video card help

S

scolls

Member
i read the sticky about video cards and i still don't know what to look for. my current card is a PCI express Radeon X300 128MB Video DVI. now i'm going to be hooking up a 20" wide screen lcd, and i intend to play a few games. i have a limited budget, under $200, and i'm just so confused about video cards. is mine good enough to run games? what do all the terms mean? i gather the chip is either ati or nvidia? and pci and agi or the slots? i always see numbers with x this and gt and have no idea what they mean. any help? thanks
 
The Radeon line of cards are strictly ATI type cards due to the VPU chip used. What is the make and model board you are running. That can help in advising on a newer model. The X300 model there will support a screen resolution upto 2048x1536 which is higher then generally used even on large screened lcd monitors. For gaming you will probably want to move up a little since the updated drivers for that model are a little scarse at this time.
 
i'm really noob with computers so i'll do my best to answer questions. the computer is a dell optiplex GX280.
 
The X300 really isn't a good gaming card, particularly if you intend to be using that 20" widescreen at its native resolution. Of course, it depends heavily on the type of games you intend to use.

You are correct, ATI and nVidia are the main two video card manufacturers. Video cards these days fit into either an AGP slot or a PCI-E slot. PCI-E is the newer interface, which is used by your computer. Any PCI-E video card will work. An X1900GTO would be a good choice at under $200, as would a 7900GS.

You will also need to consider the power requirements of these cards - you may need to upgrade your PSU in order to use them.

My advice would be to try out the existing card with the new monitor, before rushing into buying a new one. If, at that point, you decide that the performance is too low, you'll at least be making a more informed decision.
 
Yup,.. i can only agree with ceewi1 here.
the x300 isnt a very good gaming card (altough, it will run every game out so far, they wont fun very good, nor would they run with much details.
especially with the 20'on its native resolution. ( would be something like 1280x 9xx? )
 
One way to be an informed buyer is to look over the system specifications to see just what the board supports. That will give you an idea of just what type of gaming you can plan on. http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/gx280_spec.pdf

If you are not planning on the big OC everytime you run a game then you have more room to look before deciding on any model. The X1900GTO and 7900GS may be a little overkill for what you need on the Dell there.
 
well i have played games with this card, all beit on a 15" low quality crt monitor and wasn't impressed at all with graphics. seems kinda choppy like an sega genises game. also what exactly is psu?
 
scolls said:
well i have played games with this card, all beit on a 15" low quality crt monitor and wasn't impressed at all with graphics. seems kinda choppy like an sega genises game. also what exactly is psu?
Click to expand...

That can be due to more then any video card. With the Radeon X1300 Pro here I can run any game out at the moment. Some games are also memory hungry as well as graphics demanding. Having your hardwares running at optimal levels helps considerably. A psu is the abbreviation for "power supply unit". In simple terms people shorten the typing by using abbreviations for many things. Supply, psu, P.supply, 12v rails all refer to a power supply.
 
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