New Graphics Card

I am wonder what you guys would recomend for a VAIO VGN-FS740/W. I am in need of a new crad because I have trouble running No Limits tracks with lots of 3Ds. Any Ideas?

model number does not change anything. the only thing that matters in buying a video card is what kind'a slot you have for it. If its pretty new, odds are that it'll have a PCI-Express slot, but if its relatively old, you'll probably find an AGP slot. PCI-E is twice as fast as AGP, but either way you'll be fine. Just gotta find out what slot u have.

you gotta be more specific too. do you want it purely for gaming? do you care about price? there are too many options to just ask what a good new card would be.

I want it soley for gaming and I don't care about price. I currently have an Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GMS Express Chipset. I hope that was enough info

yea again I need to know whether or not its a PCI-E or an AGP slot.

but a good gpu would be something like a Radeon X1900 or a GeForce 7900.

www.newegg.com is a good place to look at prices and get a good idea for what you want.

SMer, you're an idiot. He has a chuffing laptop (maybe you should google his product). The best bet would be to ask sony what supported mobile cards (if any) will fit.

bite me, it was a reasonable assumption and I was on my way out the door when I replied.

[jayman]

i'm poor.. can anyone recommend a agp card for less than 50 dollars? i got a ati radeon 9200.

this is a pretty good deal.

[jayman]

hmm.. i can't tell if it's any better than the one i have

its better. when there's a new series, its not just faster, its got better capability. bascially, more recent stuff is what you should have, and this one is a lot more recent than what you have.

I have an Nvidia GeForce MX 100/200, however good or bad that is.

its good for the general user who doesn't do a lot of visually intense stuff on the comp. but in terms of gaming, its the "throw in there for kicks" gpu

[Brtnboarder495]

9/10 GPU's in a laptop cannot be upgraded because they are soldered to the motherboard, as are processors. There are a few exceptions, but only in high end laptops. You'll have to make use of what you've got, maybe upgrade your overall RAM to 1Gb and try OCing your GPU a little for an extra performance boost.

but it won't do much

A 6200 is no big jump over a 9200, if you have $50, I'd stick with what you have already. And Brtnboarder495 is correct, most graphics processors are hard-wired onto the laptop's mainboard itself, rendering it a permanent solution. Some laptops use expansion slots for upgrades, but it's never worth it. RAM is worth upgrading if you have 512MB atm though. I've got 512MB of memory in my system, and it does bottleneck performance somewhat, although my main problem is my microprocessor.
SMer...overclocking does make a difference in many cases. For me, my 9800 pro is struggling to take some of the stuff I throw at it. After I got ATiTool and overclocked just a wee past 9800xt speeds, my laggy spots disappeared.

sorry, I misread. I thought he said upgrading ram and OC'ing your CPU, not GPU

^^just for the record (not to clutter anymore...which it's getting to), OCing your CPU can also work wonders, see some of the old 90nm amd 64 venice overclocking results and the core 2 results on anandtech.com, hothardware.com, and bit-tech.net. good stuff. (the daily list)

lol i find it funny how you call 90nm and AMD64 old. there are newer things out, but that doesn't make everything behind it old.

lol, i guess you're right. heck, I'm still on an athlon xp 2400, which has been overclocked 5 MHz! w00t....(yes that's my max stable overclock lol)

lol, ya I've never tried to OC mine, I have an Athlon64 3000+, I've had too many problems with my mobo and the OC options suck on it.