Old video card busted, looking for something new.

The Geek

My wife's video card is pretty much toast. The fans corroded and broke so now it's overheating and causing the computer to shut down when it runs anything that needs the graphics, like WoW.

We're trying to find a card that's as good or better to replace it but we're both not to great on the hardware specs thing.

What are the crucial numbers to compare when looking for a video card? Memory, core speed, memory speed?

What she currently has is the nVidia GeForce 5950 Ultra 256MB.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, the sooner the better. Our local CompUSA is going out of buisness and has some good deals on some cards but we want to make sure we pick out something comprable or better.

Thanks.

drinkinstout

Well there is a lot to compare but since the slot is AGP, you'll be a little restricted in what you can get. The first thing I would ask is what is your price range?

ElectricTurtle

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The Geek

drinkinstout wrote: »

Well there is a lot to compare but since the slot is AGP, you'll be a little restricted in what you can get. The first thing I would ask is what is your price range?

Trying to keep it in the low 100s if possible.

The main concern is being able to run WoW.

drinkinstout

I'd look into an ATI X1650 Pro or nVidia 7600 GS for that range.

Endomatic

Would a new fan work at all?

robaal

What are the crucial numbers to compare when looking for a video card? Memory, core speed, memory speed?

For older cards, for which you'll be looking for, the specs to compare would be mainly the amount of "pixel pipelines" the core has, core frequency, memory bus bandwidth and memory frequency.

More pixel pipelines means the core can do more work in one cycle, but OTOH a core with fewer pipelines and more cycles per second can be just as fast.

Similarly with memory "speed" - higher bus bandwidth means more data can be transfered in one cycle, but a card can have higher-clocked memory to compensate for a narrower bus.

You shouldn't even bother with cards with more than 256MB of memory, as it's unlikely to improve performance for the type of cards you'll want.



I would suggest looking for used cards, as I suspect you could get something like a Radeon X800XT/X850XT or GeFroce 6800GT/6800Ultra for ~$100; I believe they'd be about twice as fast as the mentioned 7600GS/X1650pro that you could get new at that price. The 7600GT would be comparable to the older cards, but newegg shows them at $165.


btw. you could consider getting a new motherboard with PCI Express for that system. If the CPU is something fairly recent, like an Athlon 64, then I think you could get a basic one for ~$50.
The PCI-E 7600GTs start at $110 at newegg, and you could use the card in the next system or not have this whole AGP problem if you ever need to upgrade/replace the video card again.

Viscountalpha

if your playing WoW, Get the radeon 1950xtx. Its around 150-200$ range but your wife will love you for it. Otherwise an 6800ultra. They float around the 100$ range on newegg. If you can find one off of cragislist, that might be cheaper but just a tad more risky.

or this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130076

But she would be happier with this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102093