Snotnarok said:
Pent 4 is a bit outdated, more games seem to be hooking on to dual core and more, and 1 gb of ram is really low.
I'm running a
2.66 dual core
4gb DDR2 RAM
XFX GeForce 9800GTX+
pentium 4s are also really horrible processors. it takes a 5+ghz pentium 4 to perform as well as an athlon 64 fx-55.
in any case, first check to see whether you have a pci-express x16 slot, an agp slot or just pci slots. here are what they look like
pci-express x16: http://www.karbosguide.com/books/pcarchitecture/images/828.jpg (pci picture is the same link)
pci: http://www.karbosguide.com/books/pcarchitecture/images/828.jpg (the pci slots are the smaller white ones, the pci-x16 slot is the larger, black one)
agp: http://www.tutorialforfree.co.cc/en/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/agp_slot1.jpg
if you have a pci-x16 slot than any video card made in the last 5-6 years has a pci-x16 version, so youve got a lot of choices.
if you have agp then the last agp card released was the radeon hd 4670, with other choices being the radeon hd 2900s, radeon x1000 series or the geforce 7000 series and older cards.
if you have pci your choices are even more limited. very few, if any high end graphics (when i say high end i mean high end for the time) have had vanilla pci versions, with most of the lower and some of the middle end cards in each specific series being pci.
if you have a pci-x16 slot id recommend a radeon hd 4870. performance is very good and their pretty cheap these days.
if you have an agp card then try and find a radeon hd 4670, their pretty cheap ($90 on newegg) and the performance is about on par with the 3800s.
if you have a pci slot then your kinda screwed. as i said best youll be able to find is a radeon hd 4300 or geforce 9500, both low to lower-middle end cards, and neither will be up to snuff for newer games. if you have only a pci slot and want to play newer games than id recommend just getting a new computer all together.
now one thing is that depending on the card you choose you may have to get a new power supply. pre-built computers from dell and others dont usually have good power supplies for running a good video card. check what it is, and if its anything less than 450w then you might have to get a new one, as i said, depending on which card you choose.
also, get at least 1gb more ram, but ram is cheap these days so getting a 4gb kit isnt expensive espically if you use ddr2.
finally, while the pentium 4s are bad processors games these days are very much gpu bound and really dont use the processor much. youll probably be able to get away with it for about a year or two without getting a new processor but there may be some games you wont be able to play, but as of now a friend of mine who has my old p4 machine is still able to play all the games coming out these days so like i said, youll be able to get away with it.
