vid card questions

I have an older emachine that I bought used.
1.10 ghz intel celeron
128 mb sdram
3d graphics intel direct agp

I need a new vid card, but I am poor. I have a couple of options from amazon
ATI technologies radeon 7000 graphics card 32 mb is the cheapest, would this work for me? all I wanna do is be able to play games like black and white and american mcgee's alice without the damn thing skipping

 

I wonder how much more would that card be better than your existing onbaord one? Also given the system specs, how much would your system benefit from any kind of a video card upgrade?

How big is the integrate video card that you have right now? how much is the ATI 7000? Regardless, onboard Video cards are horrible at the best imo and you would probably be better off regardless as long as the price is right.

Good Luck,
~TL

 

I don't really know how big my onboard card is, I don't know how to check. I only know that I can't run alot of the things that I want to run such as games and screensavers and such... as far as hardware goes, I only know how to install it.

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/EVEREST_Home_Edition_d4181.html

Use this program to find out what make/model motherboard you have. My initial thought would be:

Radeon 9600 ($69):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102289

and get some more RAM ($32, a stick of 256Mb should be good):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820136116

These upgrades will make your system leaps and bounds better. However, if you can save up a little more money (about $250), you may want to go for a new motherboard, processor, RAM and video card. Which would make an even bigger difference.

 

You should try Wyatt's second idea. By the time you upgrade it to get it up to par, you could just scrap some stuff (HDD, optical drives) and get yourself a new PC.

 

Despite what the common opinion is I always found video card upgrades to be a minimal improvement. For example: Just a few months ago I was running an AMD 2400+. I was weighing my options for a processor vs. video card upgrade. I initially opted for the the video card. I went from an ATI 9600 Pro to an ATI 9800 Pro. On my 2400+ I noticed a negligable gain at best. Instead I purchased a new motherboard, processor, and RAM. And that is only my most recent experience. I other experiences in the past as well.

Here is my explanation. My 2400+ was at a state of equalibrium. The processor was pushing the 9600 Pro as far as possible. When I installed the 9800 Pro the processor could not push the 9800 Pro fast enough. So they were just about equal.

However, in extreme circumstances a video card might be a viable option. For example an AMD 2400 with a Geforce 3 would see a drastic improvement with a next generation card. With your system I am not sure. I would purchase a card from a vendor where the card can be easily returned in case it does not perform to your expectations.

I know you stated that money was an issue. I would advise saving money for awhile and upgrading mobo, processor, and ram. Then address the video card. That has been my experience at least. Good Luck! The Cycle never ends . . .

 

Thank you...I think I will just save up for awhile and deal with what I got for now.