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Video Card upgrade dilemma

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  • Video Card upgrade dilemma

    I'm trying to decide whether upgrading my video card to an PNY GeForce FX 5700 VE 256MB DDR AGP would be worth my time (its on sale at BestBuy right now and I'm on the low end of the money spectrum at the moment). At the moment I'm using an Asylum GeForce FX 5200 256Mb PCI card, which has been serving me quite well for a while now. I haven't tried upgrading to an AGP card at the moment because my motherboard only has an AGP 4X slot (it's an ASUS P4B533 if you are wondering) and I'm not sure how much of a bottleneck would be. Does anyone know if this would be a significant upgrade for me or not?

    At the moment, I'm also using a P4 2.8 Gig processor and have a little over a Gig of DDR ram installed.

    The other concern I had was that I heard rumor that the card I currently have is the only GeForce FX card that supports Pixel Shading 2.0 in games, meaning a lot of the more recent games that require it (Such as Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Half-Life 2) would not run for me any longer.

    Thanks for any and all advice you can give me.

  • #2
    Re: Video Card upgrade dilemma

    Are you bent on staying with the nVidia line? Given the price I saw on the BestBuy website and figuring tax, I'm guessing your total budget is somewhere in the area of about $150? If you don't mind shopping online, I would highly recommend checking out www.newegg.com as this site has some very solid prices and doesn't rape you in shipping charges. Doing a quick search with a maximum price range of $150 I was able to turn over several 9800 Pro boards and even a 256MB version of the 9600XT. There were also some 6600 series boards being offered if you're dead set on sticking with nVidia. If you can order online with a credit card, I highly recommend using the Newegg site.

    Concerning the AGP concept, there isn't a huge gap between 4x and 8x AGP performance. As long as your motherboard can handle the voltage required for the new video board you should be set. Do a quick comparison before buying the new card and make sure they are compatible. They should be but its always a good idea to double check.

    As to the Pixel Shading 2.0, I haven't heard of any games out yet that require this. It only means that a board with support for the newer shaders will have a bit better graphics quality, but it should still be able to handle the load just fine.
    Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
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    • #3
      Re: Video Card upgrade dilemma

      I'm planning on sticking with Nvidia at the moment, simply because I have the most experience with their cards and drivers. The in-store deal is actually a little less than a hundred dollars, which is why I'm opting for it over NewEgg.com (awesome site, by the way). I'm just curious as to how much of a jump in performance I'd see going from one to the other, or whether the upgrade would be negligable.

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      • #4
        Re: Video Card upgrade dilemma

        http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...charts-04.html

        Might be of help to you.
        Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
        My Toys

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