Whats the best graphics card for me.....

[Greenhorn Geek]

What is like the best Graphics card I can get for my computer??...Heres what I have

Hewlet Packard company
Compaq Presario
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+
2.20 GHz, 2.00 GB of Ram
Motherboard Info.-<snip>
Video Card- for more info <snip>
Radeon X700 series
Radeon X700 series secondary

[pricetech]

First of all, what do you plan to do with the computer ?? If you plan to game, that's one answer. If you plan to do video editing, that's another. If you're doing nothing special graphic / display wise, save yourself some money and just buy a cheap card, or use onboard video if the computer has it.

No I didn't check out the specs. The link doesn't point to them.

If you're going to put a link in a post, link something worthwhile, not some junk site.

[Greenhorn Geek]

Im sorry heres the links..

Motherboard: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00496280&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en
Graphics Card: http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx700/specs.html

I wanna use the graphics card to do rendering like 3D editing and such...maybe a little games here and there, to run smoothly. Other than that, just normal computing such as word, presentation, internet, etc.

[Kilz]

There is something else to consider in the purchase of a graphics card for that system. The power supply. Must higher performance cards today require a extra 6 pin plug off of the power supply and at least a 500-600 watt power supply. Most computers from the time when the 939 socket motherboards were used (this is what you have) came with a 250-450 watt supply.

[cascade9]

As per your requirement I would suggest worlds fastest card 8800GTX. After that i will suggest X1650XT.

Ummm...the 8800GTX is pretty old, very old in video card terms, and its a long way from the faastest card in the world.


There is something else to consider in the purchase of a graphics card for that system. The power supply. Must higher performance cards today require a extra 6 pin plug off of the power supply and at least a 500-600 watt power supply. Most computers from the time when the 939 socket motherboards were used (this is what you have) came with a 250-450 watt supply.

You can probably get away with less than 500-600watts with some of the gaming cards, but the top end cards really need that sort of power supply. You can also get molex to PCIe 6-pin adapters, but IMO if your power supply doesnt have a PCIe connector and you want to run a video card that needs it...get a new power supply.


Im sorry heres the links..

Motherboard: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00496280&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en
Graphics Card: http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx700/specs.html

I wanna use the graphics card to do rendering like 3D editing and such...maybe a little games here and there, to run smoothly. Other than that, just normal computing such as word, presentation, internet, etc.


Apart from the 'no drivers' issue with the X700, are (were) you fairly happy with that card?

If you were, dont bother with the 'best' video card you can put in your system. Apart from almost certainly needing a new power supply for the current top end gaming cards, they also put out a fair bit of heat (a huge amount in the case of the newest nVidia GTX4XX cards).

Probably your best choice would be a nVidia GT240, maybe a GTS250 or GTX260. I wouldnt even think about going past a GTX260 for a system that will only do some light gaming ;)

[Crafty Kisses]

Just whatever you do make sure you go with NVIDIA. I'd have to say their support for Linux is really good compared to ATI, in my experience at least. For the NVIDIA card itself, go with the GT 240, if you're just going to use it for word processing and what not, and you said to render some 3D stuff, then that should suit you for a long time.

[Greenhorn Geek]

Ok, Thanks guys for all your help Ill look into the Nvidia Gt240