help !!! plz ! beginner trying to buy a graphic card

[junwang0808]

my comp is sony - RS - PCV - rs630g



okay guys ! i am thinking about buying x1650 512MB agp

but i can not find any review on any tech sites... so i found these 2 cards ! they all have bad review so i don't know if i should get x1650 512MB or not...


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161032



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161052


and i heard that it is said that memory cloak speed is at 1380 but then actually the card can only go up to 800 or perform at 800

and i heard the 128 bit interface sux..

but i have no idea ! what makes a fast grahpic card... so plz help !!

if i want to buy one of those which one should i buy??
if they both suck what should i buy? at the similiar price?


thank you !!!!!




my comp is sony - RS - PCV - rs630g

all i know is my comp is:

3.2 ghz
250 GB hard drive + 80 GB hard drive
changed to x800 pro
upgraded to 2GB corsair DDR ram


thats basically all i know about my comp




and noticed between those 2 graphic card ! the listed memory clock speed is different. i checked the ATI site it is suppose to be 1380. but pplz said it is not even true.. so i don't know !!

please help me out >_<


thx guys !!

[azzey]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Discussion Forums

Your links do you not work.

How much are you willing to spend?
Are you planning on gaming?

[junwang0808]

hey !! sry !! i reposted the links they should work now !!

um i am willing to spend around 150bucks

and yes i am planning on gaming ! because right now i play this game call rappelz ! i lag very badly on that game

and i can barely play battlefield 2142 with the current graphic card which is x800 pro

[saphalline]

First of all, the RAM speed thing can be confusing if you don't know how it works. Current vid cards use some variant of DDR, which means that the clock speed of the RAM could be the actual core speed or the effective speed from doubling. The stock effective RAM speed of the Radeon X1650 Pro is 1380 MHz, which is 690 MHz core. The OC'ed versions you linked to have 800 MHz core, or 1600 MHz effective. Much better! :D

Secondly, an OC'ed Radeon X1650 Pro is marginally better than that X800 Pro you've got now. While you will get better performance from it, the boost is not quite worthy of spending $130. The X800 Pro was around $300+ when it was released. A lower end $130 vid card from 1 generation later is not going to out-perform it. You either need to spend more to get into the $200 range, or wait until the next round of mid-range vid cards are released. I'd recommend the second option of waiting considering you have a Sony PC. The puny PSU that came with it cannot handle a mid-range or high-end vid card.

Thirdly, this Rappelz: Siege for Glory game doesn't require a ton of power. You should be able to play it just fine with what you've got. The requirements list ancient vid cards like the GeForce2 MX and Radeon 7000, for crying out loud! It can't be that punishing on a system like yours. If your frame rate is suffering, you're either playing it at ultra details, or there's something else dragging down your system's gaming performance.

[junwang0808]

well this rappelz game ! the requirement it listed its not very demanding ! but when u actually play it ! it is very demanding !! even my friend he have a dual pentium D 3.0ghz and he is using gforce PCI-E card ! it is still very laggy for him! his computer is like 4 years younger than mine!..... so yeah


and do you happen to know when will the next generation of graphic card be coming out?

and maybe i ask ! how do you calculate the MHZ???? please teach me !!!!!




thx !!!!

[saphalline]

Try turning down some of the settings, then. What res are you playing at? The game doesn't look all that demanding, but bad coding or extensive shader ops can ruin your frame rates. Are there any patches for the game? Are all your drivers and DX updated?

The next gen of vid cards will be coming out this spring. Maybe a bit later considering all the D3D 10 buzz. Hard to say right now - the graphics industry is in a state of transition.

If you really really want to learn about vid cards, start here (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=39536)...

[ski]

Another cause of game lag is unnecessary programs running in the background. Do a clean boot, and run the games. If they run smoother, then at least part of the problem has been solved.