Graphics / Video Card- What should i get

[SteveW]

I cuurently have a Radeon 9200 128MB card.
I want to upgrade, what should i look for.
Prepared to spend up to $250.
Cheers

[Dissident]

Depends on what your motherboard supports??
AGP? AGP2x etc?
PCI Express ? (better one)

D

[SteveW]

i am pretty sure it supports PCI

[Psyber]

i am pretty sure it supports PCI

PCI is for add in accessory cards - not fast enough for video cards.
AGP goes 1x up to 8x with increasing speed.
PCIe 16x is faster again.
If you are nuts and rich and your mobo supports it you can run two video cards in parallel.

So, read your motherboard manual to find out what type of video slot it has then something like PC Authority or PC World for card reviews. Then get the fastest you can reasonable afford. Personally I prefer nVidia cards.

My older computer has AGP 8x, but newer machines like my latest tend to use PCIe - but remember that is vastly different from PCI.

[SteveW]

my current video card is 8XAGP

[Psyber]

my current video card is 8XAGP

See the satisfaction review January 07 PC Authority page 28.

Gainward, HIS, Asus, Leadtek, Sapphire, and XFX were hightly rated - Intel were not.
However, I tend to use MSI or XFX. My preference is for nVidia cards, but ATI's satisfaction rating were also quite high. Just get the highest speed and most RAM you can afford, but check what RAM it is - less DDR3 RAM is probably better then more DDR2. Check the specs on the maker's website.

[Psyber]

I just got a bargain on a PCIe Inno3D SLI ready nVidia 7600GTX with 256MB of DDR3 RAM and put it in this machine just now. It installed easily and seems to be running nicely with perceptible extra refresh speed. I'll pass the MSI 7600GS with 256MB of DDR2 on to my wifes's computer and either keep the XFX 6600GT out of hers as a spare or sell it.

I am not familiar with Inno3D, but they have had some recent good reviews and it had the DDR3 and a higher core speed than similar models from other companies so I thought I'd give it a go.