Good graphics card for roughly 180$ or less?

[Kiroshou]

Hello! I am new here. I want to be to the point as to why I'm here. I don't want to make it out like I'm somehow "using" you guys, I just need some technical advice. The market for these things is big, and I'm not all uptodate on the whole compatibility and "best choice for your setup" stuff.

Basically, I'm tired of having to run games at all low quality. Low, low, low, low. Then I still get some lag. So, I'm going to take this process in the form of steps. The first step for me is the graphics card, I want better gaming, but I don't want to have to spend 400$ on a duo. Can anyone help me out on this?

My tower is eMachines' T6420. Nothing modded with it. I don't know what to say as far as specs go, so I'll see what I can dig up on dxdiag...

From what I'm gathering, it says:

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3400+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2Ghz
Memory: 896MB RAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6100 256MB

Thanks for your time, looking to hopefully have some nice responses by Saturday, which is when I get paid.

Also, how much would a better processor be? Pretty expensive, or?

 

[veg1992]

x1950xt easy.... i assume u have pci-e ??

 

[Jorsoft]

x1950xt easy.... i assume u have pci-e ??

I'd agree as long as your psu can handle it.

 

[Kiroshou]

PCI-E = PCI Express? Yeah. So this card is called X1950XT? In your personal opinion, how much of an upgrade would that be from my current card?

By the way, could you possibly hit me up with a link for where you found this card? I put up a search for "x1950xt" on newegg.com, got some results, but not sure which one would be the right choice. Sorry man, I'm new at this.

 

[veg1992]

PCI-E = PCI Express? Yeah. So this card is called X1950XT? In your personal opinion, how much of an upgrade would that be from my current card?

By the way, could you possibly hit me up with a link for where you found this card? I put up a search for "x1950xt" on newegg.com, got some results, but not sure which one would be the right choice. Sorry man, I'm new at this.

yes its an Sapphire (Subsidiary of ATI) its really big improvement, thing is i question ur PSU's ability to handle it

 

[Kiroshou]

I'm not sure what a PSU is? And why would it not be able to handle it?

 

[aaronkupen]

You guys think that card would fit in his case and have a power supply that could actually handle it? Personally, I don't.

If you can end up fitting a high end card in your system, I wouldn't recommend the x1950xt. If I were you I would look at a 7950gt.

 

[peterhuang913]

I'm not sure what a PSU is? And why would it not be able to handle it?

a x1950xt can eat as much wattage as a typical dell computer, thats why
the psu is the power supply unit, its that box in your case with all the cables sticking out of it
get this card

 

[Kiroshou]

Oh. What's the process of upgrading the PSU? Expensive, complicated, what's the deal? I mean if it needs to be upgraded, then so be it, but I'll sure as **** be bummed if I find out it's like 300$ to do it.

Or would I just need to build an entirely new PC altogether at that point?

 

[veg1992]

You guys think that card would fit in his case and have a power supply that could actually handle it? Personally, I don't.

If you can end up fitting a high end card in your system, I wouldn't recommend the x1950xt. If I were you I would look at a 7950gt.

the 7950gt is really not that great compared to the x1950xt, its the same price for the sapphire x1950xt 256mb and the xfx 7950gt, after MIR, the 7950gt is another $1.00 pricier, i prefer the ATI's because its better performing for the price, but its a matter of choosing whether u like ati or nvidia, and if u don't mind that the xt takes up two slots...