Help me choose a good video card!!!!

[pica]

Hi

I am new to this great forum. I am looking for the best video card ever. Money is no problem......My pc:

Dell Dimension 8300
Win XP
Memory: 1 GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
Video card: 128 MB DDR GeForce FX 5200 Graphics card with TV-Out and DVI
Hard drive: 40GB

So i guess i should stick with the nVidia NV34 (what i have now but in 256 MB) or go up higher e.g NV31???what to do?? like i said , money is no problem...

thanks

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

So you want to upgrade your current videocard?

Upgrading to 256mb is not going to get you anything. Upgrading system ram from 128 to 256 is a big jump, but doubling the memory on a videocard often gets you very little performance gain. It's more about the speed of the memory, speed of the GPU and overall architecture.

I think we'd be able to give you better input if you just gave us a number to work with.... $75, $100, $200?

When you say money is no problem, some people are getting two $400 videocards for a single computer now...

And are you upgrading because you're trying to play some games and not getting the performance you want?

Do you know what your processor is? Pentium4? Celeron? speed in Ghz?

 

[Machine350]

6800GT.

 

[razor2025]

I suspect that your 8300 is AGP system, so you'll be limited to AGP cards. If money isn't any problem, you can either get

6800 Ultra for about $400-500, or X850XT/ XTPE for $500+. Both are AGP cards and both are top-of-the-line. X850XTPE will edge out 6800 Ultra in almost all games except Doom3 though.

However, if you tell us what CPU you're running, we might be able to give you a better system-upgrade suggestion. A video card is always restricted by how many polygons the CPU can push through.

 

[Fenuxx]

Originally posted by: pica
So i guess i should stick with the nVidia NV34 (what i have now but in 256 MB) or go up higher e.g NV31???what to do?? like i said , money is no problem...

Why would you want to stick with an FX5200 (up to 256MB) or get an FX5600 (NV31)? Those cards are both outdated, and they will blow chunks in all of the more recent games. Get a 6800GT\Ultra or an X800Pro\XT\XT-PE if money is "no object". If you only want to spend about $200, then pick up a 6600GT.

 

[imverygifted]

6800GT

 

[Munky]

Hey, before you jump on the 6800gt bandwagon, make sure you've got a quality power supply. Seeing how you got a dell pc, I'm not so sure that you do.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Note that the nVidia FX 5xxxx series of cards should be avoided because they have an inferior (graphics processing) design compared to the ATI Radeon cards at that price point.

For...

$65 consider a Radeon 9550
$100 consider a Radeon 9600 Pro
$120 consider an nVidia 6200
$140 consider an nVidia 6600
$195 consider an nVidia 6600gt

Be sure to compare the prices at a number of sites. Generally, NewEgg.com and ZipZoomFly.com have the lowest prices. You might also check GameVE.com (which may have a questionable reputation around here), eWiz.com, Monarch.com, and ChiefValue.com (NewEgg's sister site, sometimes with free shipping and slightly lower prices than NewEgg itself, sometimes higher).

 

[pica]

Originally posted by: munky
Hey, before you jump on the 6800gt bandwagon, make sure you've got a quality power supply. Seeing how you got a dell pc, I'm not so sure that you do.

Sorry guys, i was very busy......But still need your help:

Pentium 4 CPU 2.8Ghz
4 GB RAM

This is my job's PC and used it mostly for solid modeling and FEA applications. If you are unaware of these programs, Pro/E is sort of AutoCad and Ansys is used to predict failure stresses of parts. The latter is a memory consumer, reason i upgraded the RAM memory to its limit. Need better resolution when viewing ANSYS stress, strain, displacement plots,curves,etc You know, the plots are very colorful showing red as the max stress (like a red light) and blue as the min failure stresses..
Now, how do i find out about the quality of my power supply?? and also what will be a good video card choice.
Of course, if a cheaper, reliable card will do fine. No need to look further, right......I hear that going after 256 MB video memory is useless...Should i check the video card recomendations (min req,etc) with the company's softwares, e.g. PTC (Pro/e, etc)?

thanks in advance, you guys are fast and great......

 

[imported_Kensai]

If that program is like AutoCad, I'd go with one of nVidia's Quadro or ATI's FireGL series, because they've been optimized for the workstation environement. (I'd personally go with the nVidia Quadro FX 4400 in SLI mode, if I could afford it...)

 

[RussianSensation]

6800GT for $340, overclock it to Ultra speeds.

X800xt cards are slightly better but definately not worth $100+ premium.