For whatever reason, I never even looked at ATI cards, I just had an nVidia chipset and had an nVidia card already so I thought I should stick with it. The X1950Pro looks very good even up against the 7950GT, and it is $199 v. $270 which is always good. I thought my system would bottleneck the card so I wanted to be sure. Also, I do not OC because, I just don't have the time to learn right now, so everything is stock.
As for the power supply, I knew that whatever I decided to get I would need a new PSU, mine is the stock and it tops out at 250W. I was thinking about this one:
Newegg.com - XClio 450BL ATX 450W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, CUL, TUV, CB - Retail
Thanks for the heads up on this little gem, Sora. Yay to reading stickies...Anyway, the only other thing that draws power that I didn't mention before is my Audigy 2 sound card, remember, I got the comp almost 3 years ago. So, for about $40 more I would go from the eVGA 7800gs to the HIS X1950Pro which is still cheaper than the XFX 7950GT. That looks pretty good. Again, here is my comp:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1 GB RAM (max allowed)
250W stock power supply
5200XT
ASUS (K8N8X-LA PES) Mobo
Creative Audigy 2 sound card
This is a microATX form factor mobo, will the card fit if I only have 1 expansion bay left? I've read that the X1950Pro is a rather long card.
More info here:
HP Pavilion a642n Desktop PC - Product Specifications
Thanks