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choosing a graphics card

O

Oalet

Junior Member
Hi, hoping I'm able to delay the inevitable and upgrade my PC so that it'll last about a year longer (wishful thinking). I'd be upgrading to play some newer generation MMOs such as Age of Conan/Warhammer. I'll be playing at 1280x1024 and would like to average about 30-40 fps on ~medium settings. One of my concerins is buying one that will be bottlenecked by my other old parts. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a graphics card that fits my needs?

Here are my current specs:
Dell XPS 400 (Dimension 9150)
P4 3.2 GHz HT
2 GB RAM
GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB
375W PSU

I'm sorry I can't give too much details about my specs because I'm at school right now. Unfortunately, upgrading the PSU isn't really an option for me as its a Dell. I've heard a lot of people running 8800 GT on their 9150s though. Would this be a good option for my situation? Thanks.
 
If the PSU can handle it, the 8800gt would be excellent for you. At that res you would get very high settings on games like AoC and pretty much every other game that's out at the moment, sans Crysis. I would check the specs of the PSU rails and such, though, to be sure. If you're cutting it too close for your comfort, the 9600gt would certainly also be adequate for your requirements.
 
Radeon 3850 has very low power requirements but is a fast card. Also has a very low price. I'd recommend that one.
 
8800gt will bottle neck. Same with the 3850. You're probably better off getting a 7600GT or 8600GT (I have the 8800GT, 3850, and 7600GT cards and ran CS:S stress test will all 3 on 3 different machines)

Here are the specs Specs: (1600x1050 res)
AMD 64 3400
AMD 64 X2 4600
AMD 64 X2 4800

The 8800GT and 3850 bottle necked on the AMD 64 3400 giving me the virtually same stress test results for for all three cards (Around 100fps)
With the AMDX2 4800 the FPS jumped to around 160 fps with the 8800GT


 
Thanks for all the input guys. I just have one last question, which manufacturers are favored among nvidia cards? And any ones I should definitely stay away from?
 
EVGA, XFX, MSI, and BFG are all good to look at. EVGA, XFX, and BFG have lifetime warranties, while EVGA and XFX allow overclocking and cooler swaps on their graphics cards. MSI cards are usually ridiculously OCed already and some have better-than-stock coolers.
 
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