New graphics card

[imstilllearning]

Hello everyone I need your feedback,

I'm shopping for a new Nvidia graphics card and I'm in the price range of $120 US dollars to 150 US dollars.

I've always wanted a new Nvidia (I'm currently using a factory ati integrated radeon xpress 200) and I want alot of power but in the price range I listed I've seen alot of different graphics cards.

My questions are which cards are better than others,should it have ddr memory or other?Is 256mb enough for me or can I have more (with graphics card) because I do play alot of PC games mostly newer high system requirment titles and plan on being somewhat ready for newer games in the near future also.

I'm going to upgrade my system ram w ddr ram (1 gb or more) and my AMD runs 2.2 ghz.

any suggestions?

Thanks, James

 

[Nevercheck]

Pci-E or agp or PCI??

if pci-e then i suggest for the price Radeon x1300 OC, it is very good graphics card and it is factory overclocked to run at the same speed as the Radeon x1600 and for some reason, it is quite a bit cheaper than the x1300 that isnt overclocked. i just recently purchased a x1300 OC for about 125$, if you dont have pci-e slot, then i dont know what to tell you. i hope this helps answer ur question

 

[imstilllearning]

Yes thanks

You did help me realize I forgot to mention,yes it's pci but what is pci e?I'm not sure if I have that.

I've been using ATI for almost a decade now and I'm going to try Nvidia this time,any suggestions for Nvidia?

 

[nickc]

first u need to tell us what slot u have to install this new card.

 

[Nevercheck]

how old is ur motherboard??

how old is the mobo?? if its more than 2-3 years old it probably only has agp graphics, and those cards are cheap, like 120$ for the high end, but if i were you, and ur mobo is that old, you might want to invest in a newer mobo, for about 100$ and you could put the faster pci-e cards in. Pci still make good fast graphics cards, but pci-e is 2x or 4x faster

 

[imstilllearning]

My computer is a HP media center from 2006 and it's pci as i stated earlier,
it's a good setup with a poor card (graphics)

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

There are three main graphics slots: PCI, PCI Express (PCI-E for short) and AGP. PCI Express is the latest type of slot, followed by AGP and PCI. You need to download and run Everest Home Edition from here. Expand the Motherboard option in the left pane and under this, there will be another Motherboard option. Click on this and it will display some information in the main window. Copy and paste this info into a post.

 

[imstilllearning]

There you are

Field Value
Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 07/29/2005-RS482-SB400-Amberine-00
Motherboard Name Unknown

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type AMD Hammer
Real Clock 200 MHz
Effective Clock 200 MHz
HyperTransport Clock 1000 MHz

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type Dual DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 128-bit
Real Clock 200 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 400 MHz
Bandwidth 6400 MB/s

 

[imstilllearning]

Reading further into this Everest program I found this:
Device Description
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Chipset - PCI Express Root Port
Does this mean it's PCI-e?

 

[ColdFusion1990]

yeah, thats good

 

[imstilllearning]

Excellent

Well that's good news but now I think the graphics cards I looked at are probably agp judging by the price,

Change of plans,now the price range is 200 US$ to $250.
I want a great graphics card otherwise I would just settle for what I have instead of getting a slight upgrade.

I really want to try Nvidia due to the positive feedback I receive so often on them.I suppose I'd rather not upgrade the power supply but I'm not totally against that option,whats the average price to boost your voltage?

Perhaps that question isn't easily answered,let's stick w the original.
What Nvidia is best for me?

I like games such as:Battlefield 2142,Half life 2 deathmatch and I'm a small fan of MMO RPG's but might be a big fan if I had the power to run them in an ideal setting.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

I found this PSU on Newegg and it's perfect for this card. Together they go around ~5 over your budget but if you can't/won't cross that line, get this card instead. It's an ATi card but a great one at that and a better performer than it's NVIDIA counterpart here. But the performance difference between those two and the 7950GT is quite large mind you. (the 7950GT being of course, the better card)
The power supply is of superb quality and highly recommended. So the video card is upto you to decide.
I hope I helped .

 

[imstilllearning]

Yes you have helped and I appreciate you looking into this and helping,
You know I've never been very partial to certain brands,I really like the first one you showed me and it's plenty close to budget.After reading the reviews it sounds like exactly what I need.

Perhaps soon I'll build my own computer but for now I'm gonna make a power pack out of this one as much as I can reasonably because it was free since my friend bought himself a Dell XPS he just gave me this one!!!

Thanks again
James

P.S.nice avatar I love that game

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

NP we're all here to help. Just wanted you to make a good choice that's all.
And thanks, Blood Money was the best game I've ever played, period. So it's my way of expressing that.

 

[imstilllearning]

Thanks I'm glad you showed me that,nice psu also it'll work great for me w the new card.
Yeah blood money rules and I still play stealth assasin every blue moon again,I've been hearing that they're going to make a Hitman motion picture!Let's hope they do it right because that could be an awesome movie.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

I'm happy I helped you make a good choice. Hope to see you around here more often then?
Cheers and enjoy your new card! :grinthumb

 

[JimShady23]

Wait

I would wait about 2 weeks before making any choice as of just yet as nVidia is releasing its 8xxx midgrade cards. i.e. the 8600GS GT and GT Ultra.

The performance on paper is going to be on par with that of a 7950GT or somplace in that area but you also get the future proof of a direct x 10 card. Yeah somone is going to say "blah blah DX10 whupty s#$@. its not going anyplace fast" but what if it does ? I like to be prepaired for the future instead of buying somthing here and now and being skunked 3 months down the road.

The new cards are going to have a estimated price tag starting at $175 from what I have read. I guess they will top out at the $225 range.

The choice is up to you.

 

[bdcjec]

Now you REALLYgot him confused.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Good point Jim. I didn't know about that. If you can wait imstilllearning, you could get a better card for the same price, since the release date for the new cards is April 17th. But if you really need one now, that 7950GT is right there. As Jim put it, the choice is yours to make.