Looking to get a new video card + more RAM.

Trying to upgrade my rig, got it like two and a half years go for Christmas, time to change. Needing some help though, not a total newb with this stuff, but I'm coming to you all for help.

My current specs (taking this from DxDiag):

Video Card: ATI Radeon 9550 256 MB (Pretty sure it's AGP 4x)

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor, 3700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.4GHz

Memory: 1024MB RAM (Need help here, don't know what kind it is:?)

The RAM should be the easy part, just got a find a good price on another gig, and make sure my computer can take it, might take it to Staple's or something. The video card is what I'm really needing help with.

Really, I would prefer to go with NVidia, I'm not happy with ATI at all. I mostly play City of Heroes/Villains, Civilization 4, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (lots of tweaks, want to go to FS:X). I'm not happy with the performance and ATI is not recommended for City of Heroes/Villains.

My first issue is the 8x/4x thing. I'm not sure which one I need. I see some cards are just 8x, and some are 8x/4x. I'm assuming the second is what I need.

Potential cards I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130274

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150210

My other problem is I don't know my power supply, I need to know how to find that out, AND, I need to make sure that my CPU won't bottleneck my new memory/card.

I got $300 dollars, about $75 of that I assume I'll have to dedicate to the RAM.MoMurdaBTNH

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227124 -Perfect RAM if you ask me, it's cheap, good company, and 2 GB is both standard now and will be for a long time before anyone really needs 4.

Now for video cards, you want something which can last you a while if you ask me. If you have any extra $ after that $100 RAM, try this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130082

If you really can't get anymore $(because that card will run Crysis just fine if you ask me), then here are sume budget/good performance ones.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130082-This is a good one, it's VERY cheap, and can do DX10, but you could get a more powerful card but it can only do DX9.

Well I'm not positive on this, but I think AMD processors and ATI go better together, so here's a good purchase.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102102

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161082-this is a great ATI card, with 512 MB RAM. This should last you a while. If you had to get ATI, I would get either this one or the one above this one. Someone who is an expert look at that above one and tell me which one is better, I do'nt think this can do DX10.

DUDE, if you don't have Dual core processors, you might want to consider spending some $ on a new processor too. Possibly switching to Core 2 Duo and going with a good nVIDIA card.

well you could get that info through the manual or if you knew the brand and model of the board you could search for it, but just use this tool, hit the "scan my sytem" button but I would still do some more research cause im not sure how accurate it is.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listproductline.aspx?mfgr=asus&pid=1010538

It didn't tell me my exact motherboard, but it did show me that I have two sticks of 512MB installed. It says that the best thing to do would be to buy two sticks of 1Gig each and use that. Does that sound about right?

It gave me three different sticks that would be compatible.

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=1A8FD73DA5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=26FCDC3BA5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=07E86B36A5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=13557134A5CA7304

It didn't tell me my exact motherboard, but it did show me that I have two sticks of 512MB installed. It says that the best thing to do would be to buy two sticks of 1Gig each and use that. Does that sound about right?

It gave me three different sticks that would be compatible.

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=1A8FD73DA5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=26FCDC3BA5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=07E86B36A5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=13557134A5CA7304

MoMurdaBTNH

I looked at your post, read the whole thing :P

But I'm trying first to identify my motherboard, to see if I even need to upgrade it or not, and I need 2 gigs of RAM total, and idk if I can get that for $95.

[QUOTE="MoMurdaBTNH"]

It didn't tell me my exact motherboard, but it did show me that I have two sticks of 512MB installed. It says that the best thing to do would be to buy two sticks of 1Gig each and use that. Does that sound about right?

It gave me three different sticks that would be compatible.

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=1A8FD73DA5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=26FCDC3BA5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=07E86B36A5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=13557134A5CA7304

RyuHayabusaX

I looked at your post, read the whole thing :P

But I'm trying first to identify my motherboard, to see if I even need to upgrade it or not, and I need 2 gigs of RAM total, and idk if I can get that for $95.

MoMurdaBTNH

Ok, he's trying to identify the memory, you dont go and buy just any old 2 gigs of ram there are diffrent types of it, though he probably needs the 240 pin ddr2, it would be a good idea to make 100% sure.

MoMurdaBTNH, past the link on here from the system scan.

[QUOTE="MoMurdaBTNH"]

I looked at your post, read the whole thing :P

But I'm trying first to identify my motherboard, to see if I even need to upgrade it or not, and I need 2 gigs of RAM total, and idk if I can get that for $95.

RyuHayabusaX

All the types of memory it recommended me were 184-pin.

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/viewscanbyid.aspx?id=9A93491631D926C3

thats kind of an old motherboard, but this should work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231047

He need 184 pin RAM. He also needs an AGP graphics card, I'm not sure if 8x cards are backwards compatible, google that. For RAM just go on newegg.com, put in the kind you need, then look for cheap ones with good reviews (Go 2GB, if mobo can handle). I believe there is an AGP X1950, that's a nice card so you should look that up.

Use CPU-Z to get system info.

Sometimes it's like people here don't even read previous posts.

The misinformation, it burns!! Okay, I'd like you to download a progarm called CPU-Z from cpuid.com. Under the mainboard tab in the program it will tell you your motherboard model. If you go to Memory if will give you information on what kinds of memory you have installed.

For a graphics card I would reccomend the X1950PRO. Though, you should really think about upgrading your motherboard. AGP cards are much more expesive than PCI-e cards and they don't always run as well.

The misinformation, it burns!! Okay, I'd like you to download a progarm called CPU-Z from cpuid.com. Under the mainboard tab in the program it will tell you your motherboard model. If you go to Memory if will give you information on what kinds of memory you have installed.

For a graphics card I would reccomend the X1950PRO. Though, you should really think about upgrading your motherboard. AGP cards are much more expesive than PCI-e cards and they don't always run as well.

I agree^^^

kodex1717

If you insist on AGP go with a 7950 It's more powerful than a x1950pro and the 1950 has heat issues. Mine burnt out in less than 6 months, but maybe you'll have better luck than me.d-rtyboy