video card upgrade question

Question

Hello   I currently have a dell xps t600r with 600mz pentium 3, 320m RAM, 120gb HD.  I am looking to upgrade the video card card that came with it (ATI Rage 128 pro) to play a game that requires at least a ATI radeon 8500.  I was looking at video cards and saw there are PCI, AGP, and PCI express.  Will any of them work in my system? What is the difference?   Thanks for the help

SR45 · Answer

Tell you the truth, don't bother. You have a very aging system with a 2 x agp slot for an agp video card. 600 mhz P-3 is so low end today that you will be just throwing money away. The game has a system spec sheet, either on the side of the box or the bottom of it, and it will tell you what system specs you should have in addition to the video card requirements. Also, what is the game that you wanted to play ?

Others will weigh in on their thoughts as well and my have a different opinion than mine

eb478110 · Answer

The game is City of heros.  The recommendation is a minimum of at least an ATI radeon 8500 with 800mHz, ram I have is OK.  I currnetly have it on my laptop which has a radeon 9000 video card and it works fine.  The computer is going to be used exclusivly for this game, data storage, and home office work, not any intense gaming.  I am looking to get a used ATI ~9200 graphics card on ebay for around $20, but am unsure whether to get PCI or AGP?  I am just wondering if one will work over another? Also will the lower processor speed make a huge difference in game play?

powerleapusa · Answer

I agree with SR45, but if you decide to upgrade your VGA card, I'd recommend AGP.  Even though you have an early version of AGP, it's still 2x the speed of the PCI bus (66 MHz for AGP vs. 33 MHz for PCI).  Given the other aspects of the XPS T series however, I wouldn't suggest going for a high-end card, as its performance would be seriously mitigated by the AGP bandwidth (high-end cards thrive on 8x AGP) and your CPU speed.

TheJackalCFH · Answer

SR45 is right on this one. You would be waisting your money. If you upgrade your video card for this game, then that means you will probably have to buy a new power supply aswell. Depending on which card you go with thou. Of course the game will be very laggy and not much fun to play on your computer, but you can always upgrade. Although it will probably not be for the best in your case.

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video card upgrade question

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