Has anyone done a good GFX FAQ?

[dafydd_brown]

I'm doing some investigating about getting a new graphics card and was wondering if there were any good guides that anyone might know about?
I have to say that the last card I bought was a Radeon 9800 pro and I'm wondering whether it would be worth spending about £100/$180 to upgrade.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[dafydd_brown]

Okay I just found
"GUIDE: How to buy/what to look for when buying a computer or new part." which I actually read about three weeks ago when I was wasting time in work... much like now.
Nevermind then!
Still it would be nice to know if anyone thinks I could buy a card for about £100/$180 that would get me anywhere near max settings for Half-life 2. I'm sure my CPU will start to become a problem soon though.

 

[Nukem]

what kind of system do you have? AGP or PCI-e? what's your power supply? CPU? etc...

AGP
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=5476&category_id=126&manufacturer_id=0

PCI-e
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=8731&category_id=256&manufacturer_id=0

but now these are the "best" pretty much out right now. if your system is old enough, like you said the CPU might hold you back, then you might look at something a little less powerful...

 

[dafydd_brown]

Unfortunately I've got AGP and seeing as though I will need to buy a new motherboard when I upgrade my CPU (it's socket 754 AMD 64 3200) I'll then be stuck if I buy an AGP graphics card now... if you follow.
I really need to check out my PSU... I had a shiny new one but did something stupid (I won't go into details to save my own embarrassment) and have had to go back to using the one that came with a case I bought about four years ago... I also know I could get a new decent one for very little money comparable to all of the other bits and pieces I want. But then "if it ain't broke" etc...
I know I'll probably have to hold off with a grpahics card purchase until I've got a new mobo and CPU so I can get PCI-E... that's probably best right?
At least I've got a gig of RAM now... so that's out of the way!