Re: Graphics card upgrade

[Friar]

i am thinking of replaceing my nvidia geforce fx5200 128mb for a few rungs up the ladder.

i have seen a geforce fx6200 256mb for about £35, is this a step worth taking to squeeze a bit more out of my old girl?

[Rattler]

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php ... &card2=189

This is what I upgraded with for CAN $140.

[delta7]

i am thinking of replaceing my nvidia geforce fx5200 128mb for a few rungs up the ladder.

i have seen a geforce fx6200 256mb for about £35, is this a step worth taking to squeeze a bit more out of my old girl?

you wont get that much better for your money mate - what processor do you have ? there is

[BBloke]

I'm erring on the side of AGP port rather than PCI-E.

[Friar]

my machine is a dell dimension 4500

processor is intel p4 2.53ghz with 1gb memory (2 x 512) which is maximum.

any pointers/advice welcome.

p.s budget is very tight (unless i re-direct the funds i have earmarked for an x52)

if i drop the x52 (which i am not that keen to do) i could go to £90 but only if i am going to get a BIG difference, otherwise i am looking at about 60-70 absolute max.

if nothing is in my range i would rather save the money in pot for future use!

[delta7]

your processor will not allow full benifit to later cards but this is a nice card- It was my last one and performed nearly as good as my new one - just doesnt allow you to go to high aa and af but nice enough and a good balance for your system

Radeon 9600 Pro 256 AGP

or from a reputable site

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=307933

now I dont know what you expect mate but you might get a very slight increase in FPS and you will get better image quality.

if you want more fps then you will need to look at your motherboard manual and check the largest processor you can squeeze in for your board- you might have to set up the bios as well to take the new processor but Im not a dell expert- Quazi is your man here.

Edit: shortened the url for better viewing

[Crash]

Would my old 6800 be of any use??

[delta7]

WOW thats a nice card and you wont have to worry about cleaning out your drivers- just check your power supply is

[Crash]

Hello again

[Friar]

I am afraid that it is all doom and gloom in the frior's house

[delta7]

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Mod ... 1&doy=26m6

will solve your connection problems

you should try to put the graphics card on its own power rail and use the splitter to allow you to connect other users

the power supply will output x volts (12 I think) and the extra power is just to supply more demand so I think he is talking sh1te but Im not sure so wait until someone who knows electrics replies mate

[BBloke]

LOL.. Wooooooooo smell that thats a whole lotta shit if you ask me.

[Friar]

having looked at that link dave posted, i am now not sure that it may have extra connections. they are like those in the picture but have a black cover over them, i took a couple of pics tonight so i will try and post them up to see if they are useable.

many thanks for the advice guys.

@delta7 - sorry, i dont understand what you mean about "you should try to put the graphics card on its own power rail"

if this all fails my plan (shhhhhh dont tell the wife yet..) is to build my own gaming rig, one element a month to spread the cost. need to finsh building the pond first to keep her happy.

[BBloke]

What delta means is use a dedicated lead from the PSU to the graphics card rather than using the add on link posted above which would be attached to another device.

I'll try a little ASCII drawing:

2 x 12v Leads

-----

[B16Enk]

Pure bollocks from Dell on the mobo getting fried if you put a more powerful PSU in, unless Dell have mastered some new physics.

For £2 plus postage you can get a 'Y' splitter to increase plug count.

Overclockers have one here

[delta7]

thanks for reinforcing what I thought guys

-nice diagram chris

[Friar]

many thanks for the continued support guys.

I am in dialogue with Quazi who is suggesting a few things as well.

I will keep you all posted as to what i decide to do.

S!

frior

[Friar]

if i replace the cpu (as Quazi has suggested I could and could) does this cause any licence complications with microshaft? having a dell i do not have a full blown xp cd, so would not like to attempt a re-format

[B16Enk]

Changing CPU will not have impact on license, if you do both CPU and GPU you very likely will have to re-activate over the internet.

You will need heat sink paste for CPU change.

£5-£10

If you get a new retail cpu it has the thermal pad already so no need to buy seperately.

[Friar]

Frior

[BBloke]

Its a shame Dell were never renouned for overclocking.

[Friar]

its all getting too much...

[Crash]

I am no hurry so let me know when and if you want it

[Friar]

Well, I have to say that I am a "happy bunny"

Having picked up a Molex power splitter cable yesterday lunch time, I hurried home with some excitment. Got dinner out of the way, cleared the table and set about putting the 6800 in.

Step 1 - I downloaded and installed the latest nvidia drivers which are applicable for both the fx5200 and the 6800. re-booted the machine and tested. All Ok

Step 2 - To give the card a bit more room I decided to remove a redundant dial-up modem and move the sound card to a new slot to leave some space around the graphics card. I de-installed the modem and re-booted. tested - All Ok

Step 3 - De-installed the sound card, shut down, moved the card to a new slot. Re-booted. Ran dxdiag and tested. All OK

Step 4 - Fitted the molex y splitter to the floppy drive feed, swapped out the fx5200 for the 6800, re-booted.

Ran dxdiag again and tested display. All Ok

Step 5 - Started up the game and ran the Black Death track. Max fps has gone up to around 60, average low 40's. This has gone up from an average of about 24 fps.

Step 6- Go to bed with large grin on my face.

Many thanks to those that have helped me in my recnt spate of upgrades (BBloke, Quazi on email, Delta7, B16enk and Crash) Cpu, Sound card and now graphics card. Total cost was about £70 spread over about 4 months.

Of course, the only trouble is...when I was walking to work this morning, it got me thinking....., I now have a half decent sound and graphics package, I have an operating system (thanks bbloke

[GreyKnight]

That's great to hear Frior, nice one.