Graphics cards?

ok im a big gamer. i play half life 2, battlefield 2, fear (doesnt run well at all), and other high quality graphic games. All those games are awsome when u can put them on high graphics which is what i want to do. Sooo i was researching about geforce and radeon graphic cards and i was just wondering which is better????? some say its just about opinion. some say radeon some say geforce. to be honest i have no clue. im looking for a really good one but nothing over 300. any1 have any suggestions on a graphics card that would be good for me.

Tell us a bit more about your system ... specifically your video card interface. Is it AGP or PCI-e ???

As Abhoth said, we need to know if you are using a PCI-Express or AGP based motherboard. And its not always vga cards that need upgrading, see that you have atleast 1GB of RAM (optimum amount IMO) in that computer to play the newest games.

With a budget of 300$, you can get a really, really good card.

For 230$, you can have this (a very good card)
ASUS EAX850PRO/HTVD/256 Radeon X850PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

At the higher end, you can get one of the BEST cards they make right now:
eVGA 256-P2-N516 Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card [299$]

We are going to have to penalize TechZ 500 VDr Points for causing Excessive Drooling on the forum with the above suggestions....

lol, nice one bistro, btw my new PC (building it in a few months, saving atm) is gonna have 1 7800GTX ;) (among some other lovely bits, and I'm hoping the Antec P180 is available here as well)

Drool on that :P

my mother board is AGP. its a foxconn 650/651 series.not sure if that would be concidered under the GOOD MOTHERBOARDS category. Also i JUST installed 1GB of Ram in my computer.

my comp specs:

Intel
Pentium 4 CPU 2.26GHz
2.27 GHz
992 MB of Ram

This may be an option then: ATI All-In-Wonder X800XT @ $299 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102492 as you have AGP.


Liam

is pci-e better then agp? if it is then should i just buy a new motherboard?

It hasn't proven itself quite yet, but it will be the next big thing and AGP will eventually die off, but at the moment there is not much between them, you could get a new board and go for a PCI-E version of the card so that the card could give you some future proofing, but as AGP boards are still being made i don't think there's much point as newer boards will support other new ever changing hardware like 64bit CPU's and DDR2, which will then mean you'll need to upgrade more components, or if you get a board that will go nicely with your P4 and DDR RAM, you may want to shell out again when you decide to jump on the 64bit bandwagon.


Liam

Unless the computer industry changes radically in the next year or two, I'd think that because there are so many recently-purchased boards out there--socket 939, 775, 478 and even socket A, holding CPUs that were cutting edge just last month--the AGP format for video is going to be around four or five years more, at least. Few people (extreme gamers not included) will shell out the $$ they've spent already, only to throw it over and start again because of a video card.

well lol in 4-5 years i will hopefully not be a big gamer. For the time being i guess there isnt much of a point buying a PCI-E. So ill stick with the AGP. so what are some good graphic cards for a AGP motherboard? most im looking to pay is $300 i guess. im looking for a good graphic card really good for games and such.

The one i mentioned above is awesome, X800XT, and comes in at $299 before shipping, and i'm told that Newegg are good on shipping charges and speed.


Liam

1 more thing though. I have a AGP 4x <--- is that make a difference with anything? if i does will the Radeon X800XT support AGP 4x. if not can you throw some other motherboards my way :)

That's quite surprising, are you sure it is AGP 4x? where did you find this info? you might want to download Everest from my sig and post a log to find complete mobo specs.


Liam

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel NetBurst
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 133 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 533 MHz
Bandwidth 4265 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties:
Bus Type SiS MuTIOL
Bus Width 16-bit

Motherboard Physical Info:
CPU Sockets/Slots 1 Socket 478
Expansion Slots 3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR
RAM Slots 2 DDR DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio, Video, LAN
Form Factor Micro ATX
Motherboard Size 240 mm x 240 mm
Motherboard Chipset SiS651

Motherboard Manufacturer:
Company Name Foxconn Electronics, Inc.
Product Information http://www.foxconnchannel.com/produc...ket=&pChipset=
BIOS Download http://www.foxconnchannel.com/produc...otherboard.cfm