Pick me a new Graphics Card

[Dracula]

Well Im willing to spend up to like 180ish on a new card and was wonder whats the best I can get? [wayyyy to lazy to find out for myself].

 

Specs:

 

System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT

Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz

Memory: 2046MB RAM

 

 

Note: If the card requries I get something new [processor ect] that will not be counted into the cost.

[Maniac]

Geforce 9800 for price range.

[b0red]

Geforce 9800 for price range.

 

Just bought one and they are cheap and run everything.

[tinkerbell]

Just bought one and they are cheap and run everything.

agreed if you plan to run dx9 games for the next 3 yesrs

[Coffee Crisp]

Seeing how it's a OEM HP Desktop you most likely won't have any headroom for any Geforce 2xx's. Possibly some earlier models of Radeon 4xxx would probably be good. The only worry is the Power Supply. Seeing how it's a prebuilt computer and you're running a AMD CPU you most likely have a

 

So my best guess is a GT9600 or GT 9800 or Radeon 4650, 4670, or 4770. Depends on how much you're willing to spend.

[Phonicz]

yeah there good that should do it

[Ultramarine]

This: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261053

 

Or

 

This: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161310

 

Or

 

This: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102852

 

Here's a Benchmark from toms

 

 

The 4890 performs better then the other cards i listed, so i'd recommend that card. Get the HD 5770 if you'd rather have a DX11 card now (Should wait for Nvidia to release their cards in early 2010, then all cards will go down in price). If you prefer Nvidia cards, then go for the GTX 260.

 

Any of the 3 cards will give you a massive performance boost over that 8500 GT.

 

But, before you go buying, What's your PSU?

[Dracula]

That last card you posted looks awsome, just to clarify will I need to upgrade anything else for it?

[PotshotPolka]

That last card you posted looks awsome, just to clarify will I need to upgrade anything else for it?

 

Check to make sure you have two PCIE six slot cables to plug into the card, and that your PSU can handle the new card.

[Coffee Crisp]

What Potshot said plus you need a little headroom. My 4890 left only about 0.5 inches space between the 2x6 pins and the hard drive bay. On a side note your proccesor will most likely bottleneck your video card. Maybe a upgrade to a Athlon x4 is in place? Really depends on the CPU Socket you have though.