graphic card upgrade

please help me decide which card to buy.iam computers understanding but really new to graphics cards.i fall just under the min.requirements on my card and dont have a fortune.need to pick something good enough thingd will load and be able to hopefully turn my draw distance up.

chris Gant]please help me decide which card to buy.iam computers understanding but really new to graphics cards.i fall just under the min.requirements on my card and dont have a fortune.need to pick something good enough thingd will load and be able to hopefully turn my draw distance up.[/QUOTE]

What kind of computer are you putting it in? We'll need to know that to be able to recommend something that will work in your computer.

have a pentium 4 3.2meg processor 3gigs memory

what brand is the computer... make and model....?? or, if it was some home built and not a brand name.. need to know what type of slots are on the motherboard mainly...

the board is a intel d865perl pentium4 3.2 processor dual.i really dont have anymore info unless u would like me to send you the manuel after i find one for the board.thanks for the help

well, according to Intels website, that board has an AGP slot for video... which is going to rule out a lot of video cards that use PCIe .... You can still get AGP cards though...

The only other thing... how much are you going to spend on a card? For AGP cards probably better than what you have.. can be anywhere from $50 to $200 depending how much performance you want (there are some cheaper, but they probably wont run SL much better than you already can). What GPU do you currently have? How good do you want it to run? The settings you described is really vague...

If you really want something that will be decent (definitely not top of the line, which you cant really get in AGP), I'd look at something like this...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131136
not the best, but its ok for $60....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161237
this ones even better, but its $78... not sure what you consider a fortune... I've had people that think $50 is a lot.. and others thing thats nothing and $300 is a lot... If i had to spend money on a AGP card right now for MS Windows, I'd get this one.

listen i should have said iam not a computer whiz and iam trying to supply the best info i can to resolve my issue.i have a nvidia geforce fx5700 and i had problems with the graphics so i did a test and found out frames per second averaging 5 to 7 at best.i figure why iam having so much problem.when looking at cards iam overwhelmed and hear bad stories about cards not working after buying or not being compatible.also, iam running xp professional and heard direct x is only for vista

DirectX is for Windows platforms.......all of them. DirectX 10 is only compatable with Vista. DirectX 9 works well with XP.

and theres less direct x 10 ONLY games than you have fingers (um probably, unless you had a nasty accident sometime, if thats so, well sorry for bringing it up )

lets start basic, whats your budget

i need to know what will accomplish a 30 to 50 fps on second life under a load.also we predetermined i will need directx 9 cause of me having xp.i have also heard compatibility can be a issue,like diferences in voltage on cards and/or anything else you professionals can suggest and hopfully then we can figure out which card to pick hopefully by cost.thanks for all everyone

SL does not use DirectX for rendering. It uses OpenGL. So worrying about directX when talking about SL performance is wasted worry. Most any modern card supports OpenGL though nVidia seems to be a little better at it than ATI.

I don't think anyone here can tell you what card would be best for you without some specs for you computer. I'm going assume you have a PCI expansion slot, maybe AGP and if your computer is newer then PCI express. That will determine what card you need to look for. In order of best to worse............PCI express, AGP, PCI. AGP is going the way of the dinosaurs so finding cards for that type of slot might be hard (used cards are a good alternative). PCI are pretty standard. PCI express is getting quite popular and fast becoming the standard.

Your motherboard will dictate what card you need.

And, please, don't mistake me for an expert.

you need to read prior post peggy.directx does matter maybe not for sl but if i buy a directx 10 card i have xp only yses 9 and in the prior post its been determine that its a agp slot if your going to help lets read yhe posts where ive been answering others as i go.

a DX10 card only matters if your going to run Vista... if you get a card that says its a DX10 card, thats fine, it'll work in DX9 in XP as well... its not the cards that set all the limitations. It matters if the program is written to need a certain version of DX. Even if your in Vista with DX10 installed and have a DX10 card, but the game you run uses DX9... itll run DX9.

if you are wanting that high of a frame rate during a load in SL, and need it on an AGP card... that wont be cheap.... even people with much newer technology computers have trouble doing that. Probably the best you can do is something like this overclocked ATI 3850...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161226

I think thats currently the fastest card available for AGP slots. I haven't used the 3850 yet personally, so I'm not sure how it would rate in performance specifically, but it usually performs in most games as well as some of the lower end Geforce 8800 GS cards, which should give decent frame rates, though depending on how much of a "load" your putting on it, you probably still wont get as high of frame rates as your looking for, except in uncrowded areas with lower settings.... anything you downgrade from there will slow it down. You can get a non-overclocked and lesser versions of the 3850 that are cheaper and slightly slower. You can drop down to a previous gen like the X1950Pro, which is a good overall card (I have one still), it can pull decent frame rates, but can still buckle in a sim with 100 people. Your prety much stuck with ATI if you want good performance and options, as nvidia has pretty much dumped AGP support.

A lot of the research you can do yourself. Look at places like Newegg.com, and Tigerdirect.com, see what AGP cards they have available, its not that long of a list compared to PCIe cards, and many in the list are slower than your current card. You can also go to Toms Hardware and look at their graphics card charts, where you can see benchmarks of many cards for comparison in a few different apps/games, its interactive so you can choose what you want to see.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,30.html

just see what is a good price and compare them all in performance as much as you can... its a tough choice to make since whatever you buy will be gone with that computer and not ever used if you upgrade, you'll have to buy a new card if you get a better motherboard/CPU

i didnt know you could run direct x 9 games on 10.ofcourse thats why iam asking on the forum.sounds like i have my sights set to high on my frame rates could you sugest a better idea of fps i should realistically except?thanks lobo.getting it narrowed down conciderably.

Since you posted your question on this forum, which is a forum that pertains to problems people might have with their computers, hardware or setups AND Second Life..........sorry if I mistook it that your issues are with other games that do use DirectX. And, yes I did miss the post about you having an AGP slot on your motherboard.......and I'll bet you also have a PCI slot too. All beside the point.........you apparently have an issue with performance and I'm not sure your problem lays completely in your graphics card. All I know is you want more FPS.........you graphics card is only part of a fix for that.

What I suggest you do is, first figure out what you want from your computer.......on what programs. If you want high frame rates in SL then considering DirectX is a wast of time. If you want high frame rates on games that use DirectX and are not worried about SL then finding a card with the best DirectX support makes sense. Next I suggest you do some research on your own.........learn a little more about computers and hardware, drivers, what rendering engines you need and how to get the best performance out of your computer. Asking on a public forums for help is fine.........but you need to learn yourself. Getting snippy and pissy about a post I made that was a sincere attempt to help...........because, for whatever reason, you didn't like what I said will get you exactly what you will get from me in the future.

Nothing.

thanks for your informative post,ivelearned a lot so far.as you have read my prior post and know that i said iam no computer whiz and that i have a problem with second life and being able to turn up my draw distance .i dont play any other games and got caught up on direct x cause i had the wrong idea about it.as far as i know from downloading my computer manuel , i only have agp slots and realize this could minimize my options.iam ready to make a selection but still trying to learn how to read specs.iam learning about fps and have been told my 7-10 fps is too low.i once again have a fx5700 geforce and trying to replace it with something that will work and make a difference.you have been so helpful and nice.i would realy take your advice if you thought you could give me a range of cards to pick from.if you need more info than my prior posts please feel free to ask and also including my email because i feel iam close to knowing which one i need. [email]donrlobel@charter.net[/email] thanks everyone for being patient with me as i trying to learn this stuff

i saw that card you had the address to.could you tell me what you think that card in comparison to my geforce fx5700 diference would be great or just a little better and thankyou for jumping on.

it would be better, its faster, has more ram and is 2 generations newer and thus more efficient

will it make your jaw drop, no, but it would make a difference

guess thats it till i am able to build that new system that will cost 3000. lol

only if you buy it with a name brand tag on the front

If your going to keep using your current computer for awhile yet, you best bet is the RADEON HD 3850.

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102730

Your processor is fast enough where it won't be a bottleneck supplying the card. I was using this card until just recently when I put together a new system and it does a decent job for an AGP card, just don't expect 50-60fps from it.

You cannot get the drivers from ATI themselves for it, you have to go to Sapphires website and get the custom ones since for whatever reason ATI does not make them for it, no worries though as Sapphire does the job just fine.

If you get it don't expect that you will be able to max everything out, just hit the recommend button then do small increments upwards until you achieve a decent frame rate and eye candy that the card can handle.

Hope this helps.


SIMJEDI

now i have two cards to compare.ya know these forums works so go when you guys read my prior posts so we can keep on a upward swing for a solution.my way of saying thanks.i have a love for computers but until recently never explored video cards.about two years ago i got hooked on secondlife.i have had a love for ww2 airplanes my home life and on secondlife you can feel this come to life somewhat and even talk with others as your dogfighting that share the same love for this.but i realized i was having problems in keeping up with others and seeing the same distances they were.i was shown things like draw distance and other preferrences and if i turned these up a little my video freezed up so this brought me to the forums and when i pick out my card,first i will take my compuiter in to just check the overall performance to make sure all hardware and fans are working then purchase my card.just thought i would let every one no what iam planning feel free to comment and thanks for all again.

like both cards you guys talked about but then checked my power supply and have a total of 300 watts doesnt seem like enough but i dont know help!!!!!!!