AGP graphics card???

I've gota P4 2.67ghz with 768mb ddr ram, I have a VERY old card in there currently, a geforce 4 4200 8x agp, I'm usually a console gamer but I recently bought a few older computer games...far cry, NFS underground 2, doom 3..maybe carbon or most wanted etc... they run pretty slow with my card so I'm wondering if I would see some big improvements in these older games with a 7600 gs or gt, I can get a pretty good deal on one @ neweggthe link below has all the AGP ones I'm considering, I'd like to get the XFX 7600gt 256mb ram, or should I get one of the others on that site....is my processor good enough for decent framerates on a few newer games??

oh yeah....will my 350 watt PSU handle my specs with a 7600 gs or gt?? thanks!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609639+106790717&Configurator=&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=7600

7600GT is the best card for your PC. Any faster card can't workwith full power with your cpu.. And 7600GT need about 30-40 Watts - your PSU is enough. Just buy any cheap 7600GT (maybe XFX isn't the cheapest version..) and have fun :)

P4s are crappy for PC gaming. I'd recommend making an upgrade to a dual core. Going the amd route, AM2 mobo core gives u dual core compatibility and ur future proof with amd's new procs.

getting a better video card wouldnt increase ur framerates that much because ur CPU is bottlenecking the overall performance.

P4s are crappy for PC gaming. I'd recommend making an upgrade to a dual core. Going the amd route, AM2 mobo core gives u dual core compatibility and ur future proof with amd's new procs.

getting a better video card wouldnt increase ur framerates that much because ur CPU is bottlenecking the overall performance.

ThE_SoCK

I know the P4 isn't the cutting edge technology, BUT with the games I've mentioned, I've been told that a new cardwould help them quite a bit. I most likely wouldn't buy any newer games I just want to play the ones I have at a little higher framerates/settings...games from 2003 aren't made for the dual core processors anyway so I really don't think my 2.6ghz P4 is going tobe to muchof a bottleneckwith a 7600gt... and I'd rather buy a new computer than upgrade my motherboard and cpu, it'd be cheaper with betterperformance in the end(I actually may do that instead).

But can anyone clarify the power dongle question I had earlier in this thread.

[QUOTE="ThE_SoCK"]

P4s are crappy for PC gaming. I'd recommend making an upgrade to a dual core. Going the amd route, AM2 mobo core gives u dual core compatibility and ur future proof with amd's new procs.

getting a better video card wouldnt increase ur framerates that much because ur CPU is bottlenecking the overall performance.

Toyeboy

I know the P4 isn't the cutting edge technology, BUT with the games I've mentioned, I've been told that a new cardwould help them quite a bit. I most likely wouldn't buy any newer games I just want to play the ones I have at a little higher framerates/settings...games from 2003 aren't made for the dual core processors anyway so I really don't think my 2.6ghz P4 is going tobe to muchof a bottleneckwith a 7600gt... and I'd rather buy a new computer than upgrade my motherboard and cpu, it'd be cheaper with betterperformance in the end(I actually may do that instead).

But can anyone clarify the power dongle question I had earlier in this thread.

Yes you are correct you sometimes do need to plug in a 4 pin (HDD) power cable but all u do is just plug it in ur card and it only goes in one way. With a 7600gt i see no reason why you cant play all your games on high (except maybe doom 3 but then again i played this on nice settings with a 7300gs so u should be fine), btw another worthwhile upgrade would be to buy 2 x 512mb pc3200 ddr ram as a gb of ram is a good number, but this isnt essential and 768 would prolly be sufficient.

would it be overkill to spend $50 more and get a 7600gs with 512 mb ram?Toyeboy

Yes. The GS has a slower clock speed than the GT, and that makes the biggest difference in performance. I don't think any game will use 512MB of video memory, at least not any game that the 7600GS would be able to handle. Spend it on RAM, 1GB is around $50.

[QUOTE="Toyeboy"]would it be overkill to spend $50 more and get a 7600gs with 512 mb ram?corky842

Yes. The GS has a slower clock speed than the GT, and that makes the biggest difference in performance. I don't think any game will use 512MB of video memory, at least not any game that the 7600GS would be able to handle. Spend it on RAM, 1GB is around $50.

Alright, that's what I thought...b/c the 7600gt's clock speed is 580mhz where the gs is 400mhz. Now about the ram, my 768 mb ram is ddr 333mhz PC2700, it's what my PC came with, can I replace it with 1 gb of faster ram or would I have to use PC2700? and you probably can't mix different types I'm guessing??