buying a video card

theDewMonger

I need to buy a video card this weekend. I've only recently started playing WoW, and I'm really getting tired of the low framerates. My computer is a Dell Dimension 2400 that I bought with basically no options for $300 about 2 years ago. I really know very, very little about hardware. I know what each thing does, for the most part, but numbers mean almost nothing to me. Here are my specs:

Intel Celeron 2.40ghz processor
Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller (integrated)
768mb of RAM
and I'm assuming an integrated sound card.

The cards that were reccommended to me by the Dell website when I plugged in my service tag are all PCI interface (or PCI express).

I have a budget of about $100

I don't play any other games on my computer per se, but I may like to in the future (I didn't think I was going to play WoW up until this summer, so obviously I need to leave myself open to possibilities.) Mostly I want a card that is going to help me run WoW, and hold me over until I can afford a real system.

If you need any other info just tell me where to find it.

Judge Joe Brown

I'd say an Ati card is probably best at that price point. Future shop in canada sells an x1650 on sale for about 129. Any lower than that and you're gonna sacrifice a bit of performance, but you could probably snag an x1300 for 100 bucks.

Then again, whats 100 bucks canadian, like 150 american?

God damn that felt good

X3x3non

You can get a Geforce 7600 from a reputable manufacturer for $100 which is all you need for WoW (i ran that game on a worse graphics card on max settings). I am afriad though, once you get rid of one bottle neck, the next one is going to choke you. In case of WoW, it will probably be your RAM. But a real graphics card like the 7600 will still most likely be a BIG improvement over integrated intel graphics.

Check out newegg.com

falsedef

X3x3non wrote: »

You can get a Geforce 7600 from a reputable manufacturer for $100 which is all you need for WoW (i ran that game on a worse graphics card on max settings). I am afriad though, once you get rid of one bottle neck, the next one is going to choke you. In case of WoW, it will probably be your RAM. But a real graphics card like the 7600 will still most likely be a BIG improvement over integrated intel graphics.

Check out newegg.com

I agree, except for the card suggestion. Pretty much any half-way decent card can run WoW fine, but a complete gig of RAM would also help. You could get a 8600GT for under 100USD, or spend less and save up for a RAM upgrade.

When you're really into WoW, you're going to have WoW, ventrillo, plus a browser with a lot of tabs open.

theDewMonger

Yes, I'm already running Wow, Teamspeak, and about a bajillion firefox tabs. But RAM I can handle on my own. I have the room to get up to 2gig ram when I get the money.

I've been talking to a guildie that knows more than I do, and figured out that I have an old PCI slot for vcard. So I'm looking at tigerdirect and trying to figure out what I should go with. this is what I'm looking at.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3301409&sku=E145-6202

pros/cons?

Yes, I know I ought to just get a new system if I want to do any serious gaming, but I really cant afford that at the moment, and I don't do any serious gaming anyway.

falsedef

theDewMonger wrote: »

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3301409&sku=E145-6202

pros/cons?

It's a good choice if you only have PCI.