hi all,

Ok, so i've had my new pc for about a year now, it was a low-mid ranged gaming pc that's now starting to get outdated, i'm willing to scoop out some money for a new graphics card, but i need help in choosing one, no i don't have enough money for an geforce 8800, but i can go for a geforce 7*** series card, but i need help.

here are some basics about my computer

AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+ 2.21 Ghz
1 gig of ram
Nvidia Geforce 6600 256mb graphics card (according to my computer it's sitting in PCI bus 1)

If you need more info can you tell me what to do to find out more about my own computer? like website or enything that tell you?

any help?

Welcome to the PC Help Forum lethal.

I'd highly recommend waiting and saving your money for a couple of extra months until the DirectX10 ATI cards come out...they're be better and definately worth the money...it's the only reason why i haven't upgraded my video card yet.

However - that video card you have can be either PCI-e or AGP...can you please tell me what model motherboard you have?

If you could download and run SIW (free-- no spyware)
SIW Download
does not need installation ...runs directly from the file.
When you run it follow the directions to save a logfile where you can find it easily.
then you can upload the hardware portion of that file and post it here.

The whole hardware section? it seems to be very very long, should i save some parts as a text file? if so, which parts?

Well, here's some more information i managed to get out of "cpu-z" :

1 gig ddr ram
my Geforce 6600 is an AGP card
the core speed is about 2211 Mhz

We don't need everything. and a text file would be best for uploading.
Major components:

Motherboard/CPU/RAM/Harddrives/PSU

the reason we ask for this app is that it gives an exact picture of what you have now-- makes it easier.

Here are the major things you asked for:

Motherboard-
ModelnForce Versionx.x Chipset VendorNvidia Corp Chipset Modelnforce3 CPU to PCI Bridge South BridgenForce3 CPU to ISA Bridge SMBusNvidia Corp nForce3 PCI SMB Controller @1C00h SMBusNvidia Corp nForce3 PCI SMB Controller @B000h
CPU-
CPUAMD Athlon 64 3500+ Cpu SocketSocket 939 Processor Upgrade
Max CPU Speed3200 MHz System Slots5 PCI, 1 AGP
RAM- (i have 2 of this, making 1 gig ram)
ManufacturerKingmax Semiconductor Part NumberMPXC22D-38KT3R-FNA Serial Number00000000 Capacity512 MBytes Memory TypeSDRAM DDR SpeedPC3200 (200 MHz) Data Width64 bits
my graphics card is an agp one

i can't find the hardrives of psu

Hi Lethal,

your motherboard is limited to AGP video cards.

So the absolute best video card you can get is the nVidia 7800GS...check this one out at Aus PC Market.

However...if you upgrade just your videoc ard now...you will have to upgrade it again in the future when you get a new motherboard/memory/cpu.