Graphic Card Reccomendation

[Jakemaster64]

Hello... i am looking for a good graphic card within a price range of... around 375... i could prob get a little higher but i am not sure... anyways my system specs are:
Manufacturer:
Compaq-Presario
Processor:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.8GHz
Memory:
1012MB RAM
Hard Drive:
310 GB
Video Card:
Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family
Monitor:
HP L1740 LCD Monitor
Operating System:
Windows Vista™ Home Premium

I have 4 gigs of ram to put in here soon enough.. and i got a better monitor i have to wait on as well.. not sure if this affects much but still ><

anyways.. i am looking for help for a good gaming card and any additional things... like the power thing for a card.. and just wondering how much of a gaming difference will a new card make?
my frames per second isn't bad but for Left 4 Dead 2 i get like 2 fps ><

Thank you very much =]

 

[hunter315]

What resolution will you be playing at? Without knowing your PSU i would suggest a 4670. If you are willing to upgrade your PSU to a good 550 then you can run just about any single GPU card in which case i would suggest something like a 5770, which will still cost you well under your budget even with the PSU.

PSU-$80-$10MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004&Tpk=550vx
GPU-$180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447&cm_re=5770-_-14-150-447-_-Product

I would definitely pay the $10 extra for the XFX warranty but if you want to save $10 you can
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102858&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-858-_-Product

 

[Jakemaster64]

umm... i am very bad with computer parts and such.... i mean i am just starting to learn about what is good for comp gamers ><
so from what i can tell a PSU is the thing u use to power the graphic card... is that correct?

and do you think i could manage a decent FPS for new games such as Left 4 Dead 2? decent meaning... 15-20 fps

thank you very much for the help so far =]

 

[hunter315]

The PSU is the power supply, it powers ALL of the components in your system, from your hard drive, to your motherboard, to you video card.

Decent fps is not 20, at about 30ish a FPS becomes manageable, but really you want better than 40 fps. I would guess that your CPU bottle neck will be slightly above 40 but probably not by too much, but you should be able to crank the settings up high before you hit a GPU bottleneck atleast. Consider dropping in a replacement CPU in the near future since you have a socket LGA 775 motherboard. Even something like this would raise your CPU bottleneck significantly, but find out what your motherboard is first and check for compatibility.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072

 

[Jakemaster64]

umm... i understood very little of that... like i said i am just learning computers ><

and for me 20 is playable... at least then i can shoot and react ><

i feel like an idiot but better ask... or i will prob make some mistake or something >< what is a CPU/GPU bottleneck? like a max speed?

and i will try to find out my motherboard here soon enough then try to find out what is compatible with it... but that looks like its in my budget with everything else.. i mean i had like 100 left over from what i wanted to spend on graphic card
thank you again.. you have no idea how much your helping me out =]

Edit: ok i just looked up my mother board details or... main board... not sure if that's any different... and i got info for it but no idea how to use it to find a compatible upgrade for it