Should I get a new Graphics Card?

[Megaman]

I've been thinking of upgrading my NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300. It runs Half Life just fine (slightly choppy with the HD pack installed). I mostly want it to play games from the Orange Box.

On Newegg, there's a good deal for an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT. I'm not really sure if this is a good deal...

All the reviews are incredibly positive. The funny thing is that every one of them lists "it's not an 8800 GTS" as the only con! Is an 8600 really that different from an 8800?

Thanks for the help guys, I'm kind of a n00b at computer hardware.

[VAMP]

I'd say that's a really capable card for that price. As long as you don't plan on running Crysis with full settings you should be in good shape with this one. One of the user reviews says that it runs CoD4 nicely so in my opinion that's pretty good and it should be able to run games for about 3-4 more years with decent results.

You'll most certainly be able to run the Orange Box nicely.

[dwkillzone]

if you have the extra cash go for the 8800 card cause it's gonna be better....but if you dont have the extra cash than stick with the 8600! they are both good cards just the 8800 would be better depending on what ur doin

[Megaman]

Hmm... Well the 8800's are about $500 - $600. I could get a PS3 for that price. I don't really want to wait that long for the price to go down, so I guess the 8600 has a better price to power ratio...

I spoke to a guy I know (who doesn't know anything) and said I have to watch out for bottlenecking. This was said after I told him I had a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz processor. It's not outdated yet is it? :|

Oh yeah, is there anything I need to know about bottlenecking? My bus clock is 200 Mhz.

Thanks for you feedback!

[dwkillzone]

pentium 4's are outdated!!! i can tell you this cause i work at a computer store and almost all the stuff we have are dual core or quad cord computers.....anyways i wouldn't buy a new psp 40gb or 80gb.....you can't play the old games on the new ps3.

[bamhm182]

You can not play the games on the 40 gigs, but the 80 gigs are still completely backwars compatible. At least until Sonys next "update"

Also, for me, I do not really play much games on my PC(except for WoW, KHSebastian got me addicted to it the other day and I have been playing it like crazy since than...) So when I was building this computer, all I really put into the graphics card was directX 10 and at least 256 MBs. Other than that, I could have cared less, it works awesome for me, but if you play a lot of computer games, than that one should work well for you.

Pentium 4s are out of date, but yours is not HORRIBLY out of date, my dad has a 2 GHz P4.

[dwkillzone]

yeah p4's aren't that out of date....but you can't find them in stores anymore i just take them as out of date!! anyways when it comes to the ps3 i heard the new ones don't have some sort of engine to run the old games...sony took it out to save some money!

[Megaman]

Hmm... Well I guess dual core can give you that performance boost when multitasking/gaming but each core doesn't compare to the sheer power of my P4!

*sigh*, now I know how Juggler feels. Oh well, my processor still kicks massive *******s.

I think I'll look around more and maybe go with the 8600 if I don't see anything better. Thanks for the reinforcement guys! (Geez, I'm getting old and out of date!)

[bamhm182]

Out of date isn't necessarily awful. Like you were saying, your computer still kicks major *******s, so does mine, my computer's not the top of the line newest parts even though I just built it, so imo, if it works for the person who's using it's needs, than it's not out of date, for that person anyways.

[dwkillzone]

i agree..... my computer is considered out of date but it still works for the stuff im doing. i would rather not upgrade to vista right now cause of all the problems and for the simple fact that most pc games aren't supported yet!! although it would be nice to have a computer running directX10 hehe