PCI-E Video Card Suggestions.

[Tippo]

I'm looking to purchase a new PCI-E video card that's the best bang for the buck. I know some people will tell me "8800, 8800!!" I'm definitely not looking to buy one. It has to be affordable since this PC is basically free, but I have to stay within limits. Now, the new motherboard I have is a Asus M2N-E-SLI. So it has SLI capabilities. Maybe I could go Dual and see if it beats out pricing of others. I just need ideas. Right now I took the only video card I had in stock, a POS 7100GS (I plan to dual it with SLI to see if it's a big difference, although I think it will turn no better since it already sucks.). I'm looking to order one and I'm thinking 7900GS. I haven't tested many video cards like I should have since I've had most in stock, so I was wondering what type of video cards you guys are playing CS:S with and how well it's been treating you. PCI-E is the only ones I really want to hear about. Any suggestions would be helpful and I'd appreciate any feedback on current video cards.

[Dr. Acula]

More bang for your buck don't work when you won't specify the buck. How much are you willing to spend?

[Torrin]

8800 is the only smart route to go. You can get into the lower end for $100 and it will out perform most 79xx series cards. I run an 8800GTS I picked up for $280 and it kicks the crap out of a 7900.

[Enlightened Viet]

$280? Did you amazingly find that at a flee market? Or was it newegg. I would save up a bit more for 280 but I don't think it'll fit into my motherboard/comp...dam emachines.

[Tippo]

My price range I say would be around $180.00 to MAYBE $200.00 if I push it. An 8800 for $280.00? Holy crap! Even my distributors probably can't nab one for that price for me. Anyways, any SLI configurations worth trying out? Say if I got two 7900 GS or GT, I wonder if it would match or outperform a 8800. Just throwing out ideas. :D

[Torrin]

My price range I say would be around $180.00 to MAYBE $200.00 if I push it. An 8800 for $280.00? Holy crap! Even my distributors probably can't nab one for that price for me. Anyways, any SLI configurations worth trying out? Say if I got two 7900 GS or GT, I wonder if it would match or outperform a 8800. Just throwing out ideas. :D

You can get an 8600 for a little over $100 bucks, it will not smoke a 7950, but it supports DX10 (I do not know if you are looking at XP or Vista)

[Tippo]

I ordered an 8600 GTS for "testing" for the company at the moment. The 8600 GT was $130, I said I could go a little higher so I decided to get the GTS for $170. I was asking about the 8800 my distributor told me $400, so I waved that off. It'd be nice but out of the price range. I'm still going to test the dual SLI with the 7100 GS (ew) see how that works. But thanks for recommending the 8600, I didn't even think of that. The 7900 GS was $10 cheaper, but looks as if the 8600 GTS would outperform it. I'll update on testing, since I know a few people might want to upgrade their video some time. :p Thanks Torrin.

[Torrin]

Not a problem. The 320MB 8800GTS is about $290 now days. I have an 8800 alert on fatwallet that finds me deals. I am in the market for an 8800GTX. ;)

[ThunderG0D]

I'd still say drop the extra $50 or so you can find the 640mb version for and you'll get a bigger bang when the games actually start consuming graphic memory well past 320mb

[Tippo]

I really have no option when it comes to pricing over $200. I wish I could even throw in some of my pocket money, but this isn't my home PC. I complained about my geforce 2 mx 400, athlon 2000+, 512MB ram, 40GB HDD PC at work. Finally they're upgrading and basically letting me choose what I can with an exceptional pricing range. I'm considering upgrading my home PC pretty soon, so if you happen to find an extra 8800 GTX you know where to go. :P Also I should be hooking up the SLI later today or tomorrow, I'll let you guys know how SLI performs. Although with these video cards in stock, I can't really say there's going to be a big difference. Oh, and I'm running XP. I'm going to hold off on the Vista for a little while. I'm a skeptic when it comes to new OS from Microsoft, I watched all the beginning stages of them tank until the updates came out. If anything I can use the VLK from the business.

[Dr. Acula]

8600 is no good. I think if you ran even two 7600 GTs in SLI you'll get good enough frames. If you're just trying to play CS:S than you'll be more than fine with one 7900. If you're going to play a new game, it takes a while for SLI support to come out after release.

[Torrin]

8600 is no good. I think if you ran even two 7600 GTs in SLI you'll get good enough frames. If you're just trying to play CS:S than you'll be more than fine with one 7900. If you're going to play a new game, it takes a while for SLI support to come out after release.

8600 is good, it will beat any 79xx series with the exception of a 7950, plus NVidia has added support for HD Playback, and DX10. I would not (and did not) buy a 79xx series card. If I were going last gen, I would go 7600-SLI first.

[Tippo]

Well, I ordered the 8600 GTS which has SLI support. So if anything I could order another in due time. The price is just about half, so I figure two cards vs. one. The good thing about one right now, is that later I could go dual with SLI. I might just order two 7600 too see how that works. Before I do so, I have to give a good reason for testing them. Anyways, my co-worker showed me some PC mark tests with these cards.

http://www.hwbot.org/quickSearch.do;jsessionid=9733709FB3974A03FFF888C4 AA6187F0?hardwareId=GPU_303

Just if anybody was interested. I'll let you know how to 8600 GTS works tomorrow. (When I should get it.) I still have yet to SLI two 7100 GS (I really don't want to, but for sakes I want to do it with tests.)

Acula, I'll take your thought into consideration. They might suck, but reviews stated they were alright, I'll let you know how it goes. I'm interested to see how capable these are in SLI.

[Torrin]

They have very simular results to what I have seen. The 8xxx series also kicks the crap out of everyone on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray play back. The 8600 kicks the crap out of the 8800 series, since the knobs at NVidia added the support after the 8800 series was completed. (Ultra might have it, but not GTS/GTX).

[Torrin]

I'd still say drop the extra $50 or so you can find the 640mb version for and you'll get a bigger bang when the games actually start consuming graphic memory well past 320mb

Good call, I bought the 640MB version, it was a great fatwallet deal a couple of months ago. Since AMD/ATI decided to be big pussies on the highend video card front, NVidia and their partners have been holding the prices on the higher end cards. I sure hope ATI does an Intel to Nvidia and kicks them in the butt. It is getting boring having NVidia completely own the video card market.

[Tippo]

I tested the SLI on dual 7100 GS. Lol. It hardly changes a thing on them cards. Now I'm skeptical on how much better it would make dual cards... Although these cards are just about bottom of the line. I might run some PC mark tests to see how much improvement occurred.

[Dr. Acula]

I maintain the 8600 sucks. So what if it runs dx10? Anything in the future that will run dx10 the card won't run anyway.

[Torrin]

I maintain the 8600 sucks. So what if it runs dx10? Anything in the future that will run dx10 the card won't run anyway.

I will be playing Crysys (sp?) soon. Apparently the DX10 rocks and there is talk about porting it back to XP.

[Dr. Acula]

I will be playing Crysys (sp?) soon. Apparently the DX10 rocks and there is talk about porting it back to XP.

A game newer than F.E.A.R. eh? Good luck.

[Tippo]

Soon I'll let you know how the 8600 GTS handles, hate it or not, you'll know. I have a few games lined up for it, including F.E.A.R. I want to run some RTS also, like Warhammer 40k, Warcraft 3 with all the expansions (I can't wait for Starcraft 2), FPS games like our lovely CS:S, F.E.A.R., Doom 3 (Which supports it, so it should run pretty damn good.) and all steam supported games along with a few random FPS that are more fast paced. I also want to try some RPG games like LoTR, WoW(eewww), Guild Wars, and really old 2D games like iRO.

Tom's Hardware begs to get the 7900 GS before the 8600 GTS but we'll see how credible Tom really is. Although Tom's Hardware best bang for the buck is between these two at a lower cost. Of course he yells at anybody who doesn't get the 8800 GTX, but that's just obvious.

Now like I said before, SLI doesn't work as doubling video card power, it just boosts it, even slightly. I'm going to test two 7600 under SLI and see what we can do with that. I got the go-ahead from my boss. I'll update you on these. So far the dual 7100 GS SLI performed about as good as Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider. Let's see what else we can get out of these.

[kahne]

getting the 8800 768 mb and new quad-core processor.

[Tippo]

I've looked into getting the 8800 GTX. What's creepy is that my distributors say it's more expensive than I could get it on various sites, same brand too.

Anyways, so far the 8600 GTS is working up to or above the bar I've expected. Any game, I've been averaging over 100 FPS, this includes all the FPS games I've mentioned. CS:S I average about 220, with everything turned up all the way, it still averages upper 100s and lower 200s. That's incredible after playing at 20 frames. Warhammer 40k works the best it could, even with all shading and graphics maxed. I have yet to install Doom 3. I really don't want to, because I'm not fond of Doom 3, but it's a good way to test this card out. I'll keep you updated on it.

As for the 8800 GTX, if any of y'all can give me some info and good prices on them, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Torrin]

Not much info to give, they smoke the 8600 or the 8800GTS. With the FPS you are reporting, I would not bother spending $600 bucks for a GTX. I am getting similar frame rates on my 8800GTS @ 1600x1200. If you need more power, you can SLI it for < $150.

[Tippo]

I'm not in dire need of extreme power such as that. Right now anyways. I tested SLI earlier, and it wasn't as I expected. It merely changes things. I tested two 7600 GT and two 7100 GS. The GS there was absolutely no difference, maybe an FPS or two in many games. The 7600 GT was noticeable but not enough to want to SLI anything. I understand the more power a video card has, the more power SLI could be, but it's really nothing big enough to buy another card over. Still, I can see where it can be useful. It could definitely be an option when higher rendering games come out, but for now I'd say this card works great.

For Acula, the 8600 GTS performed up to par, if not over it. There's no reason to be hating on the card. I'm surprised myself.

Torrin, do you use Tom's Hardware as a reference?

[ThunderG0D]

I've looked into getting the 8800 GTX. What's creepy is that my distributors say it's more expensive than I could get it on various sites, same brand too.

As for the 8800 GTX, if any of y'all can give me some info and good prices on them, it would be greatly appreciated.

Your distributor probably doesn't have direct channel access to an 8800gtx from what it sounds (aka they don't buy a lot so they don't get discounting like some of the places that buy volume from manufacturers) hence the "Above e-tail" prices.

~$500-530 is usually what I see the 8800 GTX at...think I've seen a few in the high 4's but it rare, usually a brand I personally have had bad experience with, and only for like a 1 day thing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127281 this isn't all that bad...

[Torrin]

I'm not in dire need of extreme power such as that. Right now anyways. I tested SLI earlier, and it wasn't as I expected. It merely changes things. I tested two 7600 GT and two 7100 GS. The GS there was absolutely no difference, maybe an FPS or two in many games. The 7600 GT was noticeable but not enough to want to SLI anything. I understand the more power a video card has, the more power SLI could be, but it's really nothing big enough to buy another card over. Still, I can see where it can be useful. It could definitely be an option when higher rendering games come out, but for now I'd say this card works great.

For Acula, the 8600 GTS performed up to par, if not over it. There's no reason to be hating on the card. I'm surprised myself.

Torrin, do you use Tom's Hardware as a reference?

I use a variety of reference points and Tom's is definitely high on the list. I have rss feeds and news feeds from a lot of sources in my Goggle reader. I love keeping up with hardware and I have been a huge NVidia fan for a long time.

On the Acula thing, I totally ignore haters that apparently have no basis for their opinion. I use facts and real world information to develop my opinion!

[ThunderG0D]

Hey torrin...buy me an 8800 GTS

[Torrin]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127281 this isn't all that bad...

What vendor is that? I have heard good things about EVGA, I am not a big MSI fan. I love Newegg, but they opened an Office is Tennessee which mean 9.25% sales tax on everything I buy <ick!>

[Torrin]

Hey torrin...buy me an 8800 GTS

I will get right on it, send me a 8800GTX and I will send you my GTS (It is an EVGA with 640MB of memory) :D

[Tippo]

We've used MSI back in the day. Four or so years ago MSI was top priority for Motherboards and Video Cards. Now-a days, we don't use much of MSI anymore. MSI was extremely stable and didn't have many problems with them. We use EVGA now for most Video Cards, since they're reputable and stable. MSI kind of drifted off, but if they're anything like they were years ago, I'd definitely give a thumbs up for getting one of them.

PS: In fact my GeForce Ti 4200 8x AGP is MSI. After all these years it still runs like a beast on steroids. Of course it's out of date, but absolutely no problem at all.

[Enlightened Viet]

I think acula meant the 8500gt which I have. Daddy with variations of daddy has the 8600gt. I was wondering if it would be possible to change a processor or would you need to get a new motherboard for it. And Torrin you live in Tennessee?

[Torrin]

I think acula meant the 8500gt which I have. Daddy with variations of daddy has the 8600gt. I was wondering if it would be possible to change a processor or would you need to get a new motherboard for it. And Torrin you live in Tennessee?

Changing the processor on the video card? That almost certainly would be more trouble than it is worth. Also, both the 8500 and 8600 have received high marks from MaximumPC and Tom's Hardware. In today's market, it is hard to go wrong with an Intel processor or an NVidia video card.

I do live in Tennessee, a little south of Nashville in Franklin. I did notice you live in TN as well. What a great place to live! ;)

[Tippo]

Changing a processor on a video card is WAY different then on a motherboard. Yes, there's a heatsink and all. It even looks the same, but it's not. I would advise against doing that in fear that you're probably going to shock, break, or damage your card. If you wanted to upgrade, resell your card and buy and upgraded one. :p

[Dr. Acula]

I think acula meant the 8500gt which I have. Daddy with variations of daddy has the 8600gt. I was wondering if it would be possible to change a processor or would you need to get a new motherboard for it. And Torrin you live in Tennessee?

No, I mean the 8600, good luck to anyone who wants to waste their money.

[Tippo]

Acula, the card is running like a dream. I wouldn't trade it for a 7900 GS which has near the same marks. I'd recommend this card to anybody. My FPS scores prove that this card is up to par. As for CS:S I'm running a consistent 180 FPS with everything turned up.

What type of problems have you had with the 8600 GTS, I'd like to know as a heads up.

[Dr. Acula]

No issues, it's just that you're buying a DX10 card that won't run any games that use DX10 effectively.

[Torrin]

No issues, it's just that you're buying a DX10 card that won't run any games that use DX10 effectively.

Regardless of the DX10 ability, ALL DX10 cards run DX9 game better than DX9 only cards. You sound like an NVidia hater that can't recommend an ATI card because they suck.

[ThunderG0D]

Changing a processor on a video card is WAY different then on a motherboard. Yes, there's a heatsink and all. It even looks the same, but it's not. I would advise against doing that in fear that you're probably going to shock, break, or damage your card. If you wanted to upgrade, resell your card and buy and upgraded one. :p

Not to mention they aren't a socket job, but a soldering job and you have to know the proper pin-out to be able to solder it down in place properly.

[ThunderG0D]

Regardless of the DX10 ability, ALL DX10 cards run DX9 game better than DX9 only cards. You sound like an NVidia hater that can't recommend an ATI card because they suck.

No Torrin, he has a point actually. 1st gen DX10 cards are probably going to suck pretty hard with DX10 games. 2nd gen DX10 cards will yield much better results for that market, and will probably come out about the time the real wave of DX10 games are released as a win-win situation.

[Tippo]

Well, that's theory. Whether or not that's true is up to testing. I personally don't think the first generation is going to do bad... well because it's specifically tested and made for DX10. We'll just have to see. Either way, you can't hate a video card without proper testing and PROOF that it fails at life. That's how many types of ethnocentric thinking did more than enough people in. You always have to try and test something before you talk about it. Right now, this card is performing way above what I've expected it to. I have first hand experience with it.

[Dr. Acula]

Well, that's theory. Whether or not that's true is up to testing. I personally don't think the first generation is going to do bad... well because it's specifically tested and made for DX10. We'll just have to see. Either way, you can't hate a video card without proper testing and PROOF that it fails at life. That's how many types of ethnocentric thinking did more than enough people in. You always have to try and test something before you talk about it. Right now, this card is performing way above what I've expected it to. I have first hand experience with it.

I'm sure it's fine now. It'll suck balls later. That's all I'm saying. Take a screen shot of this for later when you find out I'm right. I judge all sorts of things before I have anything to do with them. That's why I don't fuck fat chicks.

[Torrin]

No Torrin, he has a point actually. 1st gen DX10 cards are probably going to suck pretty hard with DX10 games. 2nd gen DX10 cards will yield much better results for that market, and will probably come out about the time the real wave of DX10 games are released as a win-win situation.

Yep, but keep in mind, with ATI sucking, NVidia is not in a hurry to launch a 2nd gen card. Plus, the 1st gen cards kick butt on DX9. If I am going to spend a couple hundred bucks on a card, it will be 8x00 series. You even have one TG!

[Tippo]

Everything gets outdated and looks like crap over time. Look at Lindsey Lohan.

My GeForce ti 4200 works crappy now, but that's because it's outdated. Right now, and in the near future, I do believe this card will hold it's own. Also, the 8800 GTX will perform like crap in a few years. Things have a way of working like that. Again, no true concrete reason to be in distaste of the card.

[ThunderG0D]

Well, that's theory. Whether or not that's true is up to testing. I personally don't think the first generation is going to do bad... well because it's specifically tested and made for DX10. We'll just have to see. Either way, you can't hate a video card without proper testing and PROOF that it fails at life. That's how many types of ethnocentric thinking did more than enough people in. You always have to try and test something before you talk about it. Right now, this card is performing way above what I've expected it to. I have first hand experience with it.

In some ways tests being done are irrelevant. They are doing it on a 32-bit platform where datarates are limited to less than what is truly capable. I don't ever see x64 tests out there.

I run XP x64 Pro and farcry testing in 64-bit comes out with massively different results than 32-bit.

Anyways as to the 2nd gen beating the first...if it doesn't beat it, wouldn't that line be a flat-out failure? ;)

[Tippo]

Testing - as in actual game play testing. It wouldn't be irrelevant if you were testing by playing, and playing would be testing, now would it? Testing video cards usually means they go into certain games and TEST them by using various settings. See Tom's Hardware. Other tests do include PC marks, but that's not what I'm gunning for. :p

Of course second generation would beat out the first, but making it seem as if the FIRST generation was full of fail doesn't make much sense. I'm meerly suggesting that the second generation would be a succession and improvement upon the first. That doesn't mean the first has to suck. It just means the second would be pwn. Like I've stated before, everything gets outdated.

[ThunderG0D]

If I am going to spend a couple hundred bucks on a card, it will be 8x00 series. You even have one TG!


Umm actually I still use a Radeon X800GT. Not going to upgrade til 2nd gen DX10 comes out. There may even be a SP1 for Vista, which at that time I'd consider conversion.

[Torrin]

Umm actually I still use a Radeon X800GT. Not going to upgrade til 2nd gen DX10 comes out. There may even be a SP1 for Vista, which at that time I'd consider conversion.

Oppps, I thought you had said you had an 8800, my bad. I have had many bad experiences with ATI boards, I have not purchased ATI in at least 6 years. I know some guys that swear by them, but I am a big unix guy and ATI support in Linux sucks.

[Tippo]

Hahaha, unix and ATI = what initially turned me off by them too. They're not bad cards, but people have preferences. I've had two ATI cards. Ever since they kept giving me small problems, support mainly, I stopped using them. One is actually nailed to my wall right now. I'm hoping it's going to learn from it's mistakes that way.

[ThunderG0D]

I've never had too much problems with it, even in linux. Had my box dual-booting into mandriva and installed the ATI-supplied Linux driver and it ran pretty choice. Got tired of having the dual boot menu so that HD is unplugged.

Nvidia card, I've had bad experiences with them kinda like you've all had with ATI. However, right now the ATI cards fail in performance and power consumption (which used to be a perk on most of their cards....lower power usage than the Nvidia counterparts) that I probably would look at getting a 9-series Geforce.

[Enlightened Viet]

So currently the 8800 is the best for dx10 games right? Also I meant processor on the motherboard. I have a celeron d and would probably improve better with a intel 6600. Didn't even know a gfx had a processor. I plan on building a comp soon with whatever I can get.

[Tippo]

Viet, check to see what your motherboard supports. It should have a certain socket. See what's the best upgradeable chip for it, then you can swap it. It's easy enough, although you REALLY have to be careful about bending the motherboard when taking the heatsink off. The good thing about Intel is that a lot of times they have a simple "popping" mechanism that makes it easy to take the heatsink off, unlike a lot of AMD. (Flathead screwdriver and some praying - praying not prying, lol.) Anyways, what kind of motherboard do you have, and what's the statistics of it. Myself or many of the other computer oriented fellas around here can help you out.

[Enlightened Viet]

ahah idk i didn't build it its a lame Emachines w3503. I got it at wal-mart since I needed a computer for school. I added a 8500gt and an xtra 1gb of ram to it. I plan on salvaging the 8500gt and hopefully the 1gb of ram when i build my first comp.

[Tippo]

New case, motherboard, chip and RAM. Shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg for that, and you'd get a nice upgrade. Video should be fine for now, but if you need you can always upgrade that.

Case: $55 or so for a good one
Motherboard: M2N-E-SLI or Delux $100-$120
2GB ram (dual channel two sticks): $37 dollars per each stick.
AMD Athlon 4200-5200 Dual Core: $90-$130

Not bad for basically a new PC. You don't even have to buy the case. Either way it's a great PC.

[Enlightened Viet]

$37 for 2gb...wth do I get those. Man I can get them now. :rolleyes:

And whats the difference between AMD and Intel. I've seen AMD in a lot of gaming cases as of late.

[ThunderG0D]

AMD performance-wise can't touch an Intel...but they are DIRT cheap. Personally I would say keep it intel though.

[Tippo]

AMD definitely can keep up with Intel AND they're cheap. AMD first introduced the dual core, and their 64. AMD is innovative and in many cases better than Intel. There are drawbacks, like they may not be as stable and they run at a higher temperature but I'd definitely look into getting an Ahtlon Dual Core 4200+ or an Athlon Dual Core 5200+. You don't need anything better as of yet, and that should last you a while. If you need it faster, you can always overclock. Although this makes it even more unstable, it increases power significantly, depending on how much you overclock it.

Also, my distributor price for Apacer DDR2 (only works in newer motherboards) 667(slower DDR2 speed, upgraded is 800) PC5300(lower end one) CL 5(not really that low of a cache latency time) is $37. It's not extreme performance but it's fast enough being DDR2 and 2GB of ram should definitely do justice. Anything upgraded past that wont do anything unless you get a 10,000 RPM HDD. For the price, I nabbed 4 sticks. I have only dual channel DDR2 2GB right now, but I don't need the 4GB so I just have them sitting here at the moment.

[Enlightened Viet]

So using that much gb is unneeded if there are other factors such as a bad HDD? I really want to not have to restart the comp every hour or so due to playing CS. I end up using 3x what the data the move gives and have to restart to fix it. Daddy Doom which is my rl friend has his at about 8m given while 64m used so he basically hasn't restarted his comp in a long time but plays CS smoothly.

[Tippo]

You shouldn't need to restart your PC. That's not normal after playing CS. RAM is Random Access Memory. That basically is a temporary place to throw fast random loads. The more you have and the speed (DDR2 667 PC5300 CL 5 - these are all speeds) is how fast it loads. Now, if you have 4GB of RAM that can basically load anything up faster than your harddrive call pull it. If you want faster load time, say for opening CS, then it loads from your harddrive and that's when load times can take a while depending on RPM (Typical harddrives now-a days are 7200 RPM. A little while ago harddrives were 5400 RPM. Now they nearly doubled it.) Depending on where it is. It's more complicated than that, but that's it in easy terms.

[Enlightened Viet]

Saw some 10,000 rpm HDD. I guess their made for gamers since it said it was :rolleyes:. So with that 4gb would be good. :confused:

[Tippo]

There's no real need for it yet... Unless you're doing some type of super rendering. Otherwise 2GB should be fine. A 10,000 RPM HDD is more expensive and it's not really necessary right now. It's always a possibility though, with faster speed and everything. It just depends how much money you want to spend. :p

[Tippo]

Errr I just upgraded my 8600 GTS to a MSI NX8800GT-OC.

They cost the same, I got it on some promotional thing with one of my distros. This thing looks like it's pwn.

(Here it is)

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4010&Itemid=40


Best video card for $206 it seems.

[Dr. Acula]

AMD definitely can keep up with Intel AND they're cheap. AMD first introduced the dual core, and their 64. AMD is innovative and in many cases better than Intel. There are drawbacks, like they may not be as stable and they run at a higher temperature but I'd definitely look into getting an Ahtlon Dual Core 4200+ or an Athlon Dual Core 5200+. You don't need anything better as of yet, and that should last you a while. If you need it faster, you can always overclock. Although this makes it even more unstable, it increases power significantly, depending on how much you overclock it.

Also, my distributor price for Apacer DDR2 (only works in newer motherboards) 667(slower DDR2 speed, upgraded is 800) PC5300(lower end one) CL 5(not really that low of a cache latency time) is $37. It's not extreme performance but it's fast enough being DDR2 and 2GB of ram should definitely do justice. Anything upgraded past that wont do anything unless you get a 10,000 RPM HDD. For the price, I nabbed 4 sticks. I have only dual channel DDR2 2GB right now, but I don't need the 4GB so I just have them sitting here at the moment.

LOL nice sales pitch. AMD dual cores are inferior to Intel dual cores. BUT They're not all that bad. I still use AMD.

[Tippo]

That's also months old, lolllllllll. 37 dollars for RAM? Bahahaha now it's like 20.

[Shakka]

IMO, 8800 gt is best bang/buck. When overclocked it runs almost up to a 8800gtx and its only like $290 and thats for superclocked version.

8600 series = crap

[Tippo]

Yeah, the 8800GT OC is in a whole new league compared to the 8600 GTS I had. Best place to test it was Crysis, problem was with everything turned up I still only got about 6 FPS. It ran nicely on stats turned mostly high some medium. Ahahaha.

[Enlightened Viet]

The new 512mb 8800 GTS came out, it has a big fan etc etc. Any input?

[Dr. Acula]

New GTS is awesome. has all the shaders of a GTX they're actually faster. Only thing that makes it a less good card than the GTX is the lack of memory.