Buying a new GFX card

[zmcg]

I've got $250 to spend on a graphics card, but I'm not sure where I should start looking, what brand / model I should buy, etc.

I'm looking for the best card $250 can buy. It can be a little over that, but preferibly not by too much.

I'd like something that'd be able to play games like Half-Life 2 on the highest settings with no lag. Currently I have a crappy nVidia GeForce 4 MX440 which plays HL2 fine, but.. I'm not satisfied with the graphics. Doom 3 is another game I'd like to play, but can only run it on the lowest settings and even then there is usually a ton of lag, nearly making the game unplayable.

Another issue is my power supply. I'm not sure at all how to check it. I've heard GFX cards can use up a lot of power, so I wanted to make sure if I bought a decent gpu it would be getting enough power. Help checking that would also be appreciated.

And one more thing.. AGP and PCI. Info regarding those would be nice as well. I think my current gpu is AGP, so would it matter if the next one I buy is PCI?


Thank you.

 

[idiotec]

I have seen 6800GT's for just under $300. That is a beast of a card. If that is too much, you could consider the 6600GT or the x800xl. The 6600GT should be a little cheaper and performs great.

You will want to make sure you have a good power supply. Is this a prebuilt machine or a custom build? Some prebuilts (Dell, HP etc) have propiertary power supplies, so make sure if you get a new one it will work with your system. I would say you want at least 400w and at least 18a on the 12v rail.

You do NOT want a PCI card. Get AGP. You might of heard about PCI-e cards, which are very good, but will not work with your system. Plain PCI cards are not good at all.

 

[majistic]

6600 GT you can get around 150-180.

 

[zmcg]

I have seen 6800GT's for just under $300. That is a beast of a card. If that is too much, you could consider the 6600GT or the x800xl. The 6600GT should be a little cheaper and performs great.

You will want to make sure you have a good power supply. Is this a prebuilt machine or a custom build? Some prebuilts (Dell, HP etc) have propiertary power supplies, so make sure if you get a new one it will work with your system. I would say you want at least 400w and at least 18a on the 12v rail.

You do NOT want a PCI card. Get AGP. You might of heard about PCI-e cards, which are very good, but will not work with your system. Plain PCI cards are not good at all.

I checked out the 6800GT and found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121177

This is a good card for it's price, correct? It's a 6800GT, but I'm not entirely sure what all that ''ASUS V9999GT/TD/128'' stuff means.

It's a prebuilt, unfortunately. Dell 4600. I would have gone with the building my own computer, but this purchase was made almost 2 years ago and I knew almost nothing about computers then. It'll probably be another year before I have the money (and knowledge) to start building my own. Is there any way to check the power supply? I'm really not sure what it is at the moment..

Thanks for the PCI/AGP info. I'll be sure to look at AGP cards instead of PCI/-e for this system now.

 

[idiotec]

I checked out the 6800GT and found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814121177

No, that is some funcky version. That card has only 128mb of DDR RAM at 700Mhz.

The 6800GT should have 256mb of DDR3 RAM at 1000Mhz.

You might want to try the 6600GT. You might get away with it without having to upgrade your power supply, with a 6800GT, you would definately need to upgrade the power supply. And, with the 6600GT, that will save you some money that can go to the PSU.

 

[zmcg]

No, that is some funcky version. That card has only 128mb of DDR RAM at 700Mhz.

The 6800GT should have 256mb of DDR3 RAM at 1000Mhz.

You might want to try the 6600GT. You might get away with it without having to upgrade your power supply, with a 6800GT, you would definately need to upgrade the power supply. And, with the 6600GT, that will save you some money that can go to the PSU.

Ah... yeah, I saw some that had 256 MB but they were all 300+. So I guess I will go with the 6600GT then. How about this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1121824&Tab=2&NoMapp=0

There is also just a 6600, but it has 256 MB and it's the same price. ( http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1212072&CatId=933 ) I think it is only 900 mhz though. Would 100 mhz make that much of a difference?

I was also looking at PSUs, and they don't seem to be that expensive. Any recommendations on what I should go for if I upgrade it? 450, 500, or more? How much does the 6800GT and 6600GT need?

Thanks for all your help so far.

 

[pc_boy]

read this on vid. cards

http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57810

 

[idiotec]

Get one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122206
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130220
That XFX brand is a little sketchy.

There is also just a 6600, but it has 256 MB and it's the same price. ( http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...12072&CatId=933 ) I think it is only 900 mhz though. Would 100 mhz make that much of a difference?

No, you don't want that. I won't go into all of it, but the GT version is much better than the non-GT version. In this case, don't let the 256mb RAM fool you. At the 6600 level, more than 128mb RAM is not going to add any more performance.

As far as PSU, you going to have to check out your Dell documentation and see if there are any special requirements on their PSU's. You may have to buy it from Dell, I don't know.

 

[zmcg]

read this on vid. cards

http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57810

Thanks.. I fall under the budget catagory, I highly doubt I'd be able to afford one of the new vid cards coming out so I'll just go with the 6600GT for now.

Get one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122206
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130220
That XFX brand is a little sketchy.

No, you don't want that. I won't go into all of it, but the GT version is much better than the non-GT version. In this case, don't let the 256mb RAM fool you. At the 6600 level, more than 128mb RAM is not going to add any more performance.

As far as PSU, you going to have to check out your Dell documentation and see if there are any special requirements on their PSU's. You may have to buy it from Dell, I don't know.

The Leadtec one looks pretty nice... I only read a few pages of the reviews but none of them were disappointed with it. Can't go wrong with that price either.

I'll see if I can find the Dell docs from when I bought this comp, but I don't think I'll have any luck. I bought this in early 2004 I think, it was around $950.. (yeah, way too expensive for what I got I'm assuming) 256 MB RAM, 3.06 Ghz P4, 60 GB HDD, GeForce 4 MX440... I recently upgraded the ram and bought two more hard drives, so it isn't as bad now. It's not that old, so it should have a decent PSU, right? At least enough to be able to supply this 6600 GT I hope.

 

[dhw200]

id get the eVGA model.

never get an Asus video card, they are never too good and are always overpriced