The final piece, GPU

[ThePoliceAreOutside]

Hello everyone,

I've decided to get back into PC gaming and instead of upgrading almost every piece of hardware I have I decided to just get a new rig. Now let me begin my saying I'm a complete novice and I decided I would have my rig built by someone else in fear of myself breaking something, however I hope to slowly learn by upgrading each piece one at a time when the time comes of course..

Anyways my proposed system specs are

CASE: Apevia X-Telstar Junior 420W Case w/ Temp Display and Fan Control (G Type Black Color with Side-Window)

CPU: AMD Athlon™ X2 5000+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

MOTHERBOARD: Asus M2N SLI NVIDIA nForce 560 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA RAID PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, IEEE1394, USB2.0, &7.1Audio

MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (

HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)

SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

Now with all that I'm hoping someone could help me find a GPU that would compliment this system and fall under about 150 USD (Give or take 20/30 dollars depending on performance gain)

Thank you! I look forward to your replies and or advice

:toast:

[Kursah]

What resolutions do you plan on gaming at?

I would say ati side, HD4850...NV side, 9600GSO, 9600GT. I've seen some used 8800GTX's for around $140 shipped on [H], but they're power hogs, and that 420W PSU you'll be using I'm assuming in that Apevia case won't be up to par compared to some higher quality PSU's out there.

So I would probably push for the 4850 or 9600 for ya...both don't hog too much power.

What's your budget? There are some guys around here that take pride in getting the most bang for the buck and may be able to getcha setup with something a little better value-wise...but that'd also depend on if you are strict AMD, if you must have that case, etc. It looks like a decent build tho!

:toast:

[ThePoliceAreOutside]

My resolution would be, I believe 1440x900 I believe (I'm overseas and cannot remeber exactly what it is)

I was actually looking at the 9600GT (I would rather have a Nvidia card since ATI has given me problems) and was quite keen on it but I had a couple friends telling me I'd be better off getting an 8800

My budget would be around 150USD but that can fluctuate a few bucks depending on the performance gain

[Damian^]

At that resolution my vote goes for the 4850, it basically rapes the 9600gt

[ThePoliceAreOutside]

Hm, is the performance between those two cards that big of a difference? I much rather stick to Nvidia

[Damian^]

Big enough to try ATI ;)
what's worrying you?

[ThePoliceAreOutside]

Earlier this year I decided to upgrade my old computers GPU and since it was an AGP motherboard I decided to go with ATI since there cards were quite a bit better then the Nvidia cards on Newegg and I had encountered a plethora of driver problems.

I don't know, that was my whole experience with ATI and to be honest it really just turned me off to the brand.

[Kursah]

I ran a 9600GT at that same res...ran great! I have the Palit Sonic version, great damn card, Oc'd quite well too! My G/F is using it now (see my sys specs for both rigs)...she's currently gaming in Oblivion, everything maxed 1600x1200 and it's nice n' smooth!

The 9600GSO is more powerful though, if you vmod and OC it (look in TPU's FAH thread, find DOM..his is GSO is insane!). The 4850 is a great card, I dislike the cooler on it though, they run warm, OC-ing is so-so atm, I've read of plenty of RMA and complaints too...which bummed me out. But they are still killer cards for sure!

You may find an 8800GT in that price-range too if you look hard enough, that card is a great performer for the money.

[Damian^]

Drivers are problems for every company could be your OS, or just that the AGP cards are out of date and not supported anymore.

The only problem you could have with a 4850 is the notorious heat that it produces. But you probably aren't going to find a card like it in it's price range.

a common 4850 will cost about $180 while its competitor the GTX 260 will cost around $270
Another great card is the 9800gtx if you really want to stick with nvidia its a close game sometimes the 4850 is above 10-20FPS and vice versa with the 9800gtx

[ShiBDiB]

get a 9800gtx, will run fine at 1440x900(what i run windows and crysis at)

and cases that come with psu's = a shitty psu 99% of the time