Need advice on my next purchase

[Nuno]

Hello,

I just sold my old PIII for $150, so I was thinking on spending that money on upgrading my system which main fault is the graphics card as you can see in the specs below:

P4 2.0 Ghz
512 Mb SDRAM
2 x 40 Gb HDD (1 5400rpm and 1 7200 rpm)
Nvidia TNT2 32 Mb Video Card

With this system I can't run FS2004 with max settings because it'll run on 4 or 5 fps.

So I was wondering would those $150 be best spent on a new card (I was thinking on Ati Radeon 9200  or Nvidia FX5200) or on 512Mb DDR Ram?

I'd like to move from SDRam to DDRam because it's faster but what would make FS run faster, the DDR or a decent video card?

Cheers,
Nuno

[Nuno]

Anyone?

[randombeaner]

First of all I'd like to show you this http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031023/nvidia-nv38-nv36-40.html

I have a Geforce 4 FX5600 and I cant run FS2004 with everything maxed out, I have SDRAM and can only get about 13 fps with everything maxxed out, I was kinda upset too.

I'd say the video card, but Im not really shure

ps

check http://www.pricewatch.com!

If you are gonna use the $150, get it off price watch, I got my FX5600 for I think $140 from them.

ohh but always check the website like [url]reselerrating.com[/url] to make sure you don't get ripped off

enjoy

[4_Series_Scania]

The SDRAM won't be helping matters, thats for certain.
I'd hazzard a guess you own an early Sct423 p4, if this is the case, then its new motherboard,CPU then RAM if your looking to upgrade the mainboard (The p4's have moved to a later 478pin platform) so, without throwing your p4 in the bin, I'd be going for a decent 3D card.

I'd go for a GeForce FX5700 or Ultra if you can afford one, far better than the FX5600,which isn't exactly bad by your current cards standards!!!

Some would say an Ati 9600, possibly true, considering the many threads of people having problems with Ati cards, I'd say the FX5700 should do you nicely.