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foledouse · Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:34 am

I am getting ready to buy Age of Empires III and I want to upgrade my graphics card. Right now I have the graphics card that came with my PC (NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 64MB). My computer is a DELL Dimension 8250. Pentium 4 2.40ghz with 512MB of RAM.

There are so many options out there for graphics cards I was a little overwhelmed. So I would appreciate any of your suggestions for a nice card that I'm not going to have to pay an arm and a leg for. Thanks in advance for your help.

derFunkenstein · Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:08 am

Not sure this is in the right place, but no matter...

What's your budget? If you can swing $150, I think you'd do well with a GeForce 6600GT. Anything more than that would not be usable because of the slower CPU.

foledouse · Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:14 am

Yea I was actually looking at that exact card. $150 is fine I just saw some cards around $350 and that was a little high for me. So you think and graphic card higher then that won't matter because of the speed of my computer? If thats the case I'll just go with the card you suggested.

Joeg_7 · Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:15 am

make sure you get an agp card.

foledouse · Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:32 am

Whats the difference with an AGP card and this card....

XFX GeForce 6600 GT 128MB Dual DVI PCI Express DX 9

Our Price: $154.99

I saw this card on buy.com....

DragonFli · Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:33 am

foledouse wrote:
Whats the difference with an AGP card and this card....

XFX GeForce 6600 GT 128MB Dual DVI PCI Express DX 9

Our Price: $154.99

I saw this card on buy.com....

The difference is your computers inability to use it, your compatible with AGP alone...

Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:32 pm

$150-$20MIR XFX PVT43AND GeForce 6600GT 128MB AGP
$165½ XFX PVT40KND GeForce 6800 128MB AGP

Joeg_7 · Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:44 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
$150-$20MIR XFX PVT43AND GeForce 6600GT 128MB AGP
$165½ XFX PVT40KND GeForce 6800 128MB AGP

I say definitely go for that 6800 that JAE posted above me. according to the reviews on newegg alot of people seem to be able to unlock the pipes on those cards. a 16 pipe card for $162 sounds pretty nice.

Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:53 pm

Just to clarify the AGP/PCI-E issue:

You're buying during a transition period. AGP slots are being phased out, and PCI-E slots are being phased in. AGP and PCI-E are incompatible. (PCI-E is also incompatible with "classic" PCI.)

Also bear in mind that an AGP card you buy today will probably not be compatible with a new motherboard purchased a year or two from now; so if you upgrade to a new AGP card today, count on upgrading the graphics card again the next time you upgrade your motherboard and CPU.

Sun Oct 16, 2005 2:41 pm

Moved to the System Builder forum.

Kevin

foledouse · Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:40 pm

Thanks for the feedback guys. I am going to go with the XFX PVT40KND GeForce 6800 128MB AGP and when I have to upgrade next it will probably be when I get a new computer anyway so thats while i'll take the AGP now. Thanks again for the help.

Coran Fixx · Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:45 pm

I would ask how graphics intensive aoe3 is, and what other kind of gaming you do?

I would also ask what your timeframe is for your next computer. Are you going to have this computer for one year? two?

I hate to be a worrywart, but you may have to budget for a new powersupply if the current one is too anemic. Other people in the forums have more expertise in this area, but I thought I would bring the possibility up.

**edit: 250watt PS unless you've upgraded

Sun Oct 16, 2005 5:55 pm

I agree, it's a Dell, and putting a 6800 there could just be asking for trouble.

paco · Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:07 pm

I upgraded the PSU on my 8200, only problem was it didn't fit in the case (power switch on psu was sticking out), hacksaw fixed that thou :lol:

.
This was so i could put a 5900xt in it.

Also don't even think about adding more ram Rdram is very expensive compared to ddr.

Usacomp2k3 · Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:14 pm

My sister has a Dell, umm, $550 pc (don't know the model). And I threw a Radeon 9250 PCI in there, and she says it runs the AOE3 demo fine.

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