New MPC video card sugestion

[lifeblood]

I have a PC in the living room with a AMD s939 3400+ X2 that us running Vista Home. It has a Geforce FX (PCI) as the video card. We use it for Media Center and games like Aion, Lego Star Wars, etc. It works ok but the video card is having a hard time on Aion. I wish to upgrade it to something more powerful. I need a DX 10 or higher PCIe card with s-video and DVI. I was looking at a 3650 but was wondering what the equivalent nvidia card is?

Any suggestions?

 

[BernardP]

Since you have Win 7, it's worth waiting one or two months to get a new low end ATI DirectX 11 card in the 56XX Series. If you want to buy now, you will have to settle for a DirectX 10/10.1 card.

The NVidia 9500GT DDR3 would be a good choice if you could find one at a bargain price, but almost all the 9500GT's remaining are the slower DDR2 version. The only one I can find is this XFX, but it's not a bargain:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-459-_-Product

If you want Nvidia, you would be much better with a newer GT220 DDR3. I like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-295-_-Product

Going with ATI, there is the HD 4650 DDR3, faster than 9500GT and a bit slower than GT220. This one maybe?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-313-_-Product

Undoubtedly, the best bang for the buck is the ATI HD4670 DDR3. There is a nice selection, depending on your taste for Mail-In Rebates:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...+pci&x=17&y=29