How much should I pay? Graphics

[Daddio]

Be glad she didn't buy a dell or something from a local computer shop

LOL Yea, Hey she's not high maintenance, she laughs and plays PC games. I shouldn't sound like I'm complaining. She does think about a buck before she spends it.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I would at least get a HD 4670. They have pretty low power consumption so the systems psu won't be much of an issue and I would say it's close to twice as fast as the 7950gt.

Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H467QS512P Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

 

[Daddio]

Tenenbaum, The 4850 will plug right in on the PC I mentioned right? What do you other guys think? The 4850 sound like a good choice? issues?

HD 4670? and will play any of the newer games out? Like I said, I can put one in a computer but I'm no expert on the Graphics cards capabilities.
Thanks for all the input guys. I sure appreciate it.

The 4850 is better than the 4670? I know it cost twice as much. She wants to use it for gaming. I was going to order it for her as a surprise.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The 4670 should work without making any other changes to your system. It should be able to max out any game at 1440x900 excluding Crysis and maybe Far Cry 2. If you can give us the the resolution of your monitor and what games you want to run we may be able to give you a more specific estimate of its performance.

The 4850 is better but I'm not sure if it would work in that system with the current power supply.

 

[saltynay]

The risk you run by getting a 4850 is power demand as that computer was premade the designers probably saved costs by getting a psu that matched the factory stock specs and doesn't leave much headroom for upgrading. You may put the card in and think crud nothings turning on now simply because the power draw is too high if you could surreptiously open up the pc and tells us the details printed on the label on the psu we can help you more with which card to get. A 7950 would be fine dor MMORPGS like WOW, guildwars age of conan and others, however with the latest fps it will struggle. A 4830 I think would be the best for all factors; budget, performance and current needs plus power demand. If in doubt look up tomshardware gpu charts they are a great resource

 

[Daddio]

We are both presently running 19" monitors. I can't get into it right now but I know it's 420W, Not sure of Amps. She is running Vista 64 bit. I am going to go with the 4670 and I can always upgrade and use this card in one of our other machines if needed later.
For $79 I can't really lose.
I am usually the one being nice and helping other people. I'm not used to people helping me.
Thanks Again for the help and insight....You guys are great!!!

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Good luck with the upgrade.