best video card under $100

[bomberboysk]

No way man, anything below 50 FPS and I notice lag. Maybe I'm just spoiled having over 100 FPS all the time.

I've heard people say that the human eye can't detect more than 30 FPS, well my eyes are extra special then because thats totally BS to me.

above 30fps or so it becomes harder to notice, the main fact with having above 30fps is your input is displayed on the screen faster(instead of 30 updates of say, mouse movement/etc per second, its 60). However, along those same lines is the fact in multiplayer gameplay, that you will not notice much of a difference as say, call of duty 4, the server has a max snap rate of 30 times per second, and your inputs will only be sent to the server 30 times per second.

 

[Dillan500]

It should be pegged at 100% the whole time.

Even with a 6800xt, the CPU is the definite bottleneck. You will not get any more FPS with that CPU regardless of the card.


BTW, if your board only has AGP and PCI slots than you can't upgrade anyway. All the cards shown require a PCI-e x16 slot which I doubt you have if it has an AGP slot.

i checked the cpu and ya, it 98-100% most of the time

and ya, i have a PCI-e and AGP slot

 

[Dillan500]

so basically are you guys saying i will see NO improvement graphics wise if i upgrade my videocard? because if i will see absolutely NO performance improvement then there is no point of me getting a video card, and PSU.

 

[87dtna]

Well, if you have a PCIe slot, you should upgrade the PSU and card now just because they can be re-used. But yes I seriously doubt you will see any improvement, if you you maybe 5 FPS at the most. But the CPU is what the bottleneck is.

BTW, do you have a link to what board you have? I'd like to see it!

 

[Dillan500]

Well, if you have a PCIe slot, you should upgrade the PSU and card now just because they can be re-used. But yes I seriously doubt you will see any improvement, if you you maybe 5 FPS at the most. But the CPU is what the bottleneck is.

BTW, do you have a link to what board you have? I'd like to see it!

http://3btech.net/asp4so47853p1.html

 

[Dillan500]

will an Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz 800MHz 1M Socket 478 Pin Prescott CPU
help my fps at all? and is it worth $28 for the ammount of preformance i would be getting?


**i have a 2.8ghz celeron D (single core) prescott 533MHz 256L2

 

[just a noob]

Not really, they're both fairly out dated processors, a better gpu would probably net you the biggest jump in performance

 

[Drenlin]

Not really, they're both fairly out dated processors, a better gpu would probably net you the biggest jump in performance

Actually it'll give him a rather large boost in CPU performance. The L2 cache on those old Celerons is awful. The 2.8GHz P4 I'm on now can do Super Pi runs in roughly half the time my 2.8GHz Celeron took...both Northwood.

 

[just a noob]

Actually it'll give him a rather large boost in CPU performance. The L2 cache on those old Celerons is awful. The 2.8GHz P4 I'm on now can do roughly twice the work of my 2.8GHz Celeron...both Northwood.

I'll believe you, but they're both still rather pitiful compared to something like a core2duo

 

[Dillan500]

I'll believe you, but they're both still rather pitiful compared to something like a core2duo

too bad i dident ask you if they are pitiful or not... i asked if there would be a performance increase great enough to be worth the value of $30

Not really, they're both fairly out dated processors, a better gpu would probably net you the biggest jump in performance

and if you read previous threads youll see that most people agree that a GPU upgrade alone will do close to nothing considering the CPU bottleneck.

 

[G25r8cer]

too bad i dident ask you if they are pitiful or not... i asked if there would be a performance increase great enough to be worth the value of $30

And thats what he said No

Why waste a bunch of money upgrading an old computer? I would buy a new GPU to tide you over. Save up some money and build a new computer.

 

[Dillan500]

And thats what he said No

Why waste a bunch of money upgrading an old computer? I would buy a new GPU to tide you over. Save up some money and build a new computer.

yes, thats my plan, but saving requires time, so if a 30 dollar upgrade will give me a decent performance boost then i am willing to do that for the time being.

i will upgrade every component except mobo, cpu and RAM because i can roll over everything else. and i can afford to purchase the parts one at a time

once i have enough for really good mobo, cpu, and ram, then i'll buy thoes final comonents at once.

 

[87dtna]

will an Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz 800MHz 1M Socket 478 Pin Prescott CPU
help my fps at all? and is it worth $28 for the ammount of preformance i would be getting?


**i have a 2.8ghz celeron D (single core) prescott 533MHz 256L2

For $28, it should give you even larger performance gain than the GPU upgrade probably LOL, because the CPU is THAT much of a bottleneck. I would still get the gts250 and PSU also though.

And thats what he said No

Why waste a bunch of money upgrading an old computer? I would buy a new GPU to tide you over. Save up some money and build a new computer.

A ''bunch'' of money? I don't call $28 a bunch of money, and I don't think it's gonna set him back that much as far as time that he can save to upgrade the whole rig. And in the mean time, he'll probably get atleast 5 FPS gain from teh CPU upgrade. He'd be going from 128kb cache to 1mb, thats huge, plus 400 mhz faster. He can probably sell the celeron for $10 and that would make his upgrade less than $20. Totally worth it for now.

 

[Dillan500]

For $28, it should give you even larger performance gain than the GPU upgrade probably LOL, because the CPU is THAT much of a bottleneck. I would still get the gts250 and PSU also though.



A ''bunch'' of money? I don't call $28 a bunch of money, and I don't think it's gonna set him back that much as far as time that he can save to upgrade the whole rig. And in the mean time, he'll probably get atleast 5 FPS gain from teh CPU upgrade. He'd be going from 128kb cache to 1mb, thats huge, plus 400 mhz faster. He can probably sell the celeron for $10 and that would make his upgrade less than $20. Totally worth it for now.

dont forget the 533MHz FSB to 800MHz if that will makes any difference, idk


the gts250 over the 9800gtx+?

 

[just a noob]

dont forget the 533MHz FSB to 800MHz if that will makes any difference, idk


the gts250 over the 9800gtx+?

They're essentially the same card, so get the one that's cheaper at the moment

 

[87dtna]

dont forget the 533MHz FSB to 800MHz if that will makes any difference, idk


the gts250 over the 9800gtx+?

No difference in performance that you'll notice with that setup, you'll have to change your ram multiplier to keep the same speed.

On higher end core 2 duo/quad setups, the higher FSB increases memory bandwidth which is important since intel's lack of internal memory controller (compared to AMD) was holding them back. I've gone as high as 2280mhz FSB, on a chip that had 1333 stock.

They're essentially the same card, so get the one that's cheaper at the moment

Yup

 

[spynoodle]

I'd definitely spend the $28 on a new P4. I would think that it would yield more of a performance increase than getting the new vid card. It's definitely worth $28 for the time being.

 

[Dillan500]

I'd definitely spend the $28 on a new P4. I would think that it would yield more of a performance increase than getting the new vid card. It's definitely worth $28 for the time being.

i was watching youtube videos today (full screen) and even though loading bar was going fast the video kept stoping for half a scond quite often, and realized that my cpu is maxing out watching youtube videos not good, lol
not on full screen it works fine though.

and even with the cup being less of a bottleneck with the 3.2ghz p4 the gpu still wont help any more? i'll probably get it anyways, b/c i can use it later, but just wondering.

 

[87dtna]

It should help some, but it's not gonna be anything drastic. But remember, it only cost you $28, and a computer upgrade that cost $28 is never going to do much LOL. But yes if it were me, I would still get it. It may be enough to watch you tube video's then.

You may want to also try overclocking it some. Bump it up to 3.6ghz, which would be 900 FSB (225 base clock) but make sure your ram clocks are set back to the correct multiplier. Overclocking the FSB overclocks the ram, but with 225 base clock you should be able to set it back to 333 with one of the ram multipliers.