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I currently have an nvidia 1 gig gt720 but have come across a radeon 9200 / rv-280le-ao62s.

Is that an upgrade?

The only video card I can find with the reference " rv-280le-ao62s" is so old I'd be surprised if you have a slot for it in your computer.

Generally speaking, video cards from 2003 are not upgrades to video cards from 2014. I strongly suspect you do not have the correct name for the latter card.

Hmmm... thanks oouze. I'll have to look at it better

If that is the right card, don't buy it.

I always use this site when searching graphics cards:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/
A Radeon 9200 ranks 1263 on their board (lower is better). The GT720 is 389.

Yikes. Thanks Henry.
I'm gonna hang on to that site.

The GT7xx series was the last generation of NVidia cards. GT9xx is the most current. Your card isn't the fastest thing going, but it's good and will play any game available today.
If you're determined to upgrade, price for performance I'd recommend a GT750ti ($110), a GT960 ($200) or a GT970 ($320).

Yeah unfortunately it struggles a bit. I'd really appreciate any advice if it's out there, especially if it keeps me from having to buy a new card.
I'm playing fallout 4 and mech warrior online set to low and is still a bit choppy.
I'm not the best at computers but I know it's an amd quad core 3.8 with 8 megs of ram.

Well, my old machine has a GT650 in it, and that can play all modern games on low settings just fine, so I don't imagine it's your graphics card (minimum requirements for Fallout 4 is a GT550Ti - your card should be running it like a breeze on moderate settings).

Your ram will be 8 gigs, so that's not a problem. 3.8Ghz, quad core AMD might be an FX-4300, so it's probably your processor that's holding you back.

If you can confirm what processor you've got installed we can go from there. Also, what version of Windows are you on?

Edit: if it is a 4300 then I'm not going to be much use, AMD isn't my thing. But it would mean you'd have a socket AM3+ processor. Go here to give yourself an idea of what's compatible with your computer and what it's likely to cost you.

Yep, damn, you nailed it.
Fx 4300
I'm running windows 10 64bit.

If it's the processor ugh, that sucks. I just bought it =/


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So it basically looks like I'm screwed. Will a better video card make up for the low end processor?
I wonder how high id have to over clock it to see some marked improvement?

So if you're only after upgrading to play some games then here's what you're going to have to do.
Go here to compare CPUs.
Go here to get an idea or prices and what's going to fit your motherboard (you need to set the socket filter to AM3+).

At a minimum you should be looking at an FX-6350, but even then you might notice the occasional bit of lag when things get busy in game. To work out the best solution for you, you're going to have to compare CPU ratings and prices and work out where the sweet spot lies for you.

Upgrading the graphics card isn't going to compensate for the poor processor, and your graphics card is just fine. Just did a search for your rig running Fallout4 and found this http://www.gamespot.com/forums/pc-and-av-hardware-909394553/fallout-4-pc-hardware-help-32753930/.

So much for the "gaming pc" tag that it was sold under. Thanks Henry.

It probably was when it was new. Just don't trust any tags of "gaming PC", they could be referring to 5-6 years ago. Look at the specs.

a costly lesson unfortunately.
I have to admit im picking up a lot though.
thank you guys especially mr henry.


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so after poking around the internet some more I think that my plan for the weekend is to first try and run some benchmark and optimization tools.
ill see if that actually does anything. some folks say I might be able to tweak windows 10 out to squeeze out the few extra FPS that I need out of my rig.
failing that I think that i'll try overclocking my CPU. i'm not planning on going crazy with it but again, im just hoping for a few FPS.
i'm not sure how much of a change I need in CPU speed to see a difference in a game. do I need to go from 3.8 to like 4.8 to actually see a performance change or is just going from 3.8 to like 4.0 or 4.2 enough?
i'd really like to be able to do it without having to mess with voltage.

ive been told that as long as I watch my temperatures the worse I can really do is crash it. I really hope that's true. id hate to burn something up.

You're going to have better luck at Tom's Hardware with these questions.

 Ouze wrote:
You're going to have better luck at Tom's Hardware with these questions.

Ditto... before any computer purchase I make, I always start at Tomshardware.

 Ouze wrote:
You're going to have better luck at Tom's Hardware with these questions.

I was kind of waiting for that. im happy with what I can or cant get here. I really only hit the net to come to dakka and bartertown so I thought id throw it out here.

Video cards can be really confusing. A lot of far go to learn, 'numbered' cards in no particular order, so a series 6000 might not be better of more advanced than a series 5000.

When buying consider one of two options

1. Look for a bargain then google benchmarks and compare to other drives. Compare it to your motherboard and look for reviews. I avoid bad purchases this way. Most motherboards are reviewed by at least two professional reviewers so you can expect at least a page of info on each one. Should for any reason video card not have this info I dont buy.

2. Look for a spec then match it. best done by picking a game you want to play or a game you are visually impresed with and buying the graphics card on the recommended settings.
I wont play GTA 5, but I used it as a benchmark for my hardware settings. Before that it was Skyrim, Bethesda was good enough to provide a list of known compatible graphics cards. This was good as I google searched and ebay searched each of the top rated ones until I found one at a price I could afford.

All this advance goes for more than just video cards. I use it to research all the components I buy. a bit of reasearch saves a lot of bother, it also prevents you from being upsold. The top 15% of performance is the top 50% of price. the trick is not to buy the latest device but one old enough not no longer be top quality/top price, yet powerful enough for what you want to do.

Hope this helps.