Need a new graphics card

Invisible

I currently have a Radeon X1650 512mb PCI-E graphics card and I'd like to upgrade, but I'm not sure what would give me the most bang for my buck. I'm looking to spend around $250 (though more for less is always better).

Currently I'm looking at a Geforce 8800 GTS OC 512mb for $159.99, but I'd like some more opinions on what I should get since I would like this to last me for a while.

webguy20

What processor do you have and how much ram? for $250 Id recommend the Geforce 260, or a radeon 4870 1gig. Both are great cards with about the same performance. Also what resolution are you gaming in? Do you plan any monitor upgrades in the next couple years?

Invisible

OP: Vista Home Premium
RAM: 4gb
Processor: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+
Resolution: 1280x1024

It's a 19" monitor that I plan to upgrade soon (besides the case, the monitor and motherboard/processor are the only things I haven't upgraded), but since I'm waiting to get a bigger desk, I thought I'd go with the graphics card first.

webguy20

Invisible wrote: »

OP: Vista Home Premium
RAM: 4gb
Processor: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+
Resolution: 1280x1024

It's a 19" monitor that I plan to upgrade soon (besides the case, the monitor and motherboard/processor are the only things I haven't upgraded), but since I'm waiting to get a bigger desk, I thought I'd go with the graphics card first.

is it Vista home premium 64 bit? If not your already losing ram due to 32bit limitations (4gb maximum shared between system and video for 32bit.)

Either video card I recommended you is overkill for your current system. the 8800GT or a 9800XT or a radeon 4850 will do great and save you some money and run games great at that resolution and probably all the way up to 1680x1050. Your gonna want to be looking to upgrade that processor, and probably motherboard and ram here sometime in the next year, and by that time a killer video card will be cheaper.

Invisible

4gb is the maximum for my motherboard, IIRC, so yeah. I really need to go ahead and upgrade everything, because I'm just getting outdated.

Thanks for the help. I'm going to pick up one of the cards and start putting away what little extra cash (damn you student loan repayments) I have so that I can buy a top of the line system by this time next year.

proXimity

I recommend checking out http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-graphics,2086.html
It might be a little dated, but they should come out with January's soon

OremLK

I'd say if you feel like you need a GPU to tide you over right now, get a 9800GT for $125 or so and slap it in there. Just realize that yeah, your CPU is going to be a big bottleneck.

If you have a socket AM2 board and you don't feel like building a new machine yet, this plus this together would be a solid upgrade that should tide you over another year or so, for a little more than the card you listed above. If you have a socket 939, don't throw away your money, just save for a new system.

Calebros

Definitely go with the 9800GT. I've got one and it runs CoD4 at around 90 FPS, ~70 in the heat of battle. Kickass card for the amount of money you pay for it.