What card to buy for my rig?

[hippoking]

I REALLY need a new card for my gaming rig:

Athlon 2800+ XP
2x256MB RAM
PNY Fx5500 <-- Yes, ph33r my framerates...
80GB IDE Hard Drive

Yeah, it's not exactly the mother of all rigs, but it plays the games fine. Ish. I know I've only got 512MB RAM on there, and I could upgrade that to 1GB if people think it would give serious conceivable improvements in FPS.

However, I've been looking at benchmarks, and they all seem to be on 3400+ 64bits, and FX-55's. In short, I'm saying: what card should I buy for the rig to get optimum performance in games such as Doom3 and HL2?

Ive got a 19" flatscreen (), so I'm only interested in going into the realms of 1280x1024, but I would like to be able to put AA/AF on that, and high quality.

I've got a fair amount of money saved, and I'm looking at one of the x800 series. The standard x800 doesn't seem to be quite enough to give my system the kick it needs, so the XL/Pro/XT are what I'm looking for. I dont want to be flashing my bios and overclocking it AT ALL though, because I know people who've done that and fried cards, and unlocked broken pipelines, and artefacts all over the place, and... yeah.

I dont know if the money will stratch to an XT, but I'd like one. However, considering the relatively slow processor speed I've got, could you recommend me a good card to buy, considering that I'll be wanting to play HL2 at 1280 on Max, and pull a good 40fps average. I'm not one of the people that wants 75fps from their card, because 40 is absolutely fine for me, looking at the FPS counter I've got on HL2.

[gR3iF]

an x800se if you want to oc otherwise a 6600gt or for highend a 68gt

[Christer]

Yah, get a 6800GT and OC it. it will be just fine

[hippoking]

Would the extra 512MB of RAM be necessary for it? Oh, and would you all recommend nVidia over ATI Radeon cards? I had my eye on the x800 series because I was told they performed phenomenally in HL2.

[Christer]

I think everyone would recommend 1GB in any case, but whether its *necessary*or not....

BTW, my X800Pro flashed to XT specs is now for sale. It runs at 500/500 with 16 pipelines and gives me just under 12K in 3dmark03. It would come with a fitted ATI Silencer included but I guess it depends on whether you are in the UK....? If interested let me know. Its 4 months old by the way.

[gR3iF]

you dont need to have but for wow i would recommend at least 768 mb

[wtf8269]

Lol, my friend is still playing HL2 on a 2000+ XP, 512mb PC2700, and a ti4200. He says he'll upgrade at Christmas time, but I don't know if that means graphics card or not.

Anyway I would go with a x800 Pro VIVO and flash to 16pp, then overclock to your heart's content.

[intel igent]

well if youre card has been playing the games fine i would wait a couple months untill the new ati cards come out then get a x850 series but in the meantime i would upgrade the ram. also if youre going to get any of these new cards ati/nvidia make sure you have a sufficient powersupply.

also if you get ati x800/x850 get at least an xt (imo)

[Quan_Chi]

if ur poor get a 9550 but if u got sum cash get a 6800 but if ur uber loaded get a x800XT or sumting

[Polaris573]

Don't get a 9550 unless you're really low on money. These days you can get a 9800pro for around 120 USD.

[Thermopylae_480]

Wait untill September or even november if you want an X800 or 6800. By then you should see some nice price drops on these cards since both Nvidia and ATI are releasing a new line of cards.

Until then, just pick up another 512 of RAM. That should help you some.

[Quan_Chi]

yeah like i said Poor (as in me)

[Baum]

Might be useful to post a range of prices (no matter in USD or €),
would get an 9800 or an x800xyz depens on your affordable money