Help with picking new vid card

[dafoe]

I would really appreciate some help on this one.

I am putting together a new system:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor - Retail

4 GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz

Asus M3A78 Motherboard - AMD 770, Socket AM2+, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Serial ATA, RAID

Full specs here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4117141&sku=A455-2416

As you can tell, this isn't exactly a super computer, but it is an upgrade over my P4 POS
I want to be able to play some games, nothing major like Crysis. Some of the older stuff like Resident Evil 4 or even Madden 09, etc and play DVDs and Blu Ray discs

But as far as video cards go I am lost. The specs are gibberish to me. I have no idea why one card with 512 MB of ram is $50 and another is $200 I am just looking for something that will give me reasonable performance in the $100 range that can run smoothly in the new system.

Any card suggestions or ideas as to where I can get educated on the differences between cards would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[johns0]

For a decent $100 videocard get a geforce 9600gt or if you can find get a geforce 8800gt which is a little better.To get an idea about video cards look at this site.It will help you to understand that 512mb doesnt always mean a good gaming card.
http://users.erols.com/chare/video.htm

[edDV]

$99 short answer is a NVidia 9600GT.
See NewEgg http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%201305520548%20...ce%209600%20GT

With a bit of a stretch you can have a 9800GT.

I had a computer fail yesterday and spent 4PM-9PM tonight looking for a new MoBo/CPU+Display card.

Main Fry's (on sale) candidate is

GigaByteEP45-UD3P w/Intel Core2 Quad 8200 $250 w/4GB DDR2 1066MHz kit RAM ($49.99ar)

Then choice was display card

NVidia 9600GT ~$99 after rebate
NVidia 9800GT ~$122 after all rebate

Online may be better. Actually is... Newegg ~$12 less for 9800GT.

I have 15 days to return Fry's buys for something better. but am rushed.

[jagabo]

Or ATI 4850 for ~US$120.

general reference: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards,1.html

[dafoe]

I was going to go with the NVidia 9800GT, then I read that the ATI 4850 would be better because the Nvidia card could cause compatibility problems with the AMD chipset. I was reading so many contradictory opinions that I got overwhelmed.

So I decided to go with the NVidia 9800 GT- even though people say it's exactly the same card as the 8800. Whatever.

I do have two other questions. Which card manufacturer would you guys suggest? I was going to go with Zotac as it's only $99 But the others I've never heard of- Sparkle, EVGA, MSI. All foreign to me.

Secondly, I was going to keep my old case Then I remembered that I only have a 300W Power supply. Is that going to be enough to power this machine? If I can get away with it, I would like to- to keep costs down. But if i have to get anoither PS I would rather order it with the other stuff to save on shipping.

Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[jagabo]

user reviews: http://www.newegg.com/

Keep in mind that some users are clueless. Others have an agenda. But if you see something with lots of good reviews it's probably a good.

[edDV]

user reviews: http://www.newegg.com/

Keep in mind that some users are clueless. Others have an agenda. But if you see something with lots of good reviews it's probably a good.

The motherboard I chose was a 3x monthy winner of Newegg's Customer Choice Award - Intel Motherboards
There is a new version of the GA-EP45-UD3P for DDR3 memory. The DDR2 model is being discounted.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Descr...UD3P+&x=5&y=26

The ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe AM2+ seems to be the favorite for the AMD CPU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustVoteProductWinner.aspx

[edDV]

...

I do have two other questions. Which card manufacturer would you guys suggest? I was going to go with Zotac as it's only $99 But the others I've never heard of- Sparkle, EVGA, MSI. All foreign to me.

They are all using the same NVidia reference design. They seem to differ most for cooling hardware and overclock potential. Read the customer reviews. Customer support seems universally poor.

Secondly, I was going to keep my old case Then I remembered that I only have a 300W Power supply. Is that going to be enough to power this machine? If I can get away with it, I would like to- to keep costs down. But if i have to get anoither PS I would rather order it with the other stuff to save on shipping.

Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The 9600GT lists 350W min, 400W recommented. The 9800GT and ATI 4850 want 400W min, 500W recommended and both use special 6 pin power connectors (heavy +12vdc amps).

9800GT power connector (min 18amp +12vdc)

[greymalkin]

Noone has mentioned the sub-$100 ATI Radeon HD 4830. It's supposed to be the best bang for your buck right now.

[dafoe]

Ended up going with the Sparkle GEForce 9800 at newegg for just $89 I also picked up a 500w power supply. I've only dealt with Tiger Direct twice. The first time they shipped me a hard drive that was so poorly packed that by the time UPS was done with the box I was literally able to reach inside and pull the hard drive out. It worked, but still. The second time was when I ordered an ATX case. I was assured over the phone, before ordering, the the case PS had a secondary power supply for my P4 board. It didn't. So I called and they said they would replace it with one with a secondary power connector. They sent the same case! So I haven't dealt with them since. And I had to eat return shiping both times. That was 6-7 years ago.

Originally the plan was to split the order between Tiger and Newegg because of price. But I figured it would be easier to pay a few bucks more and order everything through newegg.

Thanks to everyone for the help. It really made a big difference in my decision making process. Otherwise I would probably still be doing "research" and feeling overwhelmed. And quite frankly I am quite tired of this POS P4. So the new hardware can't come soon enough.

I already have the hard drive, DVDRW and case. Assuming the rebates come through I spent around $302 for a brand new system. Not bad considering I sunk around $900 into building the P4. Well, 300 of that was the DVD Burner which was $100 under retail at the time.

So unless I buy a Blu Ray burner (I might) I think I am done buying tech for a while. Except for some external HDs.

Again, thanks for all the help.

[budz]

user reviews: http://www.newegg.com/

Keep in mind that some users are clueless. Others have an agenda. But if you see something with lots of good reviews it's probably a good.

The motherboard I chose was a 3x monthy winner of Newegg's Customer Choice Award - Intel Motherboards
There is a new version of the GA-EP45-UD3P for DDR3 memory. The DDR2 model is being discounted.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Descr...UD3P+&x=5&y=26

The UD3P is a excellent mobo as it has great features especially when it comes to overclocking cpu's. I got my Q9550 overclocked to 3.65ghz.