Looking to get a new graphics card

[Ghost of a Bullet]

I'm currently thinking about upgrading my graphics card, at the moment I've got an ATI Radeon 9250 256mb AGP X8 card with DVI output and I want something better, but no too expensive, looking to pay under 100 quid, the only games I play on it is CS Source and San Andreas Multiplayer, it runs both games well but can become very jerky when too much stuff is happening at once in the game. I'm also looking for a card that can handle HD content, because everytime I try to view a high def video it's incredibly jerky and unwatchable

My current spec is

AMD Sempron 2.2GHz
1GB of Ram
ATI radeon 9250 256mb
ASRock K7S41GX Motherboard
Windows XP SP2

[wakadoo]

add another gig of ram (currently about 29 quid) that will help out a bit.

the 8800 cards are coming down now m8 but if ya on a budget theres the 8600 ones out now and they seem pretty good for the money, the 8600gt 512ddr2 ones are on the 80 quid mark and there dx10 so nice vista comatability there..

http://www.web-systems.co.uk/?page=Products&pid=3637

but theres good news and bad news for ya.......

ok the bad news........al new gfx cards are now pci-e and your board is agp..

the good news is that your board (ASRock) has to be about the worst thing you could ever own so upgrading that as well is a good idea if you can stretch to it..

hope i have helped you a litte but the card you got in now is not far off as good as it gets on agp and its not worth taking out to spend cash on another agp one and i think other members will agree.....

[Ghost of a Bullet]

Cheers for your help mate, much appreciated.

also, could you suggest a motherboard to go with that card?

[wakadoo]

Sempron is available with three socket types: 462, 754 and AM2. Sempron processors based on socket 462 are simpler versions of Athlon XP, while Sempron processors based on socket 754 and socket AM2 are simpler versions of Athlon 64.

bad new for you again m8, you got the socket 462 one and that is the old one and now all semprons are seemingly fitted in am2, 939 or 940 sockets. so again if you change the board you will be putting old technology back in you pc.

it really is bite the bullet time for you i am afraid and you would be best off getting a new board , chip, ram (all new 939,940s are ddr2) and gfx card .

i am in the same boat here, i got a gaming pc and one for general use but the general use one is agp slot and i need a better gfx card, its got a 3gig 754 64bit chip in it and 3x512 ddr ram strips, so to go to pci-e like on the other one i really have got to ditch the lot cos if i am gonna get a new board and card i cant use the ram as i will need ddr2 and with all that being changed i might as well go for a dual core processor while i am at it.

ah well, we better get saving m8..

[pheonixsingh]

if you want a cheap agp card, try finding an Ati 9800 or a nvidia 6600,

but if you want to do an upgrade, ive made a quick one for you on the cheap and its dual core



but to be honest if your just playing those types of games i would just upgrade the gfx card and maybe the ram

[inspectercoley]

At least get a 7600 mate, they are so much better value for money.

Also more ram would not really do anything for those 2 games so I wouldn't worry about that.

You can even get a 7900 geforce for under £100 and they kick ass in general.

[pattikins]

There are still some decent cards, based on the AGP platform, around the £100 mark that can also handle HD content. For instance:

256MB Sapphire Radeon X1950GT AGP 8x, 1200MHz GDDR3, GPU 500MHz, Dual DVI/S-Video Retail
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=584396
over clockers.co.uk also have a silent version (remove the space 'over clockers')
512MB Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro AGP
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=521950

Both the X1950 pro & gt versions perform well against a supercharged version of the 8600 GT (GTS = expensive. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foxcon...ew-2194-7.html. On the downside, the X1950 cards would be underpowered by your current system (I think your board will take a 3ghz cpu). Fortunately, there are AGP mobos around that support the latest cpu's from AMD & Intel - & even the odd hybrid:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=534747 so you can upgrade when you've got some spare cash, but your choice will be limited.

As all the cards appear to be from Sapphire, here are the specs:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/produ...75brochure.pdf

[Ghost of a Bullet]

Cheers for all the info guys, much appreciated.