Video Card recommendations

Von Drunky

Von Drunky

Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
Heres my general information, im not too tech savvy so im not sure if im omitting anything. here it goes:

System Xp home edition

Dell Dimension DXP061 2cpu
6300 @ 1.86GHz
1.86 GHz, 2.5 GB of RAM

two monitors one LCD flat screen which is primary and the other one is old (Before LCDs we use to call them monitors) that i just use when the i need extra space for my research or porn.


The current card I have is NVDIA GeForce 7300 LE I could play Bioshock on the low quality/resolution which still looks great but I don't think it will handle new games like GTA IV when it comes out for the computer and w/e comes after.

I'm trying to find something reasonable thats not too expensive and will hold me over for the next 4-5 years.

I'm currently looking at

1GB nVidia Geforce 8500GT PCI-E Video Graphics Card on Ebay for $87.99 + Shipping USD.

Should I get it?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
 
Von Drunky said:
Heres my general information, im not too tech savvy so im not sure if im omitting anything. here it goes:

System Xp home edition

Dell Dimension DXP061 2cpu
6300 @ 1.86GHz
1.86 GHz, 2.5 GB of RAM

two monitors one LCD flat screen which is primary and the other one is old (Before LCDs we use to call them monitors) that i just use when the i need extra space for my research or porn.


The current card I have is NVDIA GeForce 7300 LE I could play Bioshock on the low quality/resolution which still looks great but I don't think it will handle new games like GTA IV when it comes out for the computer and w/e comes after.

I'm trying to find something reasonable thats not too expensive and will hold me over for the next 4-5 years.

I'm currently looking at

1GB nVidia Geforce 8500GT PCI-E Video Graphics Card on Ebay for $87.99 + Shipping USD.

Should I get it?
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Click to expand...

First: What is your computer's primary function? Are you going to be gaming on this thing alot, are you interested in playing most new PC games? etc.

Though, a 1GB card for that price IS pretty good..I think. I haven't shopped for PC parts in like 6 years.
 
I pretty much use my PC for research, gaming, and a bit of photoshoping. I don't really play new games because most of them don't interest me but i'm really looking forward to FO3(oct) and GTA IV (my guess sometime next summer) so i want those to run smoothly. So my new card definitely has to rival a PS3 or an Xbox360.
 
First: Dell = Garbage for upgrading.

But that aside I assume you are doing a patch-job until you can get a real PC.

Make sure you get the right type of card, right now GPUs are in the last stages of transition from AGP to PCIX16 slots, if you got a 1.8 Duo you might be running an AGP (Not likely but possible) machine instead of a PCIX16 slot.

If it's an AGP slot, consider upgrading the whole shebang, because if you break the piggy bank for an AGP card then find you want to plug it into a new machine because it's still good you'll be outta luck.

I would suggest you also look into dual carding with your existing NVIDIA, check to see if your card supports SLI (Known as crossfire to the ATI blokes) and if so it will make a world of difference with your secondary card.
 
Mord_Sith said:
First: Dell = Garbage for upgrading.

But that aside I assume you are doing a patch-job until you can get a real PC.

Make sure you get the right type of card, right now GPUs are in the last stages of transition from AGP to PCIX16 slots, if you got a 1.8 Duo you might be running an AGP (Not likely but possible) machine instead of a PCIX16 slot.

If it's an AGP slot, consider upgrading the whole shebang, because if you break the piggy bank for an AGP card then find you want to plug it into a new machine because it's still good you'll be outta luck.

I would suggest you also look into dual carding with your existing NVIDIA, check to see if your card supports SLI (Known as crossfire to the ATI blokes) and if so it will make a world of difference with your secondary card.
Click to expand...

Von Drunky said:
im not too tech savvy
Click to expand...

Can someone please dumb this down for me?

I doubt i'll be getting a new machine anytime soon I had my last computer for about 6 years it started out as a compaq and turned into a Frankenstein.

The card im looking at is Designed for PCI Express X16and for high-speed GDDR2 memory w/e that means.
 
If you can, check to see what type of card you have now.

You could list what model it is, hopefully that will help.

EDIT: you might be able to see what you have by right clicking, going to properties, then clicking on the last tab at the top (should be "settings")

Unfortunately, your comp is in that gray area where you could have AGP or PCIE.
 
PCI-E is longer and has a little tab thing at the back, if you were to look at it.
 
_NVPCX.JPG
 
Thanks for the screenshot verwandlung.

Now thats we cleared that up, the 1GB nVidia Geforce 8500GT PCI-E Video should work fine. The question is should i buy it or go for something else. I like this model because its only going to be a bit over 100 with the shipping. Than again i could wait a few months for something better to go down in price but i rather not because my semester is ending may 7th.
 
how are the prices for the ATI 3850 and 3870 in the US?

Edit:

After what I have read about the GT 8500 I wouldn't recommend you buying it, since I doubt you will get an significant increase in performance!

That 1gb is just for catching potential buyers. The card ist to slow to take any significant advantage out of this.

Although I understand that you don't want to spend much money, I would suggest you to invest 50-70 $ more and get an ATI 3870 or a Nvidia 9600.

Btw. I still have an ATI 9600pro :wink:
 
iii reminded me of another Nvidia problem: Power usage.

Nvidias usually need a higher powersource, and I wouldn't be surprised if newer ATI's had an increase in power consumption too.

I'm not totally sure on how to check your power supply box wattage through windows, but you should make sure you have the juice or your comp will get massive problems.
 
Can someone please dumb this down for me?
Click to expand...

Sure. Never buy a Dell computer again.

slyde said:
I'm not totally sure on how to check your power supply box wattage through windows, but you should make sure you have the juice or your comp will get massive problems.
Click to expand...

Uh.

Why would you, when you can unscrew the case and take a look at your power supply box sticker?
 
Drunky, knows a bit about unscrew but even more about screwing . But why would a fairly new desktop have a problem with power?

an extra investing an extra $70 is not going to make that much of a difference to me since this is something i'm going to be using for the next four years or w/e. Does anyone know if the Nvidia 9600 is going to go down in price soon?
 
Because new graphics cards take up a considerable amount of power...?
 
I've been looking at the 9600GT and it does not say anything about minimum power requirements. One thing i noticed is that if i get a 9600 (which i actually found for pretty cheap) or 9800 i would have to throw away my 2ndarily monitor because it wont support it. Then again that shit takes up way too much room on my desk so maybe its about time.
 
Nexus6 said:
Because new graphics cards take up a considerable amount of power...?
Click to expand...

They really don't. A decent 500w will do just fine for any non-sli setup.


I recommend avoiding the 9 series like the plague until the 9900s come out, since the 9800s and below are just rehashed g92 8800s.
 
Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude said:
Nexus6 said:
Because new graphics cards take up a considerable amount of power...?
Click to expand...

They really don't. A decent 500w will do just fine for any non-sli setup.


I recommend avoiding the 9 series like the plague until the 9900s come out, since the 9800s and below are just rehashed g92 8800s.
Click to expand...

Yeah you are right!

Drunky, check this out: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/25/graphzilla-prepping-early-g200

So the prices for older cards might go down in Juliy.
 
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