Graphics how much of a diffrence will this card make

i know this question maybe kind of boring or old or very common but im gonna ask it anyway.

will mi pc run bf2142 at med to high spec if i run it on a low screen res like 640 or somthing like that.
my pc specs (the ones u need to know i think )

1.2gb of ram
2800 sempron amd
7600gs

and how much of a diffrence can i expect to see from chainging froma 5200 to a 7600gs as stated in mi spec

 

Sempron 2800 based on AthlonXP or Athlon64? Either way it's a little underpowered but has plenty of o/c'ing potential. That aside you should see mounds of difference as the FX5200 had a hard time competing with the GF3 and Radeon 8500. The 7600GS has some very significant archy changes but even putting those aside the core is 5 times faster with 8 times faster vertex and it has 40% greater memory bandwidth. I don't know how well BF2142 will play but at least you stand some chance now! Check out the minimum & recommended specs for the game/demo.

 

no offence but An FX-5200 is a P.O.S even when it was frist released it still got owned! You should do just fine in BF 2142 with the 7600!
Just stay away from the FX line and you'll be fine!

 

I have a geforce FX5600 256 TDH and i can run bf2... with some of the options turned down... but i can still run it pretty reasonably... get the 7600 gt... the architecture is so much improved over the FX range...

scott b

 

FX5200 wasn't the most awful card when it came out so long as you only compared it to the competing Radeons (9000-9250) or previous nVidia solution at this price point (GF4MX, as in minorly suped up GF2!). In fact nVidia's bottom-end card is still WORSE; 'GeForce MX4000' which is a SLOW GF4MX, now that really is BAD. The FX series did have some pretty miserable draw-backs though, and that was back when nVidia were fighting tooth and nail to optimise games and drivers for them (which they no longer do of course).

 

You should see a huge difference! When upgraded off of my card of that age(9200) to one of a newer generation(x850) I got a huge performance boost in games! With similar stats to yours, 2800+ AthlonXP, 1GB ram. You will be amazed at the difference you will see!

 

7600GS is pretty starved of memory bandwidth though, 6800GT, 7600GT, X1900GT & possibly even 7900GS shouldn't cost a whole lot more and are much better balances yielding much better performance. Even so you'd find a 6600/6600GT a huge upgrade over an FX5200 so I guess whatever you go for you'll be happy!

 

I went from a GF2GTS to a 5200 to a 6200 and have to say that the 5200 was indeed a lame duck. I'm getting to the point where my stingy self is ready to take the plunge and get in the next generation of cards (thnking 7600), but I'm in the same boat as this poor chap: AGP8x only allows for so much throughput, and the going trend is obviously to phase it out. Getting into that boat requires a pretty thourough overhaul (mobo, cpu, ram) and gets us away from the original point: How can i get better grafix performance on a limited budget with aging technology? I say buy what you can afford that will perform within your expectations.

An example of this is that a neighbor of mine plays WoW on an old ATI (7200?) and seems ok with it. I tried to play on it one day and wanted to bash myself in the head to make my brain run as sluggishly as his system. I'm sure someone running SLI or crossfire would feel the same way about mine. Meh. It's all about what you deem to be OK to play.

 

AGP8x had plenty of available bandwidth at the time PCI-E was introduced. IIRC 6800Ultra was not really hurt by falling back to AGP4x although I'm sure today's faster cards would suffer on AGP4x I'm also sure AGP8x would not actually hurt them to any remotely significant degree. ATi and nVidia have been happy to milk the isolated AGP market segment for all it's worth, a lot of time offering under-performing and/or handi-capped cards for no good reason. If you have an AGP system, esp with a faster CPU like XP3000+ or P4 3.0ghz then depending upon what you're currently using there's plenty of performance potential to be had from a 6600GT, perhaps even 6800GT/7600GT. With a slower CPU like XP2000+ or P4 2.0ghz I'd doubt there's much point in going for anything faster than 9700/9800 or 6600. There are plenty of AGP bargains to be found second hand.

 

AGP is shown to have a very negligible(2-3%) performance effect on modern cards, so no AGP cards should be considerably hurt by the fact they are not PCI-E. And the 6600GT is much better than any other 6600, because it uses 256-bit GDDR3, where as most of the others use 128-bit DDR.

 

The key differences between 6600series and 6800series is that 6600 use 128bitDDR with 8 pipes and 6800 use 256bitDDR with 12-16 pipes (although some are cut down to 8). The 6600GT simply has a faster core and RAM speed than the plain 6600, both have 8 pipes (effectively) with 128bitDDR. 6600 stand a good chance of getting close to 6600GT core speed (mostly depending upon cooling) but it's the RAM speed which holds these cards back, even the 6600GT's 1000mhz DDR is insufficient to really let the core perform optimally. RAM speed on 6600 varies quite a bit whereas all regular 6600GT should be 1000mhz (500mhz DDR).

 

what about this et up do u think i can play fear at full but running on a low res
2800 amd
1.2 gb ram
512 7800 gs oc
400 watt psu

 

7800GS is a fast gfx card and you have plenty of RAM but your 'AMD 2800' is going to hold it back to some degree, esp if it's AthlonXP based rather than Athlon64. You may be able to make some of that up by o/c'ing the CPU as either way it is likely to have some headroom in it. However although I know that FEAR is VERY demanding I don't know how reliant it is on the CPU, it may be heavily biased towards gxf power. Perhaps someone with FEAR could try running their CPU at different speeds to see how it affects things.

 

I have a 2800+ AthlonXP(overclocked to be a 3200+ 2.2Ghz), and FEAR runs great on it with a good video card! You just need to turn down the physics and AI to low, because they use CPU power more then the other settings and effects.

 

anyone know how or any tips on overclocking a 2800 then, and what type of stuff would i need i know i need a new heat sink prob

 

Maybe, it doesn't have to be good quality, I got a cheap one that's all copper, and it works well. I can get mine stable at 175FSB x 12.5(about the same clockspeed as the 3200+ XP), but my motherboard is not very good quality, so you can probably push it more. If you have an unlocked one, you can get better by messing with the multiplier, but mine is locked at 12.5.

 

kl thanks for the help so far guys but i just got told i going to need a 400 watt psu to use it I’ve already got one but is it worth me playing it safe and getting a 500 watt psu and if so what price should i be aiming for because u pick some up for less then 20 but i not sure bout dose they look dodgy or do u just think the one i got should be alright


(by the way i have no clue which psu it is all i know is its 400 watt)

plus can i and is it worth me upgrading to a amd athlon 64 3000 (i should just be able to keep the same motherborad right )

 

PSU recommendations based on Wattage alone is just awful IMHO. A decent branded 350W is likely to be better than some generic/Qtec 550W rubbish. In any case a 7600GS is not a demanding card, a decent 400W PSU should be enough to run a high-end dual-core CPU, high-end gfx (eg 7900GTX) and a few HDs without breaking a sweat.

If it's AthlonXP based it will use a completely different socket to Athlon64 so you would need to change the mobo in order to significantly upgrade the CPU. If you're thinking of changing your gfx card it makes sense to consider changing mobo to gain PCI-E, you'll get much more power for the same money. This would enable you to go Athlon64 (or if you upgrade RAM to Intel's C2D). Perhaps you could find a good deal on a Skt754 Athlon64 or Sempron and couple it with a good o/cíng PCI-E mobo, Skt939 is a little better (ands great for dual-core) but may cost you more.

If all that sounds like too much expense (or hassle) then you should look at o/cíng your current CPU and adding a 6600GT, 6800GT or 7600GT (rather than 7600GS). We need to know more than 'AMD 2800' as there's quite a few CPUs that fit that bill. Download and run Everest, Aida32 or SiSoft Sandra to get all kinds of info on your existing system.

 

ok the final spec for mi pc
3400 2.4 ghz amd athalon 64 (754)
256 x850xt
1gb ram
500 watt psu

first question will a 19" widescreen or normal 19" tft monitor put extra starin on mi graphics card

last question will i be able to run bf2 and fear at full setting but on a low res

 

I have a 19" CRT with my x850xt, and it runs FEAR on high at 1024x768, so that is about what you can expect. My bf2 is messed up and won't let me change the video settings, so I haven't been able to push it. You should be able to get it up to high settings though.(your CPU is better then mine, so you may be able to push a tad higher, I'm not sure though)