Craggles_

You may feel inclined to flame, or not dependant on how you respond to newbies constantly picking at you;
either way I'm here for assistance (please help).
I'm not going to tell you what I want -
I'm going to ask your personal opinion, fair ? :) Right,
I'm in the market of upgrading my graphics card,
reason being my games tend to slow down and I'm not thrilled about it.
My current (an intel integrated chipset) can barely handle old oblivion - sorely annoyed.
I've done a bit of research and realised that a) intel integrated chipsets ain't that great and b) they're purpose in life is to sodomise those who wish to buy a custom p.c. who later find out that they're been jipped a lil.
None the less I've always wanted to get a fairly beastly card.
Now - I've looked around and I don't quite fancy an Ati or any of the others (if you see my judgement to be without purpose please do tell, afterall I are newbie) and would like a NVIDIA.
problem being I seem to get varied prices everywhere I go -
for instance ebay,
you'd assume that if you organised a list of NVIDIA's by price you'd get them in order of power nearly.
Whereas infact the price ranges vary so greatly that some sellers are selling poorer versions for a higher price than than some of the higher end versions, leaving me in a jam.
So, I'm in the region of spending 40-60 (more inclined to 60) pounds on a graphics card, (like 100+ dollars or something).
A question: GeForce 8500 GT and the GeForce 8600 GT, is there that much of a difference between them?
Another question: of the 8 series which is generally better to buy for given my circumstances, please.
Furthermore, does memory even really matter.
From my day long research session I've no answer to the first question nor the second and the third I believe a 256mb would show very little improvement when increased to 512mb, is that true?
More research still leads me to believe that if I install a graphics card into my spare PCI Express slot it should automatically swap over
(do i need to uninstall the current graphics drivers first?).
Also - what does a PCI 4x lite slot do?
I've looked around and all I can think myself is that it'd fit a PCI express graphics card - only it won't run it too well, perhaps 4 times slower.
Anyway, if you could help me with any of my queries I'd be most grateful, thank you.

oh p.s. - whats the difference between gts and gt?

tosh9i

Getting a better video card isn't going to speed up your system, it's going to give you better graphics. However, if you system (cpu and ram) can't handle the graphics, then you're still going to be playing in slow motion.

What are the specs on your computer?

Craggles_

3.00 Intel Celeron(D)
2 Gig of Ram - and that's all i can remember with out thumbing through loads of paper files.

forcifer

the celeron is your problem. the ram looks fine though. 2gb is reccomended for all gaming. might want to get a new motherboard/cpu because the celeron is well, terrible for gaming.

Craggles_

Surely a new video card is top priority though? From what I've read today my chipset is just plain bad.

forcifer

what you might want to do is to wait a little bit and then get a new processor, motherboard, and cpu. upgrading just one wont work very well. yes, you are correct in saying it would be better for the immediate future to just get new vga, but you really wouldnt get that great of an advantage over your current

Craggles_

What sort of cpu would you recommend (I know i should take this to the other section)?

tosh9i

Well, I doubt your computer takes dual core, so I'd recommend a Pentium 4 3.2 ghz. But you first have to see if your motherboard is compatible, to do that, we need the model # and manufacturer of the motherboard.

1 g0t 0wn3d

mine came with a celeron and i went to dual core love it.

dai

you will find you will probaably need to upgrade the psu video and psu upgrades go hand in hand on most occasions

IAmNutsAboutPCs

Let me summarize this for you:

Get the fastest processor your motherboard can support
Get a decent graphics card
Get a QUALITY PSU

Mikey.

tosh9i

Or, just get a whole new system

Craggles_

Recently discovered - it's not a celeron at all, it's a Pentium D. And my motherboard supports 775 processors, manual says practically anything intel. It supports hyper threading which I'm led to assume means dual core, my psu is mine I'm sure something like 420 watts (least the label says so). For my current motherboard upgrading the cpu will cost like 60 quid and yet it won't actually improve on much, 3 ghz is practically the roof for me.

Mother board:Elite Group - 945GCT-m

If anyone can please - explain what this pci lite 4x socket. I can a wild feeling that it's for crossfire or sli something like that.

manual says in the processor section "Uses LGA775 type of intel core 2 duo/pentium d/pentium 4/celeron d:

Accommodates intel core 2 duo.....
supports system bus fsb) of 800/533mhz
Supports "Hyper-Threading" technology CPU"

From what i can tell my motherboard isn't that bad - just it has the cheapest components.

Thanks for the help so far.

In response to mikey:

I believe i've got one of the better processors for my board - for my budget
I'm currently buying a new card
And psu as above seems ok to me.

IAmNutsAboutPCs

LOL yes.

Well your PC isn't as bas as we expected for upgrading, but please tell us what graphics card you want to go for and we will tell you whether it is a good choice and whether you will need a new PSU.

Mikey.

Craggles_

Ati x1650, something like that.

IAmNutsAboutPCs

That won't do well with Oblivion whatsoever.

What other games do you want to play?

Craggles_

Thing is I prefer console controllers so i set up my wireless 360 controller with my p.c, works a treat. I mainly play older games because I can get most newer games on 360 anyway, Only reason I got oblivion p.c. was because I fancied modding it a little :) but honestly I don't know, I just know i enjoy games and that actually haveing a graphics card was a good idea coupled with my love of games.

robbiesla

i would say you where right in wanting a card for 60 quid. if your just using it for the occasional game/mods i would take an 8600gt. i have one and runs fine on a 420W psu(take a 256mb model). the 8600gt supports all the new technology even though a little slow in comparison to some other beasty cards and could go a farily long way with a budget/need such as yours. the 8600gt is a fair bit faster than the 8500... iw ould tend to stay away from the 8500 myself :p

pci-e lite x4 (from my educated guesses) is a smaller version of the pci-e x16 used for modern video cards and doesn't run anywhere near as fast as the x16 but it shouldn't be used for video cards... just double check if your motherboard has a agp x8 or a pci-e x16

1 g0t 0wn3d

the 8600 is way faster then a 8500gt dont go near them that wont run counter strike maxed

dai

i would not recommend running less than a 550w psu in todays computers