Finding the right graphics card.

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first dont be cheap 😗 the graphic card is the most important part nexted to the cpu
save up a little more go sell some coke bottles or something, is your mothers purse nearby lol (kidding)
get the best card you can get especially since its for gaming otherwise 4get enjoying the nice graphics that r out there today
if u cant then that card is... ok depending on which games !
ps it would help to know what cpu u have and memory
 
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sirkillalot is right. I made the huge mistake with buying my 9500gt. I read reviews on this very site and took it back the next day and 50 bucks more got me a oc gts250. Only problem is that its still not running as great. Think it my be the processor. I have no idea how to overclock my cpu so any tips would help me
 
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which cpu ??
info dude info 😗
 
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Logoboy, please ask your question in a new thread; I'm sure you'll get lots of good advice.
Death_relic, a lot depends on your resolution and the games you play, but $40 is indeed a very tight budget. Note that the card you've chosen requires a 6-pin PCIE power connector. What PSU (brand and model, or if generic, details from its label) do you have? If your resolution isn't too high (e.g. 1280x1024) and you don't use high settings on everything, that card should be able to play quite a few games reasonably well. There are two links to charts here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-chart-2009,2363.html.
 
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wow, those were fast repies, wasnt expecting so many replies so quickly.. this is kinda my first post here 😀.
any ways, im buying a graphics card and ram together. but there wasnt a category in which i could add both of them together. here are my specs.
psu: cooler master 500Watts
cpu: e5200
mb: asus p5kpl-vm
Current RAM: 1GB 🙁

any ways i intend to get 4gb ram (2x2), thtll cost about $50. i posted the ram suggestion thread here

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/263465-30-getting-price

my total budget is like $90.. but i guess i can stretch it to $100 max.. any ways.. ya so there u have it..
 
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pepperman
with that cpu, you want to spend more or you're going to cause a bottle neck.
I'd recommend an HD 4670 at the least (if you get the 4670, you also don't have to worry about upgrading your psu)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814125244
Click to expand...

so i checked out 4670's benchmarks at
http://xtreview.com/review229.htm
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3405&p=10
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

although the ones from anadtech and xtreview are of the 384mb card, there isnt a very significant quality difference between them, definately not worth twice the money.. like i plan on getting 4gb cl4 ram which costs like $50, i can instead get 2gb ram and a better graphics card, provided there is a significant difference in the performance..
 
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Depending on how long you want it to last you, you probably want to go with a full 4 GB.

The 9600 GSO your looking at (and unfortunately the only kind they sell anymore) has a 128 bit memory interface. If you could find a 9600 GSO with 384 MB RAM or 768 MB RAM and a 192 bit interface, that would be the card you saw in those benchmarks. The new dumbed-down version doesn't even compare since the memory bandwidth is reduced by 33%. The 8800/9800 GT would be a good choice, but they were out of stock. I originally recommended the 4670 because it doesn't require a 6 pin from the psu.

If you have a six pin or two, it doesn't really matter which graphics card you choose (in terms of compatibility) If you want to check, just open up your pc (when its unplugged) and look at the cables the come out of the psu; if on looks like the one in the link below, your good; if not, with the exception of upgrading your pc (or using an adapter if you have extra 4-pin molex connectors) the 4670 is the best you can get.
http://www.techaddicts.net/reviews/st60f/st60f.13.jpg

This is a good reference when finding out which card is better (again however, the 9600 GSO listed here is the old 192 bit edition)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2404-7.html

You could also look at the performance charts and find the games you plan on playing
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards,1.html
 
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The 3870 you used is actually just a tad faster than the 4670. Since you have a 6 pin, you could get any card that falls in your budget. If you're still short on cash, you should probably go with the 4670. If you have a bit more, you might want to go with a 4830, a 8800/9800 GT, or a 4770. (If you look at the prices versus the performance chart, you'll see that you start to pay a lot more for not much more performance)

You could go with a 4670 (link posted above)

I did find a 3870 on newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102719

Or you could go with a better card
4830
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102822

9800 GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150323

4770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102835

4850 (for some reason this is cheaper than the 4770, but it outperforms it)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102824

The 4870 is probably the best card you can get without your system severely bottle-necking your performance (you could overclock your cpu but that's up to you)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131140
 
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I have a friend who games on a 9600 GSO and he's fairly satisfied with it (he also got it in clearance). While it's not the best card on the market, you can definitely do a lot worse. I believe he had an ASUS as well. It all really depends on what games you run and the settings but he's fairly happy with hit (he runs a 19" on mostly med to high settings).

Judging by the set up you have maybe you might consider upgrading the RAM?
 
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