Re: Looking to upgrade video card (Dell 4600)

Author	All Replies
BlitzenZeus Burnt Out Cynic Premium join:2000-01-13 kudos:2 Reviews: ·Frontier FiOS	reply to The_ANoN Re: Looking to upgrade video card (Dell 4600) A used dual core 2 system might do what you want, but you're already buying hardware which is already outdated. New games might only run on minimum requirements on a dual core 2 system. Otherwise people tend to charge way too much for their used computers. This screen cap shows that running a 720 video from youtube isn't even using 50% of the processor, and the reason I did 720 was it still has a 4:3 crt attached so I used the highest resolution for viewable video possible as an example. I should also note I have a far better pci-express video card than you can get as a agp card, but hardware acceleration was disabled in flash, that's right, I forced flash to use the cpu instead of the gpu. This is a pretty tame and outdated system now, but it is capable of still running some new games on low settings. Either way it's mostly a browsing/video machine for me anymore, I don't try to push this system to game anymore. If you can find a used cheap agp card on craigslist, or ebay, then you might be given a chance for flash to use the gpu for hardware acceleration, however without knowing the requirements I would have to say that those cards might not even qualify for hardware acceleration, otherwise you're stuck with ancient versions of the video drivers as they no longer provide any updates to those cards, which leaves you stuck with outdated drivers. It's really a guess at this point if it would help you at all. -- I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent out necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G.
	to forum · permalink · 2012-02-27 01:05:35 ·
The_ANoN @charter.com	BlitzenZeus you didnt have to be so blatant with that first post ... Thanks for the input everyone... I didnt realize my PC was THAT outdated considering it apparently only needs a better video card to run Windows 7.. Ive already spent about $50 on 2GB of RAM, but I guess Ill quit spending if its not worth it. So are you saying that buying even the most basic new PC today would be better than trying to upgrade this 4600? What about building a PC? Would that be a better alternative or is building a PC good only if you game a lot?
	to forum · permalink · 2012-02-27 08:39:46 ·
FizzyMyNizzy join:2004-05-29 New York, NY kudos:1	reply to BlitzenZeus Wow, 44% cpu usage watching a 720p video? O_O.. Mine, is only 1-3% mostly 1%, and only on 1 out of the 8 threads, rest of the threads are 0%.
	to forum · permalink · 2012-02-27 08:49:22 ·
FizzyMyNizzy join:2004-05-29 New York, NY kudos:1 Reviews: ·Verizon Online DSL 2 edits	reply to The_ANoN said by The_ANoN : So are you saying that buying even the most basic new PC today would be better than trying to upgrade this 4600? What about building a PC? Would that be a better alternative or is building a PC good only if you game a lot? Buying a new agp would not help you on new games at all. I remember playing Hell Gate London. Every time when some one does their ultimate I will get 0 FPS. I think I had a ATi X800 that just came out at the time. Man, was it ever a mistake buying that card. PCI-Express was much more better and faster. AGP - Capacity up to 2133 MB/s (which is 2.1GB/s) »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerate···ics_Port PCI-Express - Capacity 16 lane slot (each direction): v1.x: 4 GB/s (40 GT/s) v2.x: 8 GB/s (80 GT/s) v3.0: 16 GB/s (128 GT/s) ---We just started this one. »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express AMD HD7000 series, and the new upcoming Nvidia GTX 600 series will be PCI Express 3.0 ====================== If you do build a pc... I would wait around summer. Reason, let Intel Ivy Bridge come out. For fully support PCI-Express 3.0 on the cpu. Let the rest of AMD, and Nvidia video card to come out, and see which one to get. Even the newest Sandy Bridge-E does NOT support PCI-Express 3.0. Maybe the 8 core ones later on. i7-3930K - PCI-Express 2.0 »ark.intel.com/products/63697/Int···_20-GHz) i7-3820 - PCI-Express 2.0 »ark.intel.com/products/63698/Int···_60-GHz) Oh, and you might not know, that some cpu have a build in gpu, and also all the north bridge is now in the Intel CPU. Not all mainboard have video ports like DVI, HDMI, VGA etc. All depending what you get, and what you want.
	to forum · permalink · 2012-02-27 09:05:57 ·
Ben Premium join:2007-06-17 Glen Carbon, IL	reply to The_ANoN said by The_ANoN : BlitzenZeus you didnt have to be so blatant with that first post ... Thanks for the input everyone... I didnt realize my PC was THAT outdated considering it apparently only needs a better video card to run Windows 7.. Ive already spent about $50 on 2GB of RAM, but I guess Ill quit spending if its not worth it. So are you saying that buying even the most basic new PC today would be better than trying to upgrade this 4600? What about building a PC? Would that be a better alternative or is building a PC good only if you game a lot? Blitzen was very direct, but I can't think of anyone else who would have a different opinion. I would also say that even if Windows 7 will technically run on that PC, it's inadvisable. I would be very, very loathe to recommend to anyone that they should run Windows 7 on anything less than 4GB of RAM, and that's if the most demanding thing you do is visit web sites or use MS Office. RAM prices being what they are, there's really no reason to skimp on that and use pagefiles. However, I don't necessarily agree that PC is now completely useless. Just that it's rather slow for a primary PC. It could see use as a secondary PC. Here are a couple ideas: - A file server, just install a few hard drives and hook it up to the network. - Add a second NIC, and turn it into a router PC. You could even run the OS off of a USB stick, no hard drive needed. Recommendations: Since you said in your original post that you can't afford a new PC, here's what I recommend you do. Microsoft will keep releasing security updates for XP Pro until August 2014. Thus, it would be best if in that time, you start thinking about buying a new PC sometime between now and then. As for buy versus build, I may be somewhat biased (I haven't bought a pre-assembled PC in over 16 years), but I recommend building/assembling, unless you feel uncomfortable with the idea. Advantages of Building: - You know exactly what parts go into your PC, unlike if you were to buy from HP or whatever. - Certain, downright disgusting cost cutting will not happen. Once I saw a pre-assembled, ready out of the box PC with a two inch hard drive cable. Two inches! The power supply in that PC was also covered by a plastic shroud, not a proper metal box. Talk about dangerous! - You will have more control over proper air flow, at least if you fill every fan slot in a case with a fan, which I recommend to everyone. - This probably goes without saying, but you would have much more flexibility in terms of what configuration you will have. Disadvantages: - Building the PC will take time, but that doesn't really matter when you consider how much time you will be spending on the PC.
	to forum · permalink · 2012-02-27 09:23:12 ·
asdfdfdfdfdf @myvzw.com	reply to The_ANoN "So are you saying that buying even the most basic new PC today would be better than trying to upgrade this 4600?" Any new system will be faster than what you have now. The question is would any new system be fast enough to do everything you want to do? If you buy a very low end system you could end up with something that you can't easily upgrade the graphics card on so I wouldn't suggest you go out and buy the least expensive thing you can find. It is easy to fall into traps when money is tight, but since money is tight I would just live with the inadequacies of your present system and save the money that you would have spent trying to upgrade toward a future new machine. " What about building a PC? Would that be a better alternative or is building a PC good only if you game a lot?" Building at the lower end doesn't necessarily save money, especially as you aren't getting the huge operating system discount that you get with a brand name machine. The big disadvantage of brand name machines, especially at the lower end, is that you go to upgrade the graphics and find that the power supply is inadequate. Building your own can help avoid this problem but only if you aren't in a position of having to try to cut too many corners. Much would depend on budget and making a careful assessment of how your gaming interest is likely to evolve. Would it only ever be america's army or would you develop other interests if you had the hardware to run other games? At this point, though, I would suggest doing nothing until you have the money to do something properly. I don't think you need to get an i5/i7 setup, as almost everyone seems to be doing who comes on here anymore, but I don't want to see you run out and buy a cheap borderline system that could also frustrate you in the near term. You are in danger of falling into a number of traps because of limited funds, either wasting money trying to upgrade your machine or buying what would probably be a too limited new machine.
	to forum · permalink · 2012-02-27 10:34:36 ·
BlitzenZeus Burnt Out Cynic Premium join:2000-01-13 kudos:2 Reviews: ·Frontier FiOS	reply to The_ANoN People can barely sell used p4 systems around here for $50 including their old monitor, people might turn them into some kind of network server, but beyond that they can barely browse the web anymore. With the delay in ivy bridge, and hdd prices still a little high you might wait at least a little bit, however I can't say it will be worth waiting for ivy bridge unless you'll be prepared to buy the latest processor, that will be a while. The prices on sandy bridge processors will drop after ivy bridge is release however. To put is simply, gaming computers are generally expensive, if you just want a nice system you can watch hd videos on, and browse the web check for the sales on computers, even laptops with a g620 or i3/i5 processor. The g620 isn't exactly a powerhouse, but it will play hd videos perfectly with room to spare. The i3 is more powerful than the g620 however will certainly allow you to play modern games, and if you get an i5 with a good gaming card there's no game you can't play right now. If you can afford it, an i5 system would last you a long time if you're a gamer or not, otherwise the i3 is perfectly acceptable for light uses. High end of gaming cards are $600 per card, and you can link up to three cards now to almost double/triple their performance for those really serious gamers. On top of the price of gaming cards, you need to buy a large psu also to power this powerful video card. It starts to add up. The ati 6850 is a decent card on a budget, you might be stuck with medium settings at best however you'll be able to play all current/new games. So if you want to leave the gaming up to the consoles you can save yourself some money, otherwise the intel gpu might be enough to allow you to play what you want with low settings. -- I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent out necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G.
	to forum · permalink · 2012-02-27 16:54:12 ·

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