Best video card for this system?

Question

How can one buy the best video card if the most expensive one bought today will cost more than a budget card bought today plus another budget card bought a year from now, and in the end will be a worse card than the budget one bought a year from now?
Anyway, while you're pondering at this question, here's my system:
Core 2 Duo e6400 2.13Ghz,
P5N-SLI motherboard,
1gb Kingston 667Mhz DDR2 RAM,
250GB WD SATAII 16mb.
To make it all work, I supplied it with eVGA Geforce 7300 GS 256mb as one of the cheapest video card solutions I could find (cost me around $80 +tax). Am I losing a lot of performance with this card? I was playing Half Life 2 for a while, and didn't really experience any problems yet was wondering if any of more recent games would be slow.

Another question - this 7300 GS has 2 other speeds onboard, something like 400 Mhz and 500 Mhz - not sure what are the numbers exactly. Do they mean anything at all? I know enough about computers to put my system together and figure out that 500Mhz is better than 400Mhz. However, given I'd spend $500 on a video card, instead of $80, would I get the same return? Basically, if if in HL2 I get on the average about 60 fps (with the top of 280 watching clear sky - all this on high settings), what fps would I get from one of those high-end video cards? Finally, what's the best video card for my system for under $150, if I don't plan to do much of extensive playing, and mostly need computer for general stuff plus some Photoshop? Thanks for taking time to read all this stuff.

Answer 1

this will easily run all the latest game on modest (low to medium) settings. Half life 2 is not such a high end game. when u get to FEAR or quake 4 you will still be fine.

the next generation of games such as battlefield 2142 should also work atleast on low settings. dont expect budget cards to last all that long. always try to go for the lower scale of a mid range graphics card. a 7600 gt would have cost you around 150 and would have lasted you far longer. it simply kicks butt....

but your theory is not faulty by any means. if it works for you it works for you. the end!

PS: I have an Acer aspire 5672 laptop. it has a core duo T2300 (1.67 GHz) with 2gb ram and a 120 gb 5400 rpm hard drive and an ATI x1400 graphics card (slightly better than your 7300 i believe). so youre set for gaming for about a year... yeah. good estimate on your part!

for your second question: 500 MHz might overclock it. it might shorten the life of your graphics card. and mihgt void the warranty. why would anyone pay 500 if theyr are getting neraly the same performance as with a 100 dollar card??

price does mean something. I find mid range graphics cards tob e the best value for money. around the 150 buck range u are talking abt (check out the 7600 gt). they cant exactly charge 20 bucks for a graphics card because there are some manufacturing costs associated with it and they want to leave a significant profit margin. profit isnt a percentage of cost in this case. on a 20 buck graphics card 10 percent profit means 2 dollars. they wont do that! And then they also want to cater to enthusiasts with those 500 buck cards who are just crazy about getting frame rates in the 200 to 300 fps region which makes no sense. as long as u are getting above 40 constantly or 60 on average ure good to go!!

Answer 2

i might decide for RAM on the 2d in the journey that your massive on gaming 512 in basic terms will no longer do it for you. The ram additionally will make your pc do each little thing else somewhat quicker too. I went from 512 to a million.5gb and that i ought to truly tell a distinction in velocity on all of the classes i ran ... in a while nonetheless you will ought to enhance you video card the a number of maximum modern video games require a gaggle of video memory

Answer 3

Actually, an X1650 Pro is a bit cheaper than a 7600GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Category=38&N=2010380048+1069609641+106790809+1067923258&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=48 Here's a link to some 7600GT's: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Category=38&N=2010380048+1069609641+1305520548+106790717+1067920131&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=48

Of course, in that price range, the 7600GT is the one to buy. If it's too expensive, the 7600GS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Category=38&N=2010380048+1069609641+1305520548+106790717+1067920619&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=48 and the X1650 Pro's are about equal in performance.

Answer 4

Go for GF7600GT or ATI 1950XT PRO both should cost around the same price