New graphics card needed

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I need a new graphics card sence i got a new monitor and my current nvidia 7600gs cant really drive the newer games at the resolution of the monitor. my current specs are amd atholon 64bit X2 #800+ (socket 939), 1.75 gigs of ram, windows xp pro 32bit, psu is a nzxt 400 watt that came with my nemesis case. so its on the low end. i have up to $150 to spend on this upgrade. if worse comes to worse give me a link to a decent psu and a new graphics card for a total of $150. the monitor i got is a HP 2009m 20 inch lcd

 

Firt a basic question that has to be asked. Does yout motherboard support pci-express or agp for the videocard slot. Try cpu-z to find out if you do not know.

In the most likely case(over 90%) that you have a PCI-E slo you can do two things
1: buy an old-ish high end card.
2: buy a medium new card that performs the same or better but costs a bit more.

It has to do with direct x, a program that make games run. Common games use version 9 like Dragon age. Many games out now use 9 or 10. Games like farcry 2 and bioshock. But now there is direct x 11 in windows 7 and the first games like dirt2 use it.

My advice to you is go fort ATI 5000 serie. Those cards ar the only ones with version 11 and have the best price performance ratio out there. And that card will survive long enough to be usefull in your next pc.

I will include a sample from newegg, but remember thate are more shops out there and more brands. Manufacturer of the graphics chip is ati, ati sells it to different brands that make the card. that explains te brands.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161316
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102864

The Sapphire 5770 is stronger and my final advice.

 

Merlanni's advice is sound. I have nothing to add.

 

Merlanni's suggestion is good, but I would like to point out a couple of things regarding DX9/10/11: the number of games that use 10 is actually pretty low, and the ones that I use 11 were just two (last time I checked, which was a couple of weeks ago). Add to the fact that the difference is usually not even noticeable when comparing the same game running DX9 or 10/11 and I wouldn't even factor this into your choice of cards.

That said, the Radeon 5770 is currently the most powerful card at $150, so if you do have this exact budget in mind then it's a no-brainer. It costs exactly the same as a GTX 260 and performs almost exactly the same, but has a smaller manufacturing process, more shaders, support for DX11 and, more importantly, the latest Shader Model. I've owned Sapphire cards for the past 4 years and have been very happy with them, so they're a good brand if you're getting a Radeon.

 

guys im no noob when it comes to this sort of thing. also ill be using this computer for linux once i get a new computer so that means it will have to have a nvidia card in it. my current card is junky right now as i get artifacts in a few games and i cant really set my mothertboard to anything lower then the max on the pci-e x16 slot speed int he bios. if i go with something lower windows bsod's on me. not sure if thats the motherboard or the graphics card. as of right now this computer is running windows xp and my current one will proably run windows 7. as for direct x i know theres not many that use directx10 and only a couple that use diredct x 11 right now sence its brand new tech. as for games ill be doing dragon age and mass effect anlong with some oldfer ones like oblivion and the infinity engine games. ive also got borderlands thats where i get the artifacts in game. im stuck using 800x600 in the newer games jhust to get playable speeds and sence my res is 1600x900 it streches the res and everything looks a bit wierd.

 

Any new or new-ish card will support the 1600x900. A bit of power in the card make the game run better and with more eye candy. The thing is that a cheap card of around 75$ is so far behind with the 5770 that the price perfomance ratio drops.

If you want a card to keep in the old setup with xp or linux you still need to decide if you want to game. What you can do is:

1:enjoy the 5770 now and when you buy your mext pc get a real cheap one for in the old machine.

2: keep some of your money in the bank and go for around 80-90$, game with it, and keep it in the old machine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500134

The 9600 gt will let you use more than enough eye candy in DAO, Oblivion and all the dx9 rpg that are released yesterday and today. In combination with your dual core 939 3800 the lifetime of that setup is still good for one or two years. Not great.

A bit on a side note, your amount of ram is low. ddr 400? If you keep the current pc working even after getting a new one, a little memory upgrade might be usefull.

 

yes it is ddr 400 and ive added a little bit of ram to it sence i got in in june 2006. it had 1024 mb ram when i got it added another 512 and a 256 stick to it sence. yeah i was told on another forum to go with a 9600 gt for this computer. i just need to save up for a new computer. hmm lets see i get around $40 a month so its going to take over a year to get the money for a new computer.

edit: the max amount of ram i can have is 4 gigs in this motherboard so going 64bit would be a little redundent when all ill use it for is a second computer for light gaming and checking email and testing out linux. ill be able to use all 4 gigs of ram with linux.

 

3 gig is more than enough for 32 bit. I suspect it has 4 dimm slots so 2x1 gig and 2x512 is fine. Just an other upgrade to keep in mind.

Beware of different 9600's get the GT.

 

the price for ram tho is insane for what i need. which would defvently put me over budget right now

 

What's this about "having" to use an Nvidia card with Linux? I thought this was no longer the case ages ago. When I got my previous PC back in 2005 I immediately installed Linux on it and ATI's drivers worked perfectly. OpenGL ran flawlessly in Linux, and I was using it for work at the time. Did ATI mess up the new Linux drivers, or did they stop supporting the OS again? That would be a very stupid decision on their part if they did.

 

people are still saying ati still doesnt show that much support to linux. and snece ive never had an ati card i cant really say if its still true or not. but ati is no longer supporting some older cards from a couple of years ago. my first addin graphics card was a nvidia fx5500 and that was on an old dell optiplex gx115 which i was using until i got my current rig. before that i was stuck using intergrated intel

 

http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/AMD-Provides-Legacy-Driver-for-Old-ATI-Cards I get your point, Topken. Well, I never used linux or have a graphics card older than 18 months, so there is nothing to say for me. Might be solved by now since it is an old article I posted.

I understand ATI. For the handfull of people still using old cards it is not justified to assign so much human resource to it. Perhaps for windows, not for Linux.

 

a 9600gt might be just what i need if my psu is up for it. someone said something about needing at least 26A on the 12V rail(s). not sure if this psu does or not.

 

26 Amps?!?!? LMFAO!

Heh, 26A would instantly fry any computer ever built...except for possibly a supercomputer (not the ASUS Supercomputer mobo... )

In short, someone told you wrong.

 

26 A for the 12 V rail is normal, but a 9600 GT would not require that much. They were probably talking about the combined amount for the whole system and not just the graphics card. But that seems too high for your system anyway. So it should be okay.

Edit:

I had a look at my 9800 GTX+ package. It recommends 400 W with 26 A on the 12 V line. Seems like this is a "foolproof" recommendation.

 

Most have more rails. Mine 4 (16A). Some brands make one very powerfull rail.

The card uses power in two ways. It takes juice from the motherboard and uses an extra connector. If your supply is fitted with a 6 pin pci-e cable, use that one. If it is not an adapter set is included with the card.

 

im proably going to need that adapter for it. right now im just waiting for my brother to take me to look at tvs so after that ill have a look at the graphics cards and pick one up if i have the money.

Edit: and this si what i was afraid off looks like im going to have to spend money out of my pocket for the new tv brother is going to give me 200 which isnt enough for a decent 26" lcd. so im going to have to postpone getting a new card for a few months. which stinks cuase ill be stucking running all my games at 80x600 just to get playavble speeds

 

The next nVidia generator oughta drop the price of the GTS250.

So you could get a better card for cheaper. Waitin' ain't always bad when it comes to parts.

 

hmm which is better the gt version or the gs version of a nvidia grahpics card?