help with video card

[cocohead3]

ok i need help with a new video card cuz i want a new one my pc has pci and agp video card slots i dont know much about this stuff so i really need help if you need my computer specs or whatever here is what i know about it

right now i got a visiontek ati 1300x 256mb video card
1gb ram dont know what type
AMD Athlon XP 1900+ 1.6GHz processor
windows xp profesional sp3

if you need to know anything else just ask and thanks

[D0gSoldi3r]

Well you could start off by telling us what the problem is :/

[cocohead3]

it seems real slow on games and when you do things like say.. throw a grenade it makes me lag a ton and the stock graphics card it came with seems faster...

[D0gSoldi3r]

Well it depends which games are you talking about, are we talking about throwing grenades while you're playing Crysis or playing medal of honor allied assault, The next gen games started coming out and with next gen games you need next gen cards. I currently run two ATI crossfire x1950 512mb pro cards and even my cards are being out dated with the new games.

And this is your card, you see what i mean in comparison if you want a smooth gameplay experience

Thats the rig i'm currently using at the moment for my gaming experience, And i would only be able to play crysis on full settings if i had that extra card i have. And i would probably lag aswell if i had to throw frag's on full settings with 1 card. If you are trying to use modern games then most of them will only run smooth on a dual core system.

[cocohead3]

how do u have 2 cards do they have to be the exact same or can they be different like can i put my agp and my pci card in there or do they gotta be both pci or what =/ and i bought unreal tournament 3 so thats what kind of games i would like to play smoothly and i only have about 200$ to spend so i need one in that range of money.

[D0gSoldi3r]

Well the card i have at the moment is called the X1950 and i payed £300 each for them which is probably $600 each in America, you would need a little bit more than $200 because keep in mind you don't even have a dual core system and the new quad core systems are already in the stores. So you will need a new motherboard, a new processor and new cards or card, that would range to around $350 for a cheap machine. My cards have came down in price cause i bought them in 2006 and there still awesome so you have to really do you're homework cause alot of websites try and trick you into buying hardware and motherboards that suck.

My advice is buy a great motherboard, something thats not going to get out dated shortly and make sure the new processor you buy will fit the motherboard and make sure the motherboard is still going to be getting used and developed for the next 4 years so you're next upgrade will be straight forward. And then start worrying about cards, you can't use these new cards on a single processor so focus on motherboards and processors just now.

[cocohead3]

ok thanks for help