Video Card Upgrade

Hello all!
I am looking to upgrade my Radeon 9550 card...
Is the Radeon X1300 really that much of an upgrade?

If not, what would you reccommend?

I mainly play COD2 / BF 2...if that helps

 

after some research i found that they are pretty much the same; 4 pixel pipelines, 256 ddr, but the x1300 has slightly higher clock speeds. For COD2 and BF2 you will need at least a geforce 6800 or radeon x800 to play them reasonably. Im not sure how a 6600gt or x700 would run those games but if you're short on cash those would work alright. Actually, a 6800gs would probably be the best for the money as its between the 6800gt/ultra and the 6600gt. Im not really familiar with ATI cards but if you dont have a brand preference then i'd go with nvidia.

 

To be honest, it depends on what you expect out of the card. It is a bit of an upgrade, but probably not as much as you would hope. Do you play at high resolutions or enable any of the eye-candy features such as Anisotropic Filtering, or Anti-Aliasing? If you do, you'll find that the X1300 isn't really powerful enough for that stuff.

For example, an X1300 will only be able to run BF2 at 1024x728 resolution on low graphics settings. If you're happy with that, then go right ahead and get the X1300. Most games will run well enough to be playable on 1024x768 with the X1300, but any higher resolution and you won't be satisfied. COD2 is completely unplayable on X1300 at 1280x1024.

So, like I said, if you aren't expecting much, then go ahead and get the X1300. It will be an upgrade from your 9550, but not a huge one. I would advise trying to find a cheap 6600GT such as this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150098
or an equally cheap X800GTO which provides even better performance than a 6600GT.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131425

The X1300s cost around $90-$100. For only a few bucks more you get much MUCH better performance out of an X800GTO especially.

As viper_boy said, a 6800GS is a great card, but it might be a bit more than you are willing to pay. Both of the cards I listed are close to being within the $100 mark. The 6600GT actually has a rebate so it costs $99, which is a fantastic deal.