AGP 4x/8x 64bit v PCI 128 bit

**TechnoNovice** · July 25th, 2012, 08:12 PM

Hi, I am trying to upgrade my video card. I need Geforce 8 or Radeon HD3000 or better. I have AGP 4x/8x slot and PCI available. Wanted to know which is better given the lower Bit number for the AGP. I found two cards, one of each and was hoping for advice on them, or even a suggestion of a better card. Thank you.

JATON VIDEO-498PCI-TWIN GeForce 9400 GT 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Low Profile Ready Video Card

Jaton - ATI Radeon HD 3450 512MB DDR2 AGP 8x Graphics Card 64-bit

Alienware
Av8 motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500
2 GB RAm

**RicheemxX** · July 25th, 2012, 08:25 PM

Before you bother with upgrading what card do you have now and what is it that you are trying to meet the requirements for? If you are adding in either card for gaming purposes both are fairly low end cards, so depending on what games and what card you have now you might be spending more than you'd be gaining.

But to answer I believe the 9400gt is slightly better

**TechnoNovice** · July 25th, 2012, 08:32 PM

I have a ATI Radeon 9550/x1050 right now. I am trying to get an online game working and it says I need a shader 3 compatible graphics card.

**RicheemxX** · July 25th, 2012, 08:48 PM

Lets try this again, what is the exact game you are trying to meet the system requirements for?? and what are the actual requirements?

So you understand the point of the questions - Just adding in a card that barely meets the requirements might get the game to start but that by no means that it will be playable or even enjoyable to play. So you'd be wasting the $60 or $70 or whatever to add in one of those cards.

**TechnoNovice** · July 25th, 2012, 09:14 PM

It is called Global Agenda.

<LI sb_id="ms__id905">OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit)<LI sb_id="ms__id906"><LI sb_id="ms__id906">Processor: 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core <LI sb_id="ms__id907">RAM: 2 GB (XP), 3GB (Vista, Windows 7)<LI sb_id="ms__id908">Video Card: 512MB video ram or better with Shader Model 3.0+ (GeForce 8 series or higher/Radeon HD3000 series or higher)<LI sb_id="ms__id909">Hard Drive: 15 GB free space
<LI sb_id="ms__id910">High bandwidth internet connection (DSL, Cable
It runs on my dell with an AMD 64 4000. 2.1 ghz

my alienware comes up as 2.25 ghz

**ShyguyXPC** · July 25th, 2012, 09:56 PM

Newegg.com - ZOTAC ZT-40605-10L GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 512MB 64-bit DDR3 PCI HDCP Ready Video Card

or

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Video Cards & Video Devices, Desktop Graphics Cards, PCI, Radeon HD 5000 series

**ShyguyXPC** · July 25th, 2012, 09:58 PM

if this was still in stock, though it was limited due to being refurbished, it would of been the recommended choice: Newegg.com - Refurbished: VisionTek 400355 Radeon HD 3850 512MB GDDR3 AGP Video Card

**ShyguyXPC** · July 25th, 2012, 10:05 PM

though to be honest, if you were looking at nearly $80-100 for the Jaton Card above, for that much you could nearly build a basic entirely new PC that would run circles around your current system, WITH onboard graphics.

AMD Llanos setup (AMD Fusion platform) comes to mind, even with the low end Radeon 6410 Graphics on the CPU, it would still blow your current rig out of the water.

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR A75MG FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model BLT4G3D1869DT2TXRG

Newegg.com - AMD A4-3400 Llano 2.7GHz Socket FM1 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6410D AD3400OJHXBOX

All it would need is a SATA Hard drive and SATA DVD Drive, Fresh Copy of Windows (Alienware copy is non transferable), Case and maybe a 300W good quality PSU, and it'd be a complete system that would still run circles around your current system (DDR3 running at 1866MHz, since the GPU on the CPU uses System RAM, and the faster the ram is the better it will run)

**TechnoNovice** · July 27th, 2012, 08:16 PM

Thank you two for your responses, I will definetly look into putting together the pc that ShyguyXPC recomended

**ShyguyXPC** · July 27th, 2012, 08:40 PM

if your budget is much more, then you could put together something much more powerful and longer lasting than the list I made above, that was just a budget listing for an extreme low end budget gaming system.

if your thinking of the Llanos Build, look into, if you can afford it, one of the Quad cores with a 65xx series GPU built into the CPU, has a bit more performance, and when paired with a dedicated 6500/6600 series GPU, it can yield a bit greater performance still.

**TechnoNovice** · August 1st, 2012, 08:56 PM

I am thinking about it and my budget may have room for upgrading from what you listed. What would you suggest as a step up for the APU and motherboard? You said quad core, but which one? Thank you for all your help. Have never built a system but always wanted to.

**ShyguyXPC** · August 1st, 2012, 11:26 PM

Well if budget permitting I was thinking an Intel Core i3 based (Pentium G series) platform, with a dedicated Budget range video card. The Intel's have on CPU Graphics like AMD, but its graphics chip is vastly weaker. how ever the CPU's are vastly more powerful. For example Intel's Base Core i3 (Dual Core) is at least as powerful in gaming as AMD's lower range Phenom II X4 Quad cores are. Even the Top end Pentium G (one model or two below the Core i3), can rival the AMD Quads. for about the same price I might add, pop in a Dedicated $50-80 range GPU, and you'd have a vastly better system.

But really depends on the total budget you have for the upgrades.

**ShyguyXPC** · August 1st, 2012, 11:34 PM

but as to the AMD Llanos Quad cores...

Which are about as powerful as a similarly clocked Phenom II or Athlon II X4,

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, CPUs / Processors, Processors - Desktops, AMD, Socket FM1, Quad-Core

Any of these (The Athlon II X4 model listed is actually lacking a graphics chip, its basically a GPU dead Llanos, marketed as an Athlon II X4 instead)

The higher the clock speed the better, but all of these have a Radeon HD 6500 chip in them.

the "K" Models are Unlocked Multiplier versions, intended for Overclocking, which I would recommend, depending on the motherboard you got for it, along with at least some 1866MHz DDR3 (or higher).

The Triple core would be an option, but its clock speeds are way down there at 2.1GHz, but it rocks a Radeon HD 6500 GPU on it.

Newegg.com - AMD A6-3500 Llano 2.1GHz (2.4GHz Max Turbo) Socket FM1 65W Triple-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6530D AD3500OJGXBOX

**TechnoNovice** · August 2nd, 2012, 02:59 PM

.

**TechnoNovice** · August 2nd, 2012, 03:13 PM

Well, the budget i had in mind was around $300 for board and processor. If i go with intel, then i need to put some aside for the GPU. with that amount, what would you suggest? and if intel is not in that budget, what would i need to spend?

**ShyguyXPC** · August 2nd, 2012, 03:36 PM

Newegg.com - Intel Pentium G860 Sandy Bridge 3.0GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G860

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR B75MU3+ LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - Pareema 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model MD313C81609L1

Newegg.com - Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card ( 11202-00-20G)

A little over $300.

Only downside to this, is that 99% of Intel boards, don't support PATA or Old school IDE drives, so if your Hard drive and DVD Drive are IDE, you'll need a new one of those.

the DVD isn't too big a deal, those can be between 15 & 20 bucks, but the HDD's are much more.

But to be honest even one of these:

Newegg.com - Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge 2.4GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G530

Would run circles around your current system, and save a nice bundle on additional parts.

that Celly could easily match or beat the lowest end AMD Llanos Dual cores as well.

adding that CPU above, and one of these:

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

brings it to a little over $330.

Not including the OS, if your OS is a retail copy (bought in store and not part of a prebuilt PC), you can transfer it over to the newer system.

The GPU listed would easily beat anything you had on the AMD system, even adding a dedicated Radeon 6500 Card to the On CPU 6500 this single 7750 would still have it beat, and only uses about 55-60W of power doing so, so you don't need to plug it into the PSU, or have that high a PSU to run the system.

The system listed above, could easily run off a 300-350W Antec or FSP PSU easily as well.

**TechnoNovice** · August 2nd, 2012, 05:07 PM

I opened my old case and I have an Enermax eg465p-ve (460v) psu (7+yrs old). Will it power the new system? My HDD is SATA, but only 80GB, so a new one is in order, and I need a DVD. But even with that in mind, I am going to go for your listed system with the g860 CPU.

**ShyguyXPC** · August 2nd, 2012, 11:16 PM

Cool.

The Enermax is a good brand and normally would power it, but its 7+ years old, and PSU's do lose efficiency over the years.

There's also the issue it might not have a 20+4 pin main ATX connector, in which case you'd need an adapter for it to work.

or even no 8 Pin EPS/ATX 12V Supplementary connector.

Better off just getting a good 450-500W Quality brand name unit, for $40-50 or so, and this way you have a newer more powerful unit in case you upgrade again in the coming years.

**TechnoNovice** · August 24th, 2012, 05:05 PM

Update on first home built system

I went with everything Shyguyxpc suggested for the intel build and put it into a

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case.

Went together fine and booted up first time. No problems so far.
Ran a quick benchmark test (same verson of test to keep it fair) on it versus the old alienware i had, the new system's score was 20X. over the old system. very pleased.

Thank you Shyguyxpc