New Graphics Card

Black Ice

Getting a new graphics card from Dell (My grandmother is getting a new computer and I'm swapping my graphics card with a superior one I'm getting from Dell) and I have a GeForce 7600 GS. Didn't some incredible GeForce just come out like 2 months ago for a really low price? What do you guys recommend I look for?

I have 2.5 gigs of RAM and a Pentium 4 on XP. I'm not planning on running any DirectX 10 games anytime soon, needless to say, but playing Half-Life 2 Episode Two without having to bump down to DirectX 8 would be cool, as would playing Battlefield 2 on all high graphics.

krapst78

The Geforce 8800 gt came out at the end of October. It was originally announced at a price point of $199 and $249, however it was extremely hard to find any at that price. Most online stores sold it at $270-$300 and the card still sold out right away. They are slowly coming back in stock, as I was able to get mine last week, but I doubt you'll be able to purchase it for less than $250 for quite a while (at least until the new new GTS comes out in December). Even at $250+, the Geforce 8800gt outperforms the more expensive 8800 GTS which usually costs $300 to $400.

The other new card that recently came out is the AMD Radeon 3870 and 3850. These cards perform similarly to the x2900 XT and retail for $179 to $220. They lose out to the 8800 gt in performace but are still more than adequate for most of todays games and come with support for directx 10.1. Either way, both card should handle Half-Life 2 Episode 2 at the highest settings without breaking a sweat.

kaliyama

8800GT is the credited response for preparing you for the next 2 years or so.