Need help buying new graphic card.

[lifejogger]

I looking at buying a new graphics card and I have been looking at a Radeon X1600 Pro 512MB AGP but I don’t want to waste my money if my PC’s CPU can’t handle this card.

My Specs are:

Dell Dimension 4550 PC
2.53 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
1024 Megabytes Memory
Radeon 9500 PRO (9700) 128MB AGP


I would also like suggestions about any other cards that might work well with my PC.


Thanks

John

[noell]

The X1600 is a mid-range card which should be a reasonable match for your system and a step up from your 9500. You should be able to save a few dollars by going with the 256MB version. Unless you run at high resolutions and at high AA settings you really won't see a difference between 256MB and 512MB.


....Noell

AMD Athlon 4000+ (San Diego) @ 2750MHz
CoolerMaster 'Aquagate 120' Liquid Cooling
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
2GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPro @ DDR500 (2.5-3-3-6&1T)
BFG 7900GTX OC (512MB) @ 670/1640MHz (Driver: XG91.45)
2 X 36GB WD Raptor (RAID 0)
74GB WD Raptor
120GB WD Caviar
SB Audigy Gamer
OCZ GameXStream 700W
Antec P180B case

[baddadnv]

Hi John,

I'll back Noell's advice, word for word.


Randy Burton

[loki]

You should also look at the GeForce 7600GT cards, and possibly the 7600GS. The 7600GT will out perform all X1600 cards for about the same price. I can't remember where the GS version fits in, but it performs pretty decently too. As the AGP models were only recently released, they may be hard to find. Otherwise, yes, the X1600 would be a good fit.

loki

[lifejogger]

While researching whether or not to buy a Radeon X1600 I found out that that card does not work on Dell Dimension 4550 so I am back to searching for a card. While searching the Dell forums about my computer I found good reviews on the Radeon X800. After doing a lot of research on this card the only negative thing I have found is that the pixel shader and vertex shader are 2.0. My question is how important is it to have the lates pixel and vertex shader (3.0) when flying in FS9 and someday in FSX?