Im running a Dell P3 350mhz that use to have a Voodoo 3, but has recently expired. I play CS a bit but use it more for MP3's so i dont need anything super. Im looking at a GeForce4 64mb for $89. the 128mb card is like $300. Can I upgrade the memory myself? With what im running do I really need 128mb? Any suggestions welcome.

Ok I have found the ATI 128mb for $170ish. But will someone translate all this crap into english for me?

ATI Technologies Inc ATI Radeon 8500 128MB [b]DDR Dual Heads AGP[/b] Video Card

Nividia ([i]spelling[/i]) GeForce 3, or 4

Start saving your money for a new processor/board/memory vs a new video card.  You're probably already pushing the 350MHZ chip to the maximum.

What SJSAMPLE said.
Putting one of the new high end cards in you machine is like putting a super-duper tricked out 6 speed transmission in a yugo.

You have to have the horsepower to run a video card at its performance levels. Upgrade your processor, motherboard [i]AND[/i] video card. Slap some system memory in there while your at it.  256mb will do fine.

Absolutely true.
I do alot of "high end" gaming, Im running a new Dell with a 2.5 [b]GIG[/b] P4 processor, 500 mb of the latest RAM, and a Nividia GE Force4 128 mb video card....I have no problems with [b]any[/b] game playability. [:)]
([i]Im on Dell's payment plan[/i] [:D] )

I seccond these fellas.

You can get a [b]good quality[/b] board and processor combo for less than 150 bucks,  and get one of the geforce 3 [b]TI[/b]cards.  I got a bargain at 70 bucks for it, but you can find it fairly close to that.  It's a little known fact that they are better than the geforce 4 mx cards out there. The 4 was really a marketing ploy to make them sound cooler.

The ati cards have poor driver support for new games and shit once their cards
gets a little old.  The nvidia geforce cards have excellent driver support even after their cards are old as dirt.

With  the computer hardware, the last 10-20% of performance will coast you 2-3 times more.
[b]
There are no games that will push the latest hardware near the limits yet.....
[/b]
If you are looking for a motherboard the best one (within reason)is going to be one with the "kt333" chipset either asus or epox will be the best two brand name options.  I'm going with the epox, just a little cheaper and minimal difference between that one and the asus.

You will need the new pc2700 ram with it, just uner 60 bucks for 256MB make suer it is "CL2.5 CAS 2.5" memory.

This advice for board and video card has been well researched over at www.tomshardware.com and I am going to order an amd 1700xp processor and epox motherboard.  I already had the GF3 video card in a piii 500 and the PC jusy can't keep up with it[:(].  But my neighbor bought this video card for his AMD 1 GHZ pc on my advice and he love's it.

I can tell you exactly which ones if you want....  if you don't have the $$$$ to get it all, and don't play any high speed games, i got a decent 16MB card I can send ya about free if you send me 5 bucks to ship it.  I used the card for awhile and it played a good Unreal Tournament, and Quake III.  It will probably play whatever you were playing with a piii 350 just fine.

Edited to say: the most games these days are written to cater to the NVIDIA (geforce) chipset design.  The ram in the card isn't going to have a thing in the world to do with gameplay, but it will keep the time in between loading levels shorter.  The FPS (frames per second rate) were the same on all cards of the same design in either the 32 or 64 MB  configuration. The gefroce 3 TI 200 that I just got is a 64 MB card...it can be bouht for wellunder $100

A card you pay 175-200 may not even perform as well as this card, an if it does the difference will not be worth another 75-100 bucks.  

The best video chipset out for the money is the Nvidia GeForceMX2-400 with 64 mg of memory. You can pick them up for about $45 box (not OEM).
The manufacturer really does not matter as long as the chipset in Nvidia.
For your system I would not spend the money on a TI card or anything over 64 mgs of memory.
Does your motherboard support AGP? If not then I would (as suggested) save up your money for a new setup.

Since we have started to unzip the ole pants and compare....

I just upgraded my system, it runs an Abit BG-7 845G Intel chipset (533) with a P 4 2.5 533 FBS CPU and 1 Gig of PC2700 memory.

For now I am using my "old" GeForce MX2-400 64 meg memory, I am waiting for the prices on the Abit Silero GeForce Ti-4600 128 meg to drop just a little.

Bign is right on the money.

Welcome to yet another "bottomless pit" into which you can toss large quantities of money measured in pounds, not actual value!

1) Avoid ATI at all costs! They have great hardware (Radeon series) but they couldn't write a decent device driver to save their corporate lives!

ATI's software is terrible, and it causes severe problems with their cards...

2) You cannot upgrade the RAM on a video card anymore. It's allways soldered directly to the card.

3) Any card that says 'TwinView' or 'Dual Head' means that it has ports for 2 monitors on the back, so you can hook 2 screens to the same card.

4) Allways buy nVidia cards. Their hardware is equal to or better than ATI (depends on which month it is), and their software is top notch. They support all major OSes (Mac, Linux, Windows 98-XPain), and I've never had a problem... (I've owned both ATI and nVidia. With ATI, the Linux XFree86 drivers (which were NOT written by ATI) were great, but the Windows ones that ATI wrote were TERRIBLE!)



Edited to add that I just looked at your system specs...

An Intel 350mhz won't have the hardware to take full advantage of a new card... It will work (and it's a good idea if you anticipate moving up to a new motherboard/RAM/CPU combo soon), but you should think about a new AMD based motherboard with DDR RAM soon.

A new mobo will fit in your existing case, so all you replace is the CPU, motherboard, and your system RAM. Stay away from Intel (they're slower over all, even though the clock rate is higher. Think stock Honda Civic vs stock 350 Trans Am - the Civic redlines at much higher RPMS, but is much slower), and get an Athlon XP.

Nvidia, best card out there, I am running a geforce3 on this computer, adn a 2 on anohter, I have used it wiht every windows, and Linux, no problems, did not affect any of my sound cards, or anythng

Kicks ass on all games I have tried it on too, including CS

hehehehehehe yer funny.  Unreal Tourny 2003 at max everything 1280X1024 (res of my 19" gaming qualified LCD flatpanel monitor) the Geforce4 4200 64Meg isnt even breaking a sweat.

the GF4 TI4200 64meg is quicker than the 128meg version (faster ram on the 64) or you can wait till next year and pickup a NV30 CineFX engine. it will be the next generation game card. and i think Nvidia plans to stop using Geforce as the name, i dont know what they plan to replace it with tho.

however the real upgrade needed is Proccessor. its at its limit now. course i have a pair of 1.6GHz PCs with 512 megs DDR ram each. server has a ATI Radeon - AllInWonder for realtime Mpeg2 compression. tis my TheaterPC box.

my gaming rig is a 1.664(AMD Athlon XP 2000+)
512Meg DDR
GF4 ti4200 64meg
60gig drive (server has the 80 and 100 gigers)
SBlive 5.1
Logitech Z560 4.1 speakers (400watts total, 200watt sub and 50watt chans).

--edit--
for gaming DO NOT BUY BRANDED. you can get better performance from a custom built system. (no corner cuttin is done to keep costs down) you may pay a bit more but you get alot more.
PLUS you can get it serviced ANYWHERE. not at just a "Dell" store or "Gateway Country". this lends you to lower repair costs because its all 100% standard hardware that the company can either order and have in a few days or have on hand.

[url]www.alienware.com[/url] (Branded but custom built, so they pass)
[url]www.newegg.com[/url]


all my systems are self built (i build my own and fix them, NEVER EVER EVER will i take it to a shop to get it fixed, normally i know more than them.)

your "dell" has some life left in it.

The Geforce line is pretty good. (I'm running a GF Ti4200)

HOWEVER, should you want to run the latest and greatest software and/or hardware, you'll need to upgrade.


Max out the system memory for your computer, it will help (IF your system can handle it; (IIRC..)upto 512mb, for win95/98. unlimited (~) for NT/2k/XP)  Check your owners manual for adding memory!!! (or as we like to call it.. RTFM*!)



your CPU speed, buss speed, grafix bus speed, grafix card, memory, memory speed,IO system,  harddrive access time and speed and  SCSI over IDE ALL  make a difference. (to name a few things)


First thing to do is, compile a list of things you have and the system requirements of what you would like to do.  Compare them to what your system can support.  Memory is usually a win situation.

good luck.


forgot to add:
*  RTFM =  Read The F'n Manual.

I have read dozens of benchmark tests of graphics cards and 128M cards don't really make a difference. They might fake very little difference in 1600x1200 but under 1024x768 there will be no differnce and the 64M cards are sometimes faster.

Second, for games buy a nvida geforce card. Don't buy a non-Ti card. Instead of buying a non-Ti geforce 4 buy a geforce 3 Ti. The cost is similar and the card will be alot faster. You can also overclock the geforce 3 ti200 to be pretty much as fast as the Ti500.

Ti 4200 is the best bang for the buck, think they are around $125.00.  The new ATI 9700Pro stomps all over any nVidia card for the time being and has great driver support which is a new one for ATI. I wouldnt buy any ATI card other than the 9700. Your computer processor is too much of a bottleneck at this point though for any of the top cards. Stay away from any MX nVidia cards.

If you decide to change out motherboards a lot of Dells parts are proprietary.  On a P2 450 I used to have, the power source plugs were reversed from the normal making things a hassle.

Someone mentioned a good point, does you mobo have a AGP slot?  If not a lot of this discussion is pointless. If no AGP I would reverse myself and say go ahead and buy a PCI nVidia Geforce2 or 4MX card, cheaper the better and save up for a new system. They will work well enough for CS.

WTF is this CS you're playin????

As someone who Worked as Tech Support for a major computer Corp. all I can say is - Dave_A hit it in the Bullseye.

A system which has a pII 350 will accept nothing higher than a pIII 600/512K cache [i]Katami[/i] processor [b](Not Coppermine)[/b] - this will likely require a BIOS Flash to Identify the CPU and allow system to boot. Since the market price of a pIII 600/512K cache [i]Katami[/i] processor is around $200 - He is also correct in stating a new MBD, CPU & memory would not cost too much more than upgrading what you have now.

Any Nvidia card 32Mb or more will work great for your system. Anything beyond that is like adding N.O.S. to a Briggs & Stratton.

Nividia 32 meg. is about all you can push.

I agree, but the older 32 meg cards aren't much cheaper than the newer 64 meg geforce3 [b]TIs[/b]