Trying to upgrade my graphics card

I just bought a new computer and want to upgrade my graphics card.
My computer
Intel pentium IV 2.4GHZ CPU
ASUS pentium 4 mainboard
512mb ddr ram
80gb ata-133 hard drive 7200rpm
Intergrated 128bit soundblaster
16x dvd & cdrw
Intergrated nvidia 64mb ddr agp video adapter
windows xp home edtion
P4P800-MX Motherboard

I bought a new graphics card not really knowing what I needed, when I took off the casing I found out that I don't have an agp slot for my new card, only pci slots in it.
I was wondering if there are 128mb graphic cards available for my type of computer, if so what ones and some information about them. I heard that some graphics cards ar not compatible with some motherboards.

 

here's some PCI video cards:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=319

I'd go for either the PNY 5500FX or the PowerColor 9250

 

or....Upgrade the motherboard on your pc...PCI Vid cards are crap and wont be able to play newer games very well.

 

Try newegg.com I have had some many problems with tigerdirect and so have many of my friends. Newegg is also usually cheaper.

 

http://majorgeeks.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=5

Try hear for comparing prices and checking specs.

Dont know but it might help out MG too.

 

So what you are telling me is that I have two options. One is to change my motherboard, sounds difficult and expensive. Two is go with a pci graphics card that some people say is crap. Will the pci graphics cards mentioned above work with my computer, wanting to play battlefield vietnam and call of duty online without lag.

 

My sons computer has a G-force MX4000 64 MB PCI card and it does a decent job for a good price. I cant say it what would do on those games, you might check and see recommended specs for those games.

 

Battlefield:Vietnam says it needs:

DirectX 9 compatible video card (AGP video card with 64 MB or more memory and one of these chipsets is required: NVIDIA GeForce 3 or greater; ATI Radeon 8500 or greater

Not sure if these are minimum or recomended specs.

 

hey martinich this is off topic but can u help me w/; making a bootable disk

 

That's the minimum, you have to have at least a 64 meg card to play it. It chugs on my 9700 Pro, but I already know I have some problem that can't be figured out(dif thread, lol) Upgrading your motherboard isn't that difficult, nor expensive. A new motherboard can be purchased for around $100.

 

Are graphic cards hard to install, the one I have now is intergrated . What are the steps I would have to take to disable, if need be, the intergrated card in order to get the new pci add on card working? Can not really get to a shop to get this done, live a long way away, sucks, I really don't no anything about computers so I suppose there is a good chane of screwing alot of things up.

 

video cards are pretty easy to install ... here are a few guides:

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/Graphics/Installing a GraphicsCard.shtml
http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-video-card-agp.htm
http://www.waterwheel.com/Guides/how_to/video/video_cards.htm

im sure if you do a google search you will find many more ... the important thing to worry about is ESD - electro static discharge, this can fry your video card and/or your motherboard ... to prevent this you must ground yourself by simply grabbing a portion of your case that is not painted or plastic ... and of course unplugging everything from your computer while installing your card

if you do not wish to upgrade your mobo to use AGP be aware that you will most likely have to set your game settings at their lowest

 

its easy...the only hard thing is thermal paste I HATE IT