What card can my computer handle?

C

chico1st

Geek Trainee
High I was looking to buy a new video card but how do i know what my computer can handle?
I was looking at a 6600GT, ATI X800, X1300 and X1950... all AGP.
I have a 2.6 GHz P4, 2 GB DRR 3200 ram, 160 GB PATA HD.
 
I wasnt thinking so much of the power requirements but more of. When playing games would my P4 2.6 GHz be the bottleneck of performance at some point? Like maybe I couldnt get any gains from an X1950 over an X800 because my CPU would be limiting my FPS, that makes sense doesnt it?
Or do computer graphics not bottleneck like that?
 
chico1st said:
I wasnt thinking so much of the power requirements but more of. When playing games would my P4 2.6 GHz be the bottleneck of performance at some point? Like maybe I couldnt get any gains from an X1950 over an X800 because my CPU would be limiting my FPS, that makes sense doesnt it?
Or do computer graphics not bottleneck like that?
Click to expand...

Yes, it will bottleneck your video card since most newer games recommend dual-core CPU's. However, you won't see such a big degradation of performance since CPU and video card specs aren't directly connected as much as RAM and a CPU for example.
Hope this helped :)
 
So would it be a waste of time for me to buy an X1950? should I buy a X800 or buy an even slower graphics card like the 6600GT if my CPU will bottleneck.
I am looking for a recommendation of how much processing power i should look for in a graphics card that wont be a waste of money due to a slow CPU.
 
No, i would still get the x1950 as it uses Shader Version 3.0 as opposed to the x800/6600GT.

Does your motherboard support PCI-E?
 
no it doesnt support pcie. I made another thread about which card to buy based on price, this was specifically about me being worried my mobo would bottleneck something.
I probably will go for the 1950.
 
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