Should I Upgrade?

**DanGrease** · November 9th, 2003, 04:41 PM

Hello
Well as a fanatic of the game Moh:aa (Medal of Honor: Allied Assault) I realized that most people that play this game went and tried out CoD (Call of Duty) which is a similar game but with better graphics and newer. So I tried this game but the problem is that it seems that my video card just can't handle it. Its a GeForce 2 MX 440 (64 MB) and Moh:aa works great with it but CoD doesnt. I have everything low (I even play it with 640x480 resolution) and my average fps are from 6-10. This makes it lag alot and it just doesnt seems right to play it like this. Its in my PCI slot since my computer doesnt have an AGP slot. So I was curious to upgrade my video card to a GeForce 4 MX 440 (64 MB DDR) but I don't know if I am going to see an improvement. The guy at the store said I will since it has DDR Memory and all that but sometimes I just don't trust that bla bla bla of them. I would also like to try out oveclocking it but I don't have any experience at all in overclocking. What do you guys think?

dan

**vass0922** · November 9th, 2003, 04:45 PM

Whats the rest of your machine?

If you got a low end machine, upgrading the vid card to even the greatest will still result in moderate results.

I have a 2500+ not overclocked with just a Ti4200 128mb and it runs VERY smooth

Only running at 1024x768 but my monitor sucks

I think regardless yes that vid card IS on the aged side for any gamer.

**DanGrease** · November 9th, 2003, 05:55 PM

So you think I should upgrade?
This is my machine:
-Windows XP Professional
-AMD Athlon XP 2000+
-512 MB Ram
-GeForce 2 MX 440
-40GBx2 Hard Drives

dan

**XxCowOfChaosxX** · November 9th, 2003, 06:13 PM

obviously your mobo, PCI gfx arent even moderately good
make sure you get one with AGP(obvious)
after that...throw in a decent card like a 9800xt and TAA DAA, 1337 fps 4 U

**Eladijaz** · November 10th, 2003, 01:49 AM

Hi DanGrease,
Don't do that upgrade. You will be disappointed. Only if you were able to get a reasonable amount for your old card would I suggest it. Check some prices online for another PCI card and then check back with us for advice. I think you might try one of the Ati range of cards like the 9000/9200 pro. That would be a worthwhile upgrade. Your CPU speed is more than good enough to handle any PCI video card upgrade you could throw at it ...
Cheers,
Elad.

**NerdyDuffman** · November 10th, 2003, 03:14 AM

i got
p4 1.5
512 pc 133
gf2 mx 440
40 gig hd

and CoD ran perfect on my comp at least the demo did

**Eladijaz** · November 10th, 2003, 10:47 AM

BTW guys ... the MX440 is always a GF4. There is no GF2 MX440, despite the fact that the MX440 is more closely related to the GF2s than the GF4s.
Elad.

**phrozen_dreamz** · November 10th, 2003, 11:31 AM

STAY AWAY FROM THE MX's!!! MX=CRAP! Spend the more money on at least a Ti card from Nvidia Or a lower end ATI card. Or the 9800 is the best bet for max performance!

**DanGrease** · November 10th, 2003, 02:24 PM

Well I have two choices guys:
- Get the GeForce 4 MX 440
- Overclock my GeForce 2 MX 440

I don't have more money for a better video card unfortunately and Sweden isnt like the United states you got to know that. Here you dont find all those video cards you guys have and most that you find are extremely expensive. I just want to know if I will get better fps with this video card. I have friend that say they get 80 fps with this card in CoD but of course the use it in the AGP slot. I get 10 fps max with mine and thats bad. I want to get more and I want to know if this card will give me more. I overclocked my GeForce yesterday and it went smooth but the fps didnt increase neither decrease it stayed the same. Believe me if I had the bucks and motherboard for a Radeon 9800 I would buy it but I don't. So those are my two options. The second one didnt work that well so I guess it leaves me with the first. The question is Should I go for the first option?

dan

**GroundZero3** · November 10th, 2003, 02:44 PM

even if you overclock that card you wont get any real preformance boost. plus there is no fan on that video card correct?

to be honest i really would seriously wait to upgrade. because later down the road when you do upgrade your motherboard you will still have a slow video card

**tony_j15** · November 10th, 2003, 03:05 PM

You are at the point where you need a mobo with AGP. It'll take longer, but its cheaper to wait, save, and get an agpmobo and vid card than doing a quick fix that will leave you only half satisfied.

**sechs** · November 10th, 2003, 03:07 PM

I have to agree. You're not going to get enough juice from overclocking and that upgrade isn't going to get you where you want to be.

**DanGrease** · November 10th, 2003, 03:55 PM

Well I just want to see more fps in the game CoD and probably when Medal of Honor Pacific Assault is out and I just want to know if upgrading will give me this. Believe me if I could I would buy a new motherboard but the problem is I would have to buy a new video card + new memory since I have normal memory and not DDR which I want if I am going to buy a new motherboard. I would probably buy a new computer next year so this is a small upgarde for games sake.

dan

**cysus** · November 10th, 2003, 03:56 PM

If you want a easy, cheap upgrade you could go for the asus A7N8X-VM, this mobo provides gf2 integrated VGA and is very upragradable. If all your current stuff with work with this it a good board that will allow you to put alot of nice upgrade in when you need them, later.
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/sock...m/overview.htm

**Omardeth** · November 10th, 2003, 04:04 PM

if you don't have a agp slot then wait and get a new mobo . you would really be wasting you money if you get another pci video card . thats where your bottleneck is .

you say you have a p41.5 do you have a apg slot on the board ?

**Eladijaz** · November 10th, 2003, 04:41 PM

Originally posted by DanGrease
Well I have two choices guys:
- Get the GeForce 4 MX 440
- Overclock my GeForce 2 MX 440

I

Hi Dan,
You might have missed my post ... there is no such thing as a gf2 mx440

... do you mean that you have a GF2MX400? If this is the case then, if you were to get a properly clocked (not the 'SE' or plain SD version) GF4 MX440, you will see an increase in framerates. There is a comparison from early in the year at Tom's Hardware : http://www4.tomshardware.com/graphic...120/index.html

Remember tho' - you are looking at purchasing the PCI version which may not be clocked to the same speed as the one benchmarked here. Let us know what brand it is etc... before you buy it ... someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

Hope that helps,
Elad.

**DanGrease** · November 10th, 2003, 06:58 PM

Sorry, youre right its a GeForce 2 MX 400. Its from a brand called Palit. Its a really ugly and bad video card IMO. People I know have the same product (not same brand though) and get much better performance than me. The graphic card I am interested in is a GeForce 4 MX 440 SE (Second Edition I missed) and its from the brand Pixelview. If I will see an increase in fps then I would buy it and that my question. Thanks guys

dan

**XxCowOfChaosxX** · November 10th, 2003, 07:09 PM

i EXTREMELY doubt that you will see an increase in performace, because as you said, your friend has the same card but with AGP and it performs 8x better
with that, you can conclude that PCI is your bottleneck, because if you had the SAME card with AGP, ur performance would be WAY better
therefore, even if a 9800xt with PCI existed, it would give you 10fps