For a low-budget card he'll benefit nicely from the 8600 GT, but if high-end is the way to go, then I suggest the 640 MB 8800 GTS.

And about those physics cards, the sooner they die out, the better. The PC does not need more unnecessary complications. Today's processors are more than able to power a superb physics engine along with the rest of the work.

What people should be doing is reduce the amount of hardware as much as possible, one processor to handle all the work (graphics, mathematics, rendering, etc.) would be awesome.

By the way, this is EXACTLY the reason I need a new GPU:
[br][img width=698 height=404]../../files/public/1191562870_30_FT43196_google_earth_noo.jpg[/img]
A twisted warped image of Northern Australia on Google Earth. I highly suspect that my GPU has gone too far into OWMS (Overheat Warped Mesh syndrome). I don't think it can be saved at this point.

BTW, if 8600 GT is PCi, I think I have AGP. So that's another good prospect gone if it is.

EDIT: I got some specs from the 7800 GS (The one I'm gonna get):
16 pixel processors
6 vertex processors
Bus-width: 256 bit
Memory Type: GDDR3
Memory Size/Whatever: 256 MB
GPU Speed: 375 MHz
RAM Speed: 1200 MHz

Can anyone help me compare this to my old GPU, the X800 GTO? I want to see how much of a difference I will get.

Lastly, how do I uninstall a GPU, take it out, plug in my new one, and install it? Never replaced GPUs before (Only computers as a whole.)

It seems that I actually have a PCI-E slot. Sorry for necroposting, but I just want to ask: Is the 8600 GT good? My budget is now a lot lower due to the mistake of buying an AGP card which my PC does not support. I'm going to return it, but I want to be more on the safe side now.

First of all, is the 8600 GT WinXP compatible? It says it supports SLI and DX10, but I don't know if that'll work with my computer, since from what I've heard DX10 is Vista only (or maybe that's not true). Secondly, can it compete with modern games well? Those are the only two things I'm looking at right now, since its $119.99 on Amazon.

I have to figure this out. Can't afford to make another mistake .

Yeah, should be, just that the 8400 sucks alot.

There's that new 8800 GT card that everyone's talking about. Apparently it's $400 performance in a $250 package. Runs the UT3 demo at its highest settings at high resolutions with good framerates. Runs rather hot though.

Yeah, heard of it. I dunno if he should get it, its that it runs quite hot thats getting me worried over it.

You could buy a more powerful fan for it and still pay less than you would for an 8800 GTX.

Running quite hot is not a concern, these things can cope with temps over 100°C before physical damage starts showing up.

And as Kaboodles said, buy cooling fans. Nothing is stopping anyone from that.

i wonder if its bout time i buy a new heatsink for my old dying prosesor :\,hey maybe thats the reason its dying caues its overheating from playing other games like warrock and last chuas luckly i dont play those anymore caues they run like crap.

and it isnt easy to replace the prossesor i have now bacaues its so dang old(penteum 2 ) but maybe a penteum 3 would fit,i hope

Yeah,cept more fans means a louder noise (even noise reducing cases can't stop it all).

Doh! Kylin you should have checked your motherboard first! We only assumed you have AGP because most X800's are but we needed you to confirm that. Nevermind, since you have PCI-e your options are much better now.

Take another look at the link I posted further up on this thread, it showed the 8600GT struggling with Oblivion on max. The 8600GTS did a little better but still bad. Truth be told the 8600 is simply bad, its is not a cheaper 8800, in fact its rather a more expensive X800 XT. But if you dont mind medium graphic settings then go ahead and get one.

Only the 8800, the X1900 and its relatives are really promising but understanding your budget you may just have to continue saving.

Dont worry about DirectX 10, the card just supports it but it does not need it. You will have no trouble running DX9 in Windows XP with a DX10 card



If you have a Slot 1 socket Pentium 2 then you should be able to fit a Pentium 3 with the same socket, but good luck finding such a processor. Its difficult even finding one of the early Pentium 4's.

You really are better off getting a Dell for $600 (and that says alot)

Eeeew, he said "Dell". If you get it, just don't forget that upgrading is not much of a possiblility. You can add/replace RAM, but Dell goes out of their way to ensure that nothing else can be replaced. For example, my dad's Dell's motherboard seemed to have the proper power pins, but he found several warnings online about how the pinouts are switched, so another power supply would fry the board. Also, the video card slot is backwards. However, it still is a good choice if you don't plan on uprading anything except RAM.

yay my dad got a new videocard. It's a good one, although not the best, it stays a good one.
Radeon X1900 series! It recommended Oblivion on Ultra High settings, and that goes smooth.

Sadly enough, I can't get all out of it, because of a crappy output (or is it called different? device which lets power in)

Dad says it costed somewhat 150 euros, but I think it could've costed a bit more.

Maybe that's something for you, if the price is truely that low.

I know, I was just making a point. Its alot better getting a cheap, crud yet modern PC rather than waste your time upgrading a legacy PC with a legacy PC.

You video card slot is not backwards BTW, it would have been simply APG x4 (the more common AGP x8 is the other way around to prevent compatability issues)

But I do have my nightmares about Dells blind eye to upgrading; my dad had a dell with NO APG slot. Dell expected us to stick with integrated. Oh how painful it was to find a PCI card to run UT2004.

I think Dell have gotten better lately on the other hand.

And Bulska what is your power supply? You may not have enough power from the sounds of it.

That depends on how cheap fans you buy.

Do not take ATi. I've been having ATi cards for many years. All of them had one nasty thing in common - in every other game there were some ATi-specific incurable glitches. Ranging from screwed shadows in Battlefield game series to white screens every time you change cells in Morrowind. ATi engineers often fail to meet with some of the DX specifications due to their ambitions to make the fastest card, no wonder there's hardly a game that doesn't have an ATi-specific little glitch. Maybe Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is the only one that doesn't suffer from that. But wait, it always refused to launch windowed on my ATi cards and now I've got a GeForce and it runs the game windowed quite all right!

None of the driver updates ever helped me to do away with glitches.

Yeah the gt 8600 works with xp i have it and i can play crysis medium-high with middleish res and ut3 demo on high, high, high! but oh yeah my one is an enhanced version...

That explains a lot.

Yeah its the power supply...

Be carefull when buying some hardware, there are idiots out there making massive super cool expensive strong hardware which is useless for gaming and designed for 'office' stuff. Come on! A very slow computer can easily use Word can it not?

It is clearly stated when hardware has a certain purpose. If you read a description, there is no doubt the nVidia Quadro series are not designed with gaming in mind.

Games are not the only software that require monster hardware.

Project management tools, personal databases, server software, methodware, network application/user maintenance tools and especially graphic design editors can require some hefty system requirements despite being just "office stuff".

Visual Studio for example; a program I use to make windows applications needs at least a pentium 4 to get anything done in time.

I have a question. is the PowerColor Radeon 1950 PRO any good? because I may consider getting this graphics card over my EVGA 7300 GS

That card is a good one yes. It'll be miles faster than that 7300 GS.

good deal... I am going to get the POWERCOLOR RADEON 1950 PRO then... good I want to see my 7300 GS GET SLAUGHTERED BY the POWERCOLOR RADEON 1950 PRO

Your wish will be granted, assuming the card performs as it should.

don't get the 7300 GS by EVGA... the card sucks because I can turn down every little detail in my game and go to the lowest resolution with the latest and greatest drivers and games still lag horribly

It is quite obvious it sucks, nVidia's naming system works that way. 73 is low end, while 78 or 79 is high end. And 71 is crap-end.

lol Oh man thats just too funny... crap end... but yeah its true..

Okay, call me big suckage, but I got the 8600 GT (Godammnit for jumping to conclusions!). There are some pretty damn long waits between areas in Oblivion, though I have to say it works surprisingly well on Ultra-High.

You guys can keep discussing graphic cards here if you want. All I know is my problem is solved.