Require New Graphics Card

[nindi]

Hi,

I require some advice on which graphics card to get.
I've got a Ati X800 XT 256mb PE at the moment.

Rest of system is 1gb ram. amd fx-53 processor. asus a8v deluxe motherboard.

The thing is that the graphics card seems to be crashing my system as its overheating. So rather than spend time and money on getting it fixed (can't be worth that much now anyway can it?), I've decided may as well upgrade it.

So wondering with my system set-up (I assume its a agp card- though not 100% sure... dont think my mb has a pci-e socket) what would be a good upgrade? Something that gives a good boost and makes it worth upgrading rather than getting the card repaired (from what i've read on the net sounds like fan/silencer or thermal paste requires fixing- not going to be able to do myself so labour + parts must cost at least 30quid?).

I do use the machine for a bit of gaming... e.g. pro evo soccer/civ 4/ some battlefield. but current set-up coped quite well with all of these.

So question is
1/ With my motherboard do i need a AGP or PCI-E card (I think its agp).
2/ Should I go for a DX10 card (the gtx is out my budget) or would one of the other cards give enough of a performance improvement- would ideally like to spend around 150 at most... but if i go for the dx10gts/the ati equivalent then i could go 250.
3/ would getting another 1mb ram have a performance improvement?
4/would the upgrades mean i could run vista safely?


Thanks for the help! Look forward to seeing what the experts think...

[mac124]

Hiya Nindi and welcome to the forums

Sounds daft but have you tried cleaning the heatsink on the x800xt?

[mac124]

Bah keep getting errors when i post gave up and emailed you :roll:

[nindi]

Thanks, got your email, really helpful.

[Anonymous]

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