Graphics card? suggestions

[mickyperice]

Hi all , im looking to renew my ancient graphics card to something decent.
i have a amd 2500+ with a k7n2 board , im looking for something that will be able to be good enough for games such as day of defeat source e.t.c
any suggestions ???
forgot to mention i already have an ge force fx5200 which is poo

[Cobra]

How much are you looking to spend?

[yoda313]

If your board supports it go for a pci-e card. Otherwise set your budget and get a decent ati agp card (the x series is the latest I believe).

[Cobra]

Not sure which would be better between ATI and nVidia, although I have tried to use a few ATI cards and they've been pretty buggy compared to the nVidia ones which just seem to work. Maybe I've just been unlucky.

I'd imagine that they would be very evenly-matched, though. Depends what fits your budget!

[ROF]

With the 128MB or 256MB GEForce 5200 PCI card you've pretty much maxed out your options. My suggestion is to save your money and buy a decent motherboard and processor that has either AGP or PCI Express Ports. I wouldn't waste $100 or even less on another graphics board. You're better off upgrading different parts of your system and then think about adding a bigger pipeline board. The MSI board you have doesn't even support AGP. If the 5200 is not performing the way you want I recommend getting a Motherboard that expands your options in 21st century graphics technology.

[Cobra]

With the 128MB or 256MB GEForce 5200 PCI card you've pretty much maxed out your options. My suggestion is to save your money and buy a decent motherboard and processor that has either AGP or PCI Express Ports. I wouldn't waste $100 or even less on another graphics board. You're better off upgrading different parts of your system and then think about adding a bigger pipeline board. The MSI board you have doesn't even support AGP. If the 5200 is not performing the way you want I recommend getting a Motherboard that expands your options in 21st century graphics technology.

I disagree - all the MSI K7N2 motherboards support AGP:

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_list.php?kind=1&CHIP=4&NAME=Socket%20A%20( AMD%20K7)

You've still got quite a nippy processor there, and the nForce 2 motherboards are very quick. It's not fantastic for gaming, but you would certainly benefit from an upgrade. The FX5200 is an exceedingly slow card. A GeForce 6600 or 6800 may be a little overkill for your setup (as in, the CPU may very occasionally bottleneck performance) but should you upgrade your motherboard and processor at a later date you could always take the graphics card with you. That is assuming you don't want bleeding-edge graphics when you upgrade, and you don't mind going for an older-model non-SLi AGP board (and they may become rare).

If you are on a budget and need more performance, look into an FX5900. If you don't mind spending money on a card now, look at a 6600. If money is no object, upgrade to an nForce 4 SLi motherboard and get a PCI-X 6600 or 6800.

I'd go for a decent GeForce or ATI AGP card just now. The XP2500 is still very capable. Have you thought about overclocking it? You can often give your machine a new lease of life, and provided you are gentle with it and think everything through beforehand it is relatively low-risk. I've been doing it for years.

Cobra

[mickyperice]

Nice one peeps, thanks for the advice, cheers cobra i think the 5900 or the 6600 is wot i gonna get , thanks again

[Cobra]

If I were you, I'd go for the 6600 if at all possible. It is a major improvement upon the 5900.

(I own a 5900 - if you want to know anything about it just give me a shout and I'll do my best)

[pfh]

Have to agree with Cobra. Plus if you stick with Nvidia you won't need to change out your drivers.