when something cheaper can perform just as well due to the CPU bottleneck). It would help to have your motherboard make and model. You don't want to buy DDR2 800 RAM if your motherboard only supports DDR2 667 RAM and you don't want to buy DDR2 RAM if your motherboard supports only DDR RAM (there is no compatibility between the two). Your power supply unit is also a factor. If you have a tiny 300 W PSU, it simply won't feed a 4850 and the rest of your system, especially if it was a cheap one (like one that came with a 30 dollar case or one in a prebuild computer (Dell, HP, ect)). You also don't want to buy a cheap PSU since it you are putting your entire system in jeopardy.

If you have PCIe a 4670 will run on a 300 W PSU (it requires no connectors from the PSU to power it only draws power from the slot). The 4670 gives the 9600 GT a run for its money, and if you have a bad CPU, a low Watt or a not so great PSU, it can definitely save you some money on a PSU upgrade (a 9600 GT has a bit lower draw than a 8800 GT IIRC, so if you have a cheap PSU or a low wattage one, you may need to replace it, which could add another 50-65 bucks on top of the video card).

If you could open up your case and tell us what PSU you have (brand and wattage) as well as the Amperage on the 12 V rail. It should all be on the label on the side.

Also, what games do you want to play?

Post by **zamadatix** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 1:41 pm

ok, entire system 2ghz 64 bit amd single core processor, 384 ram 128 vram, ati radeon xpress 200 graphics card (integrated), sound card doesn matter, 2 hard drives: 120gb and 140gb.

Post by **Piotr1312** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 4:04 pm

zamadatix wrote:ok, entire system 2ghz 64 bit amd single core processor, 384 ram 128 vram, ati radeon xpress 200 graphics card (integrated), sound card doesn matter, 2 hard drives: 120gb and 140gb.

In that case, better to buy a new computer than the graphics card. Otherwise, the processor will slow down the graphics card

Post by **zamadatix** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 4:17 pm

well i certainly don't have the money for that lol, i think ill upgrade the ram to 2gb then maybe get a new graphics card i don't know though because i've never gotten addicted to computer games.

Post by **Ambig** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:00 pm

zamadatix wrote:well i certainly don't have the money for that lol, i think ill upgrade the ram to 2gb then maybe get a new graphics card i don't know though because i've never gotten addicted to computer games.

Sounds like a good plan.

Be sure to find out what type of memory your motherboard supports as well as what slot your motherboard has available (you can use CPU-z to find that out under the mainboard tab). Also find out what type of Power Supply Unit you have before buying a video card.

Post by **Cursed** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:05 pm

Yeah, as it as already been said RAM first. Once that is done you will have to decide which graphics card you will need. Assuming you have a PCI-E slot, then I would reccomend an 8800GT or 9800GT (Zotac do a great 8800, and it is cheaper than most, if not all the competition). If you are not going to do hard core gaming, then you could settle for an 8600GT for less money. Good luck.