New GFX cards

[Rolling Thunder]

7600GT is a good AGP card, I'm lead to understand.
Next point: Any advice on getting a decent gaming laptop? One with a 256 RAM GFX card, and plenty of RAM.

 

[jezz8me]

Well i think i will stick to my decision to have the 8800GT then. It should go down in price when the new nvidia cards are released so i will buy then.

 

[Anarchemitis]

How do I find out if my board has AGP? Sorry for being so... t3chnica11y inept.

 

[werepossum]

I hope you understand Hindu for your own sake.

Funny, being Indian, you'd think I'd of heard of 'Hindu' being a language... something you'd like to share?

Owned. Although I have a hard time as well with Indian phone operators; between my heavy Southern American accent and their Indian accent, it's hard to communicate. That can also be true if I'm talking to the northeast or to the west coast, though.

jezz8me, if your budget is still close to before I don't think any of the new 200 series cards will be affordable. You might be able to squeeze in an 8800GTS 512, though, some of those can get pretty cheap. I've not seen any hard reviews of the new AMD chips, but since AMD desperately needs a boost and yet is not releasing samples for benchmarking I suspect they are not yet that great. Still, it's less than a month, might be worth waiting just to see.

 

[Isalan]

How do I find out if my board has AGP? Sorry for being so... t3chnica11y inept.

Find out what your motherboard is called (should be in your documentation somewhere) and then look it up in google. Somewhere it'll say whether its PCI-E, AGP 8x or AGP 4x. Those are the most common gfx card interfaces though AGP 4x is getting really old now.

 

[werepossum]

How do I find out if my board has AGP? Sorry for being so... t3chnica11y inept.

To expand on Isalan's post, if you don't have any documentation and are using Windows XP you can go to "Control Panel" and then System Properties; on the "GENERAL" tab under "Computer" you may see info about your PC manufacturer, your motherboard model, your CPU brand, type and speed, and your installed RAM. (This doesn't always work, it depends on your machine's BIOS.) From there you can go to the manufacturer's web site. If the model is shown but not the manufacturer, you can Google it and usually get the manufacturer. (I use Yahoo, but they're about the same.) You can also go to the "HARDWARE" tab, then "Device Manager", then look at "System devices", but you need to know something about hardware and especially drivers to interpret that.

Or you could do it the easy way. There is a file which comes with Direct X and Windows called "DXDIAG.EXE". Find that with "RUN" (it should be the "Windows" directory and probably "system32" subdirectory) and run it, and it should give you lots of info about your box. Most systems show the motherboard manufacturer and model under "System Manufacturer" and "System Model", but some large manufacturers replace this in the BIOS with their own model info. If you have a large manufacturer's box you can go to their web site with the model and serial number and can usually find the details of the box.

If none of that works, you'll need to either find a good system information freeware program (one that is without malware snuck in) or actually open the box up and look (which will void any remaining warranty.)

If you have AGP, think about whether it makes sense to replace the video card or just replace the computer or motherboard. AGP cards are considerably more expensive for the same power as PC-E cards. If you do add or replace an AGP card, make very sure you have the right model; some models have slots which will accept some 0.8V cards but actually supply 1.5V (IIRC). (May be 1.5V and 3.0V, I don't remember when the voltage changed.) Anyway, placing the lower voltage card in a higher voltage motherboard without first changing the voltage (where possible) may fry your new card.

 

[Nugoo]

If none of that works, you'll need to either find a good system information freeware program (one that is without malware snuck in) or actually open the box up and look (which will void any remaining warranty.)

I recommend PC Wizard [http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php].

 

[Anarchemitis]

What if I have Vista? My tower is a HP a1700n. (Thanks for the previous advice, if only I could use it. :/ I really appreciate it!)

 

[crimson5pheonix]

7600GT is a good AGP card, I'm lead to understand.
Next point: Any advice on getting a decent gaming laptop? One with a 256 RAM GFX card, and plenty of RAM.

Well the obvious choices are Alienware, Voodoo, and Dell (If you want to commit monetary suicide.) Personally I would go for Alienware, their m15x comes with a 256 ram and starts at $1,500 dollars with said GFX card. If you have a deep pocket and a want of a chic laptop, go for voodoo. They cost more but the cases look better. And if your a cheepskate and don't like quality control, then DELL is for you. If you do go Dell, use the XPS line, it's slightly better.

Back to Alienware, the m15x starts at $1,500 and comes with a 8600GT, further upgrades will cost more. The m17x has a larger screen (17" as opposed to 15.4") and better graphics, namely the same cards, just 2 of them in SLI. Expect to pay a bigger premium though, It starts at $2,100. Also the battery life isn't as good.

Edit: Anarchemitis, I looked up your computer and it is a PCI-E x16 mobo, so you can get most any GFX you can afford, I suggest an 8600GT or better, but you might also need to upgrade your RAM for good gaming.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Thanks Phoenix.

Alienware...

 

[Anarchemitis]

...Anarchemitis, I looked up your computer and it is a PCI-E x16 mobo, so you can get most any GFX you can afford, I suggest an 8600GT or better, but you might also need to upgrade your RAM for good gaming.

'Did like 3 weeks ago. 2GB is awesome!
Thanks alot for the advice. Now would it be logical for me to be contemplating the GeForce 9 series?

 

[crimson5pheonix]

You could, There are some nice cards in there. Get something like the 9600 GT for good price versus performance. But to be fair, the 8 series would work just as well and would cost a little less.

And 2GB IS awesome, that's what's in my gaming computer I built myself.

 

[werepossum]

Now would it be logical for me to be contemplating the GeForce 9 series?

Depends on the depth of your pockets. Here's a link to an article at Tom's Hardware on the best video cards for the money as of June '08.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-cards,1942.html

Series numbers can be confusing, as the first number is the generation and says nothing about the power of the GPU. The 9800 GX2 is the king at the moment; it has two 8800 GTS GPUs more or less. Below that are the 8800 Ultra, 8800 GTX, and 9800 GTX, in that order. The ATI 3870 X2 is more or less on this level, also having two complete GPUs on one card. Below that you find the 8800 GTS 512MB and then the 8800 GT 512MB. The next level is the 8800 GTS 640MB, then the 9600 GT and 3870, then the HD2600, and so on. There's a nice chart on the last page of the article. Tom's does this article every month. There's also a Desktop VGA Chart on Tom's Hardware here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards/3dmark06-v1-0-2-hdr-sm3-0-score,538.html
This chart allows you to choose one of several benchmarks and see how different cards perform.

Another way is to look for benchmarks for the games you want to play; some web sites regularly do these for GPUs and sometimes CPUs (not as important) for popular games.

One thing to keep in mind when looking for nVidia GPUs in these articles is that different graphics cards can be clocked at different speeds than the stock reference design. A factory overclocked 8800 GTS 512MB might be faster than a stock 9800 GTX, even though it's slower on the charts.

"DXDIAG.EXE" also works in Vista, but not as well. (If you've had Vista long you probably expected that last part.) Here's a wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DxDiag

I'd go for a factory overclocked 8800 GTS 512MB or 8800 GT 512MB myself unless you have money to burn or couldn't afford these. In the first case the 9800 GX2 rules; in the second case the 9600 GT (or the 3870 512MB if you prefer AMD/ATI) is the lowest I'd go for a gaming PC, and both deliver good bang for the buck. Graphics are the most important part of a gaming PC with the possible exception of sufficient RAM, so don't scrimp below what you can afford if gaming beyond WoW is a priority.

You may also need to upgrade your power supply for a new video card. That information should be available on the HP web site. Good luck.

 

[KamikazeSailor]

I'm in the process of building a new PC and I've kept the thought of new cards in mind... whatever graphics card you decide to get, make sure it's from a brand that has a step-up program... like eVGA's Step-up Program... www.evga.com/stepup

That means whatever inferior card you buy, you have 90 days from the invoice purchase to get a newer better card and just pay the difference... very nice program to take advantage of, especially right now!

So I got myself a evga 8800 GTS and am just waiting for the new ones

 

[iamnotincompliance]

Thanks alot for the advice. Now would it be logical for me to be contemplating the GeForce 9 series?

While it does indeed depend on your pockets, it also depends on the power supply. While working on a friend's Dell recently, I saw the power supply was rated at 230 watts. My video card (8800 GT) in itself requires roughly 100. You may have to upgrade that as well, and the cost of that may affect your upgrade decision. If you should have to scale back those grandiose 9 series plans to 8 series, don't worry, the 8800 is, in my humble opinion, excellent.

[EDIT] Seems somehow I glanced over werepossum's stating that exact fact while reading this. Oh well, so I've only confirmed what he said instead of contributing anything. In that case, I'll say upgrading a power supply isn't at all hard to do, it's merely tedious. Video cards are also easy to install.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Since you have and OEM, the power supply will be easy to upgrade, my first computer I didn't route the cables well so doing anything in it sucks hardcore.