Upgrade my video card?

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adapa

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I've got a GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel mobo with a
EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Video Card. I've got a quad kentsfield processor & Carver black hdd.

my son is playing a lot of StarCraft2 on that rig & is complaining of lags. I'm assuming a upgrade of the video card would solve the problem. If so what would be a good upgrade? I'm looking for a good bang-for-buck upgrade.

I'm just not sure where my card falls in terms of speed compared to the current crop of cards
 
Solution
Are you an avid gamer as well? Or do you not game at all?

If not I think your suggestion is a great one. Even if you are a avid gamer you could give that card to your son and then upgrade to a better card for yourself.

Another option is to purchase a gtx 550 ti or a hd 6850, these can be typically had for roughly 120.00.

Black friday is coming up so your could probably find some good deals on a gpu.

5670 is a good card, in fact it is recommended by tomshardware as the best card under 100.00. The card will meet the demands of your son perfectly fine.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3067-2.html

I have more questions sorry that i forgot to ask.

What is your PSU?
What resolution is...

adapa

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the processor is
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core

I was hoping to pay under a hundred

My son is 12 so & has my old rig.

My other option is to take my card
a SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
and swap it out for his.
Obviously that is not the best solution.

Thank you both for replying! I'm going to look at those cards--

would a Radeon HD 5670 card be better then my son's old one (gforce 7900)
XFX HD-567X-ZNL3 Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
is the card i'm looking at it's $45 after rebate & shipping

perhaps I should have said, looking for a good value
my son will be in that computer for another couple of years & is a gamer
 

thesnappyfingers

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Are you an avid gamer as well? Or do you not game at all?

If not I think your suggestion is a great one. Even if you are a avid gamer you could give that card to your son and then upgrade to a better card for yourself.

Another option is to purchase a gtx 550 ti or a hd 6850, these can be typically had for roughly 120.00.

Black friday is coming up so your could probably find some good deals on a gpu.

5670 is a good card, in fact it is recommended by tomshardware as the best card under 100.00. The card will meet the demands of your son perfectly fine.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fastest-graphics-card-radeon-geforce,3067-2.html

I have more questions sorry that i forgot to ask.

What is your PSU?
What resolution is your monitor?
 
Solution
Starcraft, being a Blizzard title, performs a little better with nVidia cards. If you get an AMD card like a HD5670 though, get a DDR5 version, not DDR3.
You might find a 9600GT or 9800GT for cheap, or a GT240. They're not great by modern standards, but they're a lot stronger than the 7900GS. At the high end, a GTX550Ti would offer similar performance to your HD5770, but be sure the PSU is up to it; a decent 450W unit would suffice.
 

adapa

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I'm pretty sure my son's rig has a OCZ Fatal1ty 550W psu, i wouldn't go much smaller than that

I am not a gamer so swapping is an option.
I think, given my thin wallet, I'm gonna try swapping the cards & looking for Black friday deals. if I was a bit more flush, I'd be looking at the GIGABYTE GV-N550OC-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 for $110.

Thank you all for the great advice & giving me specific models to look for !

 
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