Hi all,

I have recently built a PC from scratch, however, when it comes to playing games, it isnt performing the way I expected. It is only slightly faster than what my old PC performed. I used to have:
XP Home
P4 2.4GHz
PC2100 400MHz 1GB RAM
AGP ATI 9600 512mb card
2 x 40GB HDD (IDE)

The PC I have now is:
XP Home
Core 2 Duo 2.66MHz E6750
PC6400 800MHz 2GB RAM
PCI-E x 16 ATI X1550 512mb card
1 x 300GB HDD NCQ (SATAII)

I am guessing it might be the graphics card, I am thinking of getting an Nvidia 8800 GT. But before spending £150 - £200, I want your opinion. I have over clocked my current graphics card with minor results. Any tips?

Many thanks for any suggestions

Scott

Hiya Scotty and welcome to PCHF!

I have the AGP version of the X1550 and while its a better card than my previous FX5200 its still not really a top of the line card, i`ve also tried overclocking it with little success (can play Crysis but only on low settings).The X1550 is a good card for playing older games e.g Halo i can run on all max settings, but if you are after playing newer games i would say look at a new graphics card.
If you are looking at the 8800gt in particular you need to make sure your power supply unit is powerful enough to run it and you have sufficient airflow inside your case as i believe they run a little hot.
hope this helps.

D

Hi D,

Thanks for the welcome. I realise that I need a new PSU for the graphics card im thinking of purchasing as I'm currently using the PSU from my old PC. I was able to run Halo on max settings on my old PC without any problems whatsoever (as I am with this PC), and (like you) only able to run Crysis on low settings with low FPS (20 - 40FPS).

The only improvment I can see is:
XP runs faster
Sims 2 runs on higher FPS (camera still jerks)
Mame (arcade emulator) runs more smoother and more stable.
I can run Call of Duty 4 on Medium settings excellently.

Everything else is still the same.

Maybe the graphics card is bottle necking the system after all.

Could be, maybe if your lucky you might know someone with an 8800gt that you could try in your system (if you ask them very nicely lol) to see if it gives you the performance that your after.

D

I recommend one of these Graphics cards

XFX PVT88PYDQ4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail (Very fast, not experienced personally, but supposed to be great)

VisionTek 900203 Radeon HD 3850 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail (excellent card, lower price, highly recommended, runs cool, very good for setup, i have used several, they are great)

And this Power supply (very reliable, stable power, dual 12V Rails)

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT ATX12V 500W Power Supply - Retail

I got 1 mate who's into PC's, and he has my old gear (ram and graphics card) lol

Hence why I'm here getting opinions

The HD3850 is about half the price of the 8800gt, i found one on a UK site ATI Radeon HD 3850 256MB - PCI-E2.0 - Aria Technology
and AW_3_3 has one in his pc so if he recommends it, it must be a goodun!