Graphics card question..

[UncoderMom]

I upgraded my graphics card about 4 months ago but I'm not sure I made a better choice. eek!

I have an XPS Gen 5 and I upgraded to the better graphics card which was 320-4081 256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 Graphics Card when I bought it. I dont know the bit and I all that tho LOL. It was a little more then 2 yrs old when I replaced it. Looks just like this one... http://cgi.ebay.com/Nvidia-Geforce-6...3286.m20.l1116

I upgraded to a eVGA e-GeForce 9600GT 512MB PCI-E 128 bit. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/eVGA-...oductDetail.do

If its supposed to be better I think something is wrong LOL. I dont feel like anything is different. Still lots of jagged edges when I'm playing sims and stuff but sims did stop freezing on me. I just assumed when I upgraded that 512 was going to be a world better then 256. Maybe the bit rate is different though? /noob

PS if the upgrade I got is better then the old then what might I list it for on ebay... before one of my kids gets a hold of it and makes it useless. LOL

Edit to add...

[SEOvB]

Its definently better, but jagged edges can be caused by lots of things.

How much RAM do you have and what OS are you running? RAM is relatively cheap these days, so I suggest upgrading to the 3.3GB windows usually maxes out at (32 bit edition).

Make sure you have the latest drives and DirectX versions (if sim uses even uses DirectX i dunno).

Make sure your video settings for the SIM are appropiate to your system specs as well (sometimes using max settings for everything is bad )

[UncoderMom]

I'm running on 3.3 gigs. I upgraded just recently. I have 1 gig sticks in bays 1 and 3 and 512 in 2 and 4. All are matching and 667 all Kingston.

I updated my drivers to match the new card. Here are my original specs. I've had the computer for 3 yrs.

[221-8325] Intel Pentium D 830 (3.0GHz) w/Dual Core Technology
[464-0341] 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz I UPGRADED THIS 4 MONTHS AGO TOO
[310-5234] Dell USB Keyboard
[320-4241] 24 in (24.0 in viewable) 2405FPW Wide Aspect Digital Flat Panel Display
[320-4081] 256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 Graphics Card UPGRADED
[341-0988] 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
[341-2375] No Floppy Drive
[313-7222] Dell Application Back-up CD, Factory Install
[412-0721] Dimension Dell Support
[420-4927] Windows Media Player 10
[420-4940] Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, English
[310-6264] Dell USB 2-button mouse
[313-3607] No modem requested for Dell Dimension
[412-0705] Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0
[313-3005] 16X DVD-ROM and 16X DVD+/-RW
[420-5265] PowerDVD Software Decoding forDVD,5.5,XPS
[313-3041] Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, PCIw/Dolby Digital EX, IEEE1394, 7.1 channel, THX cert
[313-4514] No Speaker Requested
[410-0795] Network Associates McAfee 6.0 English, 2 Year Subscription
[412-0741] Music Match 9.0 Basic 7 day OnDemand
[412-0747] Paint Shop Pro Studio 1.0 Premium
[462-9575] Jasc Creations Promotion - Free with Purchase
[412-0625] Dell/My Way Home Page
[412-0687] NETZERO ISP
[412-0787] AOL for Broadband
[420-3224] Broadband Icon for Inspiron
[412-0782] MS Worksuite 2005
[950-7447] 4 Year Limited Warranty
[412-0359] Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
[900-9773] Technical Support, 3 Year Extended
[902-1283] Type 15 - Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Weekends, 24x7 Technical Support, 3 Year Extended
[982-1749] $60 WARRNTY REBATE 62105 Redeem within 30 days of ship at dell4me.com/rebates
[960-6380] Technical Support, Initial Year
[960-6090] Type 15 - Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Weekends, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year
[960-2697] Dimension XPS, Specialized Support
[320-4069] Dual TV Tuner with Remote Control
[464-0051] Thank you for choosing Dell
[420-5136] Quickbooks 2005 Special SimpleStart Edition

[SEOvB]

You should be able to run the sims just fine with that system, only a few other factors left that could contribute to poor performance such as whats running in the background, if your playing while firefox is minimized in the background, that can lead to issues as firefox has a pretty big memory leak, and anti-virus programs can slow a system down.

[UncoderMom]

I read somewhere that I might need to update my bios...?? That is a daunting thought. LOL

--------------- Added [DATE]1228923533[/DATE] at [TIME]1228923533[/TIME] ---------------

Ooooh and yes... I need to kill some background stuff. I need to make time to pick through them. Kill all the ones on start up that I dont need. Like photo software and stuff.

I think I have like 68 running.

[Wayne Luke]

With NVidia based cards it is the second number that is more important than the first on the quality of the card in regards to frames per second, artifacts and performance.

A 6800 is 6th generation, 800 model. The 800 model performs better than a 6600.. Surprisingly it will perform better on most systems than a 9600 as well. The 9 just means 9th generation but is no real indication of its rated performance. The model number relates to the speed of the card and its capabilities. So while the 9600 is a new generation, it is a lower model performance wise than the 6800.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...6232607AAWpgOA

The key though to performance with NVidia cards is to make sure the proper drivers are installed. When you download the driver package, it includes tweaks and enhancements for all driver models in a unified pack. If you switched the cards and didn't install the latest drivers you can have problems.