Replacing my dad's 8800GT with ATI/AMD

My father has a quad core machine with 3 gigs of RAM, Vista, and an 8800GT that is starting to die. He wants to replace it with an ATI/AMD card since he's had some issues with NVIDIA drivers in the past.

The PC has a 425W power supply. Is there something from AMD that is at least as good as the 8800GT but won't require a larger power supply? I don't live in the same state as him so replacing the card is about as much as I'm willing to talk him through. Replacing the PSU would require my driving there.

His primary app is Half Life 2 Deathmatch. He's in his 70s but he spends hours playing against people from all over the world. I checked Steam and he has almost 1,000 put in on it!

Thanks

As long as it is a good quality 425w power supply, it should be able to handle an ATI 5770 or if you want to stay with nvidia a GTS 450. Either would be an upgrade from a 8800GT

Radeon HD 6850

HohnyF said:

Radeon HD 6850

Click to expand...

I agree an HD 6850 would be better then what I suggested above. I thought they used more power but it appears not. If you can afford an HD 6850 go for it.

Yeah 6850 for AMD and the soon to be released 550 for nvidia, but the 6850 is probably better.

HD6850 uses a similar amount to the 8800GT, 130W versus 110W. If you need something that does not use an ounce more, go with an HD5770 as that's about identical in terms of power consumption.

Thanks for all the info. I think I'm going to go with the 5770 since XFX makes a single slot version and I want installation to be as easy as possible for him since the old card is also single slot. If he has issues I'll have to take another road trip to help him out.