I have a 9600XT

So to get 1024Mb I would need 2 PC400 512MB sticks?
Won't that cause lag between the two sticks?

It's PC3200 (400MHz) modules

And if you can detect a performance difference between using 2 x 512Mb modules and using 1 x 1Gb module, then you've a good 'measuring tape' and a mighty fine pair of eyes


Anyway, why are you worrying about tiny little insignificant considerations like that when you have a rather run-of-the-mill display card in your system? In terms of sheer speed, a 9600XT is not really any better than a Gf4Ti4200, (although you can get better image quality out of it) and it's certainly not even up to the standard of the rather cheap GeForce FX5900XT.

If you've a mind to the future, that card isn't gonna cut it, I'm sorry to say. It might be a worthy companion to your Celeron, but it'd be a performance bottleneck for gaming on an Athlon64 system.

maybe when the current ones go down like the new Nvidia or ATi cards cost $400+ and I dont feel like spending that much for a video card.

Hows a 9800XT, 256MB?

Also right now my 9600XT is only running at 4x because thats what my current mobo allows.

8x should be better.

I just want my games to run smoother then they are now, they tend to slow down and look like they're in slow motion.

I'd consider a 9800 Pro to be a far better value purchase than a 9800XT. You don't get enough extra performance from the XT to justify the extra dollars, and most Pros overclock to XT levels quite easily.

Be wary, though to get a 9800 Pro with "256-bit memory interface'. There are several companies sell '9800 Pros' with a crippled 128-bit memory interface. They only have half the bandwidth, and perform only a tiny bit better than the 9600XT, which makes them a rip-off.

A full-featured 9800 Pro is obtainable quite cheaply nowadays.

ATi Radeon 9xxx cards often have stability issues with AGP 8X, and you might need to set AGP to 4X anyway to get the card to run stable. Disabling AGP fast writes is another thing many people have had to do. AGP 8X doen't improve performance anyway, so it's not a problem to set the interface back a bit.

The new generation cards are much better, although a bit more expensive, and NVidia have regained credibility and the 'crown'.

The 6800 standard is a quite good card, and outperforms a 9800XT quite noticeably. The 6800GT is the current best-value card amongst the high-end options available, and is an extremely good card which outperforms even the ATi X800XT in most situations.