Video Card Upgrade Question

Alright, so I'm thinking about upgrading my video card since I've gotten into Battlefield 2 recently and I've just been killed too many times due to really crappy framerates (explosions or anything that make my screen wobbly pretty much make the game unplayable during that time). I also can't even pilot airplanes or helicopters since I don't have enough frames.

So here's my current system specs.

Asus A7N8X-E motehrboard
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
512 MB PC3200 RAM
nVidia GeForce FX 5200 (128MB graphics card with AGP 8x)

Any thoughts on how much it would cost to upgrade my computer to run modern games at decent settings? I don't need Doom III on all highs, I'd just like to be able to play some stuff at 800x600 at 30fps.

Or would I just be better off scrapping this computer and building another one (which I won't actually do for probably about another year since I only built this one last September on a pretty tight budget)?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I would seriously recommend upgrading to 1GB of RAM at least if youre playing BF2. That game eats RAM for breakfast. Also, your video card is about the equivalent of a GeForce 4. Definitely wanna upgrade that.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127219
It's a 7xxx series card, and probably the best bang for the buck in AGP.

This upgrade should cost around $200. I'd say that this will last you another year without breaking the bank.

How ya doing, buddy?

Bump in this forum on the hopes for some more input.

I just upgraded my drivers the other day and found it actually had a pretty big improvement. I had forgotten that I downgraded to an older set of drivers back in the spring because some game wasn't working with new ones, so the guys I had were from mid 2005. Whoops. Still curious about how much it would set me back to be able to play on servers with vehicles, though.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Don't know motherboards for crap, but yea, getting another 512 stick will probably have the biggest effect for the lowest price.

Your processor should be fine, it'll probably need an upgrade in the next year or two but few games really require more than an AMD 2.0GHz.

Definitely upgrade your videocard if you can actually afford it though. Personally, I went the NVIDIA route and picked up a 7600GT off of Newegg for about $170.

I'd say you're looking at around $200 for an upgrade as well, depending on how cheap you find the RAM (512's aren't that pricey anymore).

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Graphics Card

And definately upgrade to 1GB of RAM. It will help the gam run at a better rate.
The graphics card and the RAM upgrade should cost you somewhere in the region of $200.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Again I push for the RAM upgrade, it will definitely increase performance with BF2. As for the graphics card, your choices are rather limited by AGP, but the two cards listed (X800GTO and 7600GS) should both run BF2 nicely; as long as you keep the resolution down and turn the fancy graphics down.

Even if you do buy a better graphics card, you may notice that your CPU will prevent the graphics card from reaching maximum FPS. But nothing can really be done unless you upgrade the whole computer.

Intel is moving very fast with it's new Core 2 Duo processors out, so by the time you next upgrade their best optimised cores will be released. (Not something like Kentsfield which is two Conroes stuck together.)

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?