Isn’t Sony Vaio a brand of Laptops? Or do they make desktop computers as well?
edit: just googled it, yeah they also make Vaio desktops.
well the problem I have with Ati is they they still push out beta drivers and publish them as stable releases. At this time I cant bring myself to purchasing a nVidia card because the price to performance gap is staggering but I am normally willing to spend a little more on a nVidia card because I know that the drivers will work.
Just some info from what I’ve experienced…
dell xps 720 dual core 2.66
vista 32 bit
4 gig ram (i know 3)
upgraded to an nvidia gtx 275 oc (from a geforce 8800 ultra)
thats when all my source games would stutter (sound) and hang…
I installed riva tuner and UNDER clocked my core clock to about 600, and now alls well with my games…
hope that helps…
You know, I don’t know why I didn’t think to post this before but here you go:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-geforce-radeon,2646.html
If there’s one website to go to for info on PCs and their components, it’s Tom’s Hardware. 
I stick with NVidia because I’ve been following their numbering pattern.
Also, DirectX 10 and 11 are basically shams.
Every version of DX is an incremental improvement over the last one. The difference between two consecutive versions is minimal. That’s how it was made to be. The only way they’re a sham is that card manufacturers hype the latest version of DX as some kind of important feature in order to make sales.
9600’s aren’t bad for around $100, plays pretty much everything, except ARMA 2, on max or at least high settings. I have one and if your looking for a good card for your money this is it.
OP, before you buy a game, Make sure your PC can even run it. A good place to figure that out is:
- Compare the system requirements with your rig yourself or the easier
- Go to https://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/
They list alot of games, what it does is you look for your game (if the list has it, and it probably will) and the sight scans your PC and tell you what meets the min/rec requirements and what doesn’t.
To say that DirectX upgrades are shams is, IMO, completely innacurate. When done properly, the upgrades can be utilized to create great graphical improvements.
Directx 9 vs 10:
Directx 10 vs 11 (DX10 has minimal tessellation compared to DX11, keep that in mind, its closer to the first pic):
EDIT: ^^^^ For one thing, Crysis looked as good as the lake-and-mountains DX10 shot while I still could only run DX9, it’s just that some features I had to enable in the console since the game wouldn’t let me in the options menus (still ran fine when I enabled them forcibly). In fact, I just switched to Windows 7 and DX10 along with it, and saw nothing with Crysis that I didn’t see with DX9.
Though tessellation may be different. I haven’t actually seen any games that used it until that shot there, and it sounds to me like it’s not really worth anybody’s time to implement it right now. It may be a true unique function added in DX10, but I’m still waiting to be showed wider use. Also, that shot it looks like it just exaggerated the geometry, or simply was using higher-detail models. Isn’t tessellation more about smoothing things out, not adding significant geometric character?
It’s also to force people/gamers to make the transition from XP to Vista or 7. I still don’t think DX10 or DX11 really do anything DX9 can’t (hell, you can’t even distinguish their screenshots in comparisons). I was running Quake 4 with the shiny mapping and bump mapping back with a video card that only supported DX 8.
Oh comon the XP argument really doesn’t work anymore. Windows XP was released in 2001, IT’S OVER 9 YEARS OLD.
What do you expect.
This.
If you still have a single-core, DDR1, AGP-slotted machine, there is no point in throwing more money at a sinking ship. I understand you don’t have a lot of money RIGHT NOW, but you won’t have ANY money 2 weeks from now if you buy a videocard for that box.
Also consider that AGP is an aging/dead technology - you’ll actually pay MORE (in terms of price/performance ratios) than you would for a new card. Consider - a Radeon HD4670 with an AGP slot is $125 on NewEgg. A Radeon HD5770 with a PCIe slot can be purchased for $150, and that card will dance around the 4670 all day.
Recommendation? Build a custom PC (you can build a cheap box for ~$650, if you want a parts list let me know) or go hunting on eBay/Craigslist for a used PC from the last 1-2 years. Either way, your best bet is to replace that crypt-keeper of a machine, not upgrade it.
In light of the holiday:
