[Unrealblight]

Not sure where to put it, but this goes with Guild Wars anyways

Okay, well, I thought about playing Guild Wars again, but lost my Factions game, so I counted up my money and I have 485. I figure I could buy both Factions and the newer one and still have roughly 400 left, and also, my computer's pretty slow, but I don't have enough to buy a new CPU, so my first issue is; should I even bother doing all this and get a new Graphics Card? Because I'm not even sure if getting a top-of-the-line graphics card will help me.

I'd post my computer's specs and all, but I don't know how, so if someone could tell me how, that would be pretty helpful. Also, what would be a really good graphics card for me (Hardcore PC gamer)

[Unrealblight]

Just check it out at Microsoft.com

Processor Intel Pentium 4 1595MHz
Display Card NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Memory 256MB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP
Free Disk Space 15.64GB
Display Card Memory 128MB
Display Driver Version 5.6.7.3
DirectX Version 9.0c
Optical Drive N/A
Sound Card Intel® Integrated Audio

Hope that helps

[Unrealblight]

TRIPLE POST!

On second though, I'll probably just buy Nightfall

[Phieta]

Well, the following came to just under $300* when my motherboard died and I was forced into an upgrade:
--AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego core)
--BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC (PCIe, 256 MB)
--ABIT AX8 (motherboard — you shouldn't need a new one)

This was about a year ago, so depending on how much cash you're willing to part with, you should be able to find similar stuff for a lower price or better stuff for the same price. No comment as to what your upgrade options are or what you should get; I don't really follow hardware

I will say that GW runs quite nicely on my system, when I can be bothered to play. (I do have 1 GB of RAM though, not 256 MB, so that may make a difference)

And if I understand correctly, you own Factions but you've lost the disc to install it? Just download the client here; you should be able to reinstall whatever you need and play as normal.

[Unrealblight]

So, I'll be sticking with a GeForce, is that one pretty good? I could probably talk my parents into paying dollar for dollar for me, so I could go with to like 800$, so I'd think 200$ would be about the best Graphics for GeForce, is it worth paying that much for it?

That link's C1 I think, I'll check it out though

EDIT:OH! xD, I totally forgot, looks like I can play without the disk, yay! I'll probably play for like an hour or so now, untill 1 AM, xD

I'd assume C1, and C2 are completely deserted?

[Jake]

Get yourself some more ram (2 x 512MB sticks)
And if you can get the dollar for dollar thing from your parents then look into this thing
http://www.pricegrab..._Radeon_...Card,__28038271
It's only $225 and seems to be a solid card.
Or if you want to go all out than get this.
http://www.pricegrab...A_GeForc...Card,__29159636
Its the 2nd best graphics card out there right now. But the problem is that your powersupply might not be able to handle it. And the price on these is about to drop in a month or two anyways so it's not a very smart buy.




Also, I don't know if your motherboard can handle this thing but this processor is definately better than a pentium 4. It has a slow clock speed but it has a large l2 cache which is always a good thing.
http://www.pricegrab...earch=processor


Edit: You don't need all that just for guild wars but it is a good upgrade.

[Troll]

Do you have a AGP slot or PCIe slot?

[kelik]

So, I'll be sticking with a GeForce, is that one pretty good? I could probably talk my parents into paying dollar for dollar for me, so I could go with to like 800$, so I'd think 200$ would be about the best Graphics for GeForce, is it worth paying that much for it?

That link's C1 I think, I'll check it out though

EDIT:OH! xD, I totally forgot, looks like I can play without the disk, yay! I'll probably play for like an hour or so now, untill 1 AM, xD

I'd assume C1, and C2 are completely deserted?

chapter 1 isn't completely deserted, more like you'll be taking henchies more often in the earlier missions. chapter 2 on the other hand is still alive in kicking. It's all on a matter of choice though.

[Jake]

I hope he has PCIe for his sake, because that's what he's going to need if he wants a good video card.

[Unrealblight]

I think Geforce uses one of the types of slots, and Redeamon or whatever it is uses a differen't type. (Mine can use Geforce)

Again, I'm not computer Savvy, if you could tell me how I would know which one it is, I'd check

[Phieta]

Three things:

1. AGP is an older standard to PCIe, not a competitor. It's now been phased out, but both nVidia and ATI made AGP cards, and both nVidia and ATI make PCIe cards. You're not locked to one company or the other — you're thinking of CPUs (i.e. depending on your motherboard, you're stuck with either certain AMD CPUs or certain Intel CPUs)

2. Wikipedia indicates that the GeForce FX 5200 was only available as an AGP card, so I'm assuming your motherboard does not have a PCIe slot.

3. Wikipedia also indicates that the last (and best?) AGP card to be released was the GeForce 7800 GS, which seems to be fairly close to what I have (and came out about a year ago). So while you won't be able to get the best of the best, you'll still be able to find something that's quite decent.

[Aaron]

Even though it may be AGP, the 7800 is more than enough to run Guild Wars at highest settings easily. Your processor, however, will have problems keeping up. I suggest at least a Pentium 4 Prescott or a Pentium D if your motherboard is LGA 775.

[Troll]

ATi are meant to be making a 1950 AGP card... I think it may even be out now.

[Jake]

This may interest you. The best video cards for your money: Febuary 2007


Also, here's how to tell if you have PCIe or AGP

Take the case off your computer. Just fumble around a bit, you shouldn't hurt it unless you start touching things

Look at what your video card is plugged into.



See that brown thing? That's an AGP slot, most are brown, yours probably is too
See the white slots? Those are PCI slots. Your computer probably has quite a few of those.



If it isn't plugged into either of those then it's probably a PCIe x16 slot. I haven't ever seen one of them myself since I've only dealt with legacy computers, but they can be in all sorts of different sizes. The size that most video cards use is PCIe x16 so you don't need to bother with the others

[Unrealblight]

Well, found out I have a AGP computer, and was rushed to Best Buy (Meh >_>). So, for 200 bucks, my parents paid half, so roughly 100, along with 50 for Nightfall, I got GeForce 7600 GS. I wanted to get the 7800, but that was 350 or so, so I didn't bother, anyways I ended up talking to one of the co-managers or whatever because the price was kinda screwy, so turns out he's a huge Guild Wars fan. Said that the graphics card works great for Nightfall, but I'm not sure if that's just your typical seller talk.