Looking for a new PC (gaming) graphics card

[drwex]

Let's assume I'm not going to replace my somewhat-aged Dell right this moment. Let's further assume that most of what I do on the PC is Photoshop and gaming, which are pretty graphics-intensive.

What graphics card should I be looking at?

Comments

[inahandbasket]

Photoshop isn't graphics intensive at all actually. It's very RAM intensive, but any graphics card is perfectly fine for its requirements. For graphics work your monitor quality is far more important than your video card.

As for bang-for-buck in the gaming arena, tom's hardware just updated their BfB article last week.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Best-Graphics-Card,2011.html
imho, the sweet spot right now is the Radeon HD 4850 for around $170.

[drwex]

At the moment I think I have a Radeon 9800 256MB card. So I'm looking at PCI cards and I'm confused.

Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Best-Graphics-Card,2011-2.html) says that the best card is a GeForce 8800 GT 512MB.

But when I google for that I get a wide variety of answers.
I can get "EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card" (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318) for $150

Or "PNY XLR8 Geforce 8800 GT 512mb pci express DVI/tv-out" for $120 (http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SkuSearch_v2.asp?SCriteria=4463237)

If I look for Nvidia I get "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT OC2 512MB PCI Express 2.0" but that costs $201. (http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=8204956&oext=1038A&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=8204956)

That's a wide range of prices, and I have no idea which one is the card referred to by Tom's Hardware. I currently plan to get this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133232 on the "it's cheap and free shipping anyway" theory.

[inahandbasket]

PCI != PCIe, they're totally different interfaces. A PCIe card will not work in a PCI slot.
Also IIRC, most 9800's were AGP...

What's the model of your Dell? That's the easiest way to figure it out.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Define "somewhat aged"... my own system does not have one of those newfangled PCI-express slots, and about two years ago I picked up an Nvidia 7800GS AGP, which has stood up fine to the RTS and MMO games I've tried. Admittedly, the most challenging thing I've thrown at it was Supreme Commander, but that got CPU-bound long before the GPU complained.

I've found the "Tom's Hardware" site to be useful for reviews.

Their latest "best cards for the money" article's AGP section: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Best-Graphics-Card,2011-5.html which suggests the Radeon HD 3850 512MB, at about $135, as the current and likely last best AGP card out there... which a quick googling around shows test results roughly 2x what I'm currently running. Huh. Pity what I really need is a faster socket 478 cpu. :/ Happy hunting, hope this helps.

[catya.livejournal.com]

i wonder if Dave ever returned the one we bought for my machine that made my machine sad? I'll ask him.

[shayde.livejournal.com]

I do, but wex, do you need PCI-express or AGP?

[drwex]

I'm not sure, nor honestly do I know how I'd tell that.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing for an older system you're running 2000 or XP.

Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> System Information.

Expand 'Components', and select 'Display'. In the information that comes up, the 'PNP Device ID' line should begin with either PCI\, AGP\. I don't think this differentiates between old PCI and newer PCIe, though. So, if PCI;

You said it's a Dell, so one thing you can do is get the service tag code off the sticker somewhere on the machine, and enter it here:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/product_support/product_support_central?c=us&l=en&s=gen

and then choose either Manuals, and look for the Quick Reference Guide with a diagram of your motherboard that hopefully indicates which slot the video card goes in and what kind it is, or select System Configuration Information, and hope you can decipher the inventory sheet for what video card it originally shipped with.

(I just did all this for someone else about a week ago, normally I'm not that knowledgable on Dell forensics.)

[drwex]

OK, it's PCI. I'm pretty sure it's new PCI so I'll start looking for that kind of card.