Suggestions and Recommendations

[Stoke]

Little Stokey needs a new high end video card for gaming purposes.

Machine is a Dell 8400 - P4 3.4 ghz w/ 1 gb Ram

Discuss.....

[RagingSamster]

How much moola?
What flavor (ATI or Nvidia)
PCI or AGP?


If you are going Nvidia I'd suggest BFG or eVGA as their warranties are awesome
I'm looking at the eVGA 7800 GT CO - I don't want to pay for the extra $$$ for the GTX card, but if you want reasonable ATI power on a budget ATI has clearance refurb X800pros for 179.00 12 pipes at that price aint bad.

/edit

I'm hoping to slam together a new system in about two-three weeks. I played the HL2 Lost Coast HDR preview and my 9700ProAIW puked when I tried 1600X1200 with 2X ani and anti (can you say powerpoint presentation with artifacts?) It stayed aroun 3 - 10 FPS the whole time. the artifacting carried over past a soft reboot!

I'm looking for something a bit smaller yet more powerful - Mwave is gonna love me

Shuttle SN25P
AThlon 64 3800X2
*2GB PC3200
eVGA 7800GT CO
*120GB WD 8Mcache
*8X DVDRW +/-
Happauge USB2 WinTV
Generic USB G wireless adapter

*stuff I have currently

I'm getting Paul a new HD mobo and vid card (if the ATI refurbs are available he wants one) and gettin my wife a 19" LCD (I get her 19" monitor - w00t! d00l monitorz!)

[Muzo]

Welp I would say go ATI most games now a days are DirectX games and generally speaking ATI always performs slightly better than NV when DX is concerned. That being said the 3 to 4 FPS you might lose going with NV will not be noticeable so honestly either camp will do you good. Get the Best card out there and you won’t have to upgrade for a while. Anything X800+ for ATI will be good, I think ATI is doing the whole X1800 new card thing now. Haven’t read any reviews but I’m sure they are just as good if not better than the current cards.