Vid Card help

[ace81**SF**]

I am currently searching 4 a video card to upgrade my piece of crap 64mb onboard video that I have now. The problem is no AGP slot!!!!!! So unfortunately, I have to go PCI. Im lookin 4 the absolute best PCI card I can find (even though PCI sucks). I can only find one card that has DX 9.0 suport and thats th nvidia fx 5200 but I heard its a little slow on the 3D front but has good open gl support. Im not a really extreme gamer so I dont expect cutting edge details but i want a card thatll run C&C Generals w/o laggin 2 bad. I found a fx 5200 on newegg made by xfx w/ 256 and so far that looks like my best bet. Would you agree or would you recommend me a better card? Also, I was reading the reviews 4 the card and the PNY fx 5200 card and they said that u can run Battlefield Nam w/ that card and even FarCry. I was skepticle so i went to look up system requirements and it said that u needed an AGP card. I dunno what to believe anymore haha. That would be great if it ran BF Nam!
Regards,
-Brian-

[bombledmonk]

The 256mb card will actually be slower than the 128mb version.

With a PCI only card you're options will be limited, but I would stay away from XFX as I have seen more than one complaint on this forum about them.

FX5200 should probably run BFV and Far Cry, but the settings would all have to be on low. Your processor and RAM might be a bigger bottleneck for playing intesive games with low settings.(depending on what you have)

The PNY will be about as good as you're going to get for a PCI card. There just isn't going to be great performance any way you look at it.

What are your other specs by the way....?

[ace81**SF**]

P4 at 2.00 ghz, 256 ram, 80 gb hard drive, integrated sound and audio (for now). pretty basic nothing fancy. BF Vietnam says they need a DX 9.0 compatable sound card but i dont think i have one. I think mine supports 8.1. Will BF still run???? I think it would. Why would a 128 run faster than 256 anyway???? Also, what bad things have u heard about xfx???? Lastly, if i bought a new 256 mb stick of RAM (which ineed badly) would i have 512 because I have another 256 in now or do i have to take out the old 256 stick and buy a new 512 stick? How much is RAM and how hard is it to install, also will it make my comp handle the bigger battles better?

[GameManK]

an extra 256mb will definitely help you. you're fine just buying a second stick. most boards take 3, some take 2 and some 4. ram is rather expensive these days, look on newegg & pricewatch. it's one of the easiest things to install, and probably the only thing that you have to use plenty of force and actually push it into the slot (after you line it up of course).
if you look at benchmarks, most 256mb cards are a little behind the 128mb ones. i don't know why, but people tend to say its either because they use lower quality or higher latency ram in those, and the extra memory isnt actually used.

[ace81**SF**]

Thank you for responding so quickly guys! Now that I heard all of your advice i think ill be happier with the card i buy. One more question though well, 2 more. 1, will i see a difference with my new card and RAM as far as gaming as opposed to my integrated graphics and low memory that I have now? TY

[bombledmonk]

Yes you should see a difference between integrated and the 5200. But still don't expect sellar performance. The extra 256MB of ram should help quite noticably.

[ace81**SF**]

ok