I have a older computer here at work and I want a little more speed. Naturally I don't want to pay more than I need to since it's not my computer. It's a Dell and the processor is a PIII 600, and the current video card is a Nvidia Riva TNT2 Model 64 pro.

The my question is simple. Is there an upgrade that would improve performance but is not so fast and expensive that the extra performance is "wasted" because the CPU is slow? Is this a waste of time?

 

How much ram do you have?

 

Well, I had an old 128 meg simm lying around and added this to the existing 64 megs for a total of 192. Running Windows XP Pro (no choice on this, I was happy with 2000). BTW the video card is a 32 meg card.

 

get a radeon 8500 used or if u can only buy new stuff radeon 9600 should be good too (don't get SE models)
but really depends on your budget and use...

 

Just found a Radeon 7000 for $40 at MicroCenter.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0171736

Makes a huge difference on my old 400 P2 - runs all my older games like a charm under XP at 32-bit color, replacing the old TNT. OpenGL looks great and and every game now runs PDQ. The card supports AGP 2x and 4x, and I like it so far, despite my affinity for NVidia. Not a good choice for running newer games, but for a cheapass card for an old PC, I don't see how it can be beat.

 

Damn! A Radeon 8500DV is the video card in my "main" computer at home! I had no idea it was so 'old' as to be a 'throwaway' card.

Maybe I'll look into the Radeon 7000 someone else suggested. no_really, what kind of card did you have before?

 

I have a similar computer and I got an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 last year for it. 128MB DDR / AGP 8X / TV Out. Runs great and you can get it for under $70. I recommend it.

 

Colin: it all depends on different factors. What games are you gonna play? the news ones? (recent within last 2 years and up) if so, that box wont do too well for you. I have a PIII 500 256mb Geforce 2 Ti, and its pretty slow when it comes to today's standards. Getting new cases (computers without the screens) are pretty cheap today for a HUGE boost from what you have. If you want to spend a little extra money, I would suggest updgrading to meet today's standards.

However, if youre playing older games (Myth, Quake 3, CS, No One Lives Forever) than what youre wanting to do is perfectly fine.

 

Well it's a work computer so no games, it's just that starting an e-mail document from Act 2000 (my contact manager and e-mail program) takes a minute and a half! I actually timed it! This is NOT efficient use of my time!

 

oh ok, in that case get a Matrox G400 or G450. They have excellent 2D quality and will make shitty monitors look ok, good monitors look great and great monitors... you get the idea.