Choosing a new video card

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cubedude

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Hi, I am needing a little help choosing a new video card for a PC I'm about to build. Right now I am thinking about one of these three.

Newegg.com - MSI RX2600XT-T2D512EZ Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDMI HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Silent Heat Pipe Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - MSI RX2600XT Diamond Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16 OC Edition HDMI HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

My budget isn't real big, and I would like to keep it under $150. I plan on gaming quite a bit, possible playing some of the newer FPS games like bioshock. Any suggestions would be helpful. I appreciate your help.
 
Alright that brings me to my 2nd question. How important is directX 10 for the future and current gaming? Also I took a look at the stats of both and I can't see how the 7950gt can outperform the 8600gts, so if you could explain why that would help a bit.
 
Right now, unless you have vista there is no real reason to get a dx10 card. Very few games have enough dx10 goodies to bother with. But i would bet on there being a lot more dx10 stuff in the coming year. I would suggest getting a good dx9 card and then saving up for the new cards from nvidia next year, assuming you plan to upgrade to vista.
 
Alright, how much of a difference in performance will I find in the Direct x 9 video card compared to the direct x 10 one? How many frames per second on high quality do you think I would get on like Quake 4? And lastly here is everything else I think I'm gonna get for my new computer and I was hoping you guys could check it out, see if it is all compatible, and maybe make some recommendations.

Motherboard:Amazon.com: ASUS M2R32-MVP Motherboard: Electronics
CPU:Amazon.com: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ 2.2 GHz Processor with 89-Watt Power: Electronics
Ram:Newegg.com - G.SKILL 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail
Video card: Still choosing
Case:Newegg.com - Rosewill R5604-TBK 0.8mm SECC Screw-less Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Power supply: I have one in my old computer that I believe will work.
Hard drive: Going to use my around a year old 250gb Seagate
Disk Drive: My old Sony DVD drive
 
Please say a make and model for the power supply it is by far the most important part it runs the system but if it breaks it can take out every other component with it.

You will want 2x1gb of ram for gaming

you should use an after market cooler for your cpu
 
Alright I just took a look at the power supply I will be using, and it is a Antec 430w. I'm still not sure which video card to buy. I don't know if the few frames of increase and the loss of direct x 10 is worth $20. And I do plan on getting Vista sometime in the future. And I can always buy another stick of ram later right? Unless you know of a really good deal on 2.
 
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