there's an ad in a magazine for a GeForce 9400gt with 1gb ddr2. It's a PCI card, not a PCI-E card. Would this card be an improvement over my current graphics card? (a Gainward BLISS 7800 GS+ 512MB AGP) and if so, how noticeable?
If possible abandon both of your card. Some things telling me that you game at 1280 X 1024 to 1600 X 900. if you have budget try GT 240 DDR5 cost almost US$ 70 -60 in new egg. Or HD 5670, shippire price is $75. It will be huge improvement if you can manage.
9400gt is slow as a wet week..and PCI is even slower! ive got one! (512mb) its about 2 to 3 times slower than my old ATI HD3870 and its about 12 to 15 times slower than my gtx470!
You guys missed the most important piece of info in his post. He is currently using an AGP card, which means he does NOT have PCI-e, so no use in even recommending one unless he wants to completely upgrade his system. The best thing he can do is get a AGP card and there aren't many upgrades, which compared to PCI-e is going to limit his choices. A PCI card is going to be MUCH MUCH slower than almost all the AGP cards and extremely slow compared to PCI-e.
If he can find HD 3850 AGP it would be a nice upgrade over his old 7800GS tho Its not more than 30€-40€ used...
Maybe you should ACTULLY check his mobo, it has both AGP and PCI-E Check your facts next time before posting
Although he is a bit off on the price, he is dead on with this recommendation. The price he mentioned will get you a GT 220 at best. I just picked up the GT 240, with 1GB DDR5 and its great for its price point. The 1GB DDR5 version would put you back about $95 and the 512MB a bit less. Although I would not recommend getting the DDR3 card, with a 128-bit bus. Check this deal out actually.... a great price and it would be a huge upgrade for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130531&cm_re=gt_240-_-14-130-531-_-Product Another thing, don't fall for a really low end card like the one in that magazine touting 1GB of ram. That is just a scheme to fool the consumer into a purchase. It will be useless ram, because you wont be able to run resolutions that even make use of it. DDR2 is very slow ram for a video card.
