VideoCard Advice from experts

[NTJedi]

I have been busy with RL for the last two years and as a result lost focus on the stable and best deals for video cards..... so I'm asking the best experts to share their wisdom on the graphics card I should purchase.

THE SITUATION:
My motherboard is a GA-MA74GM-S2 and willing to update the BIOS if needed.
I'm willing to spend around $250.oo for a new card.


Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[{NG}Fidel]

6950 2Gig unlocked.

 

[XacTactX]

What resolution is your display?

What CPU do you have?

How many watts/model/volts amps LOL on the 12v rail does your PSU have?

Odds are, the cards you can get for ~$250 will be held back by your CPU. It is important to answer these questions.

 

[Axehandler]

As well as - Are you gaming with it? Just going to watch Movies? Desktop Use? - What kind of games?

Axe

 

[NTJedi]

What resolution is your display?

What CPU do you have?

How many watts/model/volts amps LOL on the 12v rail does your PSU have?

Odds are, the cards you can get for ~$250 will be held back by your CPU. It is important to answer these questions.

PowerSupply is KingWin 550Watts / 110 volts... default settings. It has SLI support, yet I would prefer one card. I don't remember the exact model.

OS Name Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional x64 Edition
Version 5.2.3790 Service Pack 2 Build 3790
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model GA-MA74GM-S2
System Type x64-based PC
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Processor AMD64 Family 15 Model 75 Stepping 2 AuthenticAMD ~2205 Mhz
Processor AMD64 Family 15 Model 75 Stepping 2 AuthenticAMD ~2205 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. F1, 4/17/2008
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory E:\WINDOWS
System Directory E:\WINDOWS\system32
Locale United States
Total Physical Memory 4,094.20 MB
Available Physical Memory 2.71 GB
Total Virtual Memory 5.75 GB
Available Virtual Memory 4.63 GB
Page File Space 2.00 GB
Page File E:\pagefile.sys

As well as - Are you gaming with it? Just going to watch Movies? Desktop Use? - What kind of games?

Axe

I primarily play RTS, RPG and TBS games then also watch movies. Some good RPG games will be arriving this year so I wanted to upgrade my ancient graphics card(7600GS_Nvidia).

I currently have my system dual booting with Windows2000, and WindowsXP_64bit yet soon plan to have it triple booting with Windows7_64bit. I need the older OS for some older games.

 

[kumquatsrus]

your mobo only supports one card anyway, so no worries about that.

what resolution is your monitor?

modern games, including rts and new rpgs like the upcoming es5 skyrim will be bottlenecked a lot by your cpu. if you don't upgrade your cpu, i would recommend no better than a 5670 for the price @ $63 (which will be at least 4x faster than your 7600gs):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131366

otherwise, i recommend upgrading your cpu to a phenom 2 x4 925 if your mobo supports it and overclock it as high as it can go (support page lists 920 and 940 only, but 925 might work):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103916

for around $250-300, you could get that cpu and buy a 6850, which will be a monster upgrade from your current setup (or a $50-60 cheaper 5830, which is slower than a 6850):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102878

otherwise you can wait till bulldozer and sell your whole setup to upgrade to a new cpu-mem-mobo-vidcard setup, but that will probably still cost a bit more, assuming your budget stays the same.

 

[NTJedi]

Looks like I plan to buy :
XFX HD-567X-ZNF3 Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Single Slot Fansink w/ HDMI & DisplayPort

I'm not finding any details regarding what operating systems are supported by this graphics card. I even went to the manufacturers website yet no details on the supported operating systems.