Adding a graphics card

[hchman]

I play a lot of games on my computer and am considering upgrading my graphics. Any suggestions on a good graphics card? Also I have heard that some graphics cards get hot and require more fans. Is this true? I currently have a Sony 1.5 Ghz, 256 memory and a 60 gig hard drive.

 

[braddds]

what kind of games and how are you willing to spend?

 

[braddds]

what kind of games and how much are you willing to spend?

 

[hchman]

I play unreal tounament a lot and flight simulators things like that. I am looking for a medium priced card not cheap but also not out of this world.

 

[paparazi]

What price bracket???
UK prices roughly, and my recommenations starting with the cheapest and in my opinion the least you should buy in order to play the latest games.
Nvidia G/force 2 MX400 (around £60)
ATI Radeon DDR (" £85)
Nvidia G/force 2 Ti 200 (" £110)
Nvidia G/force 3 Ti 200 (" £175)
Nvidia G/force 3 Ti 500 (" £300)
ATI Radeon 8500 (" £260)
Also in order of performance
64megabytes variants more desireable
Also input output connections such as SVideo/DVI are more desireable giving you extra features like playing DVD's on your TV and Video editting. Martin Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[braddds]

I agree with paparazi! However, if you don't do dvd or TV video editing and such than save yourself the money and get a card without those features! I use a Asus 7700 Geforce2 DDR without all the fancy stuff on an 850c cpu and it kicks butt in everything from Commanche 4 to Unreal! I'm able to run them @ 1024x768 with 32 bit color with very good playability! There are better cards for sure but way too much coin for me!

 

[hchman]

That was one of my problems. I could not run @1024x768 without losing a lot of speed. Thanks. you both got me started on the right track. One other thing. Is there any danger of overheating with any of these cards?

 

[paparazi]

All cards are tested to there extremes and coolers added according to need ie: some of the g/force 2 MX400's don't have an active fan but just a heatsink where as all
g/force 3 Ti500's have a whacking combination chip/memory heatsink cooler and fan.
If you don't intend to clock the card then you have absolutely no worries.
Just a point if you intend to play your games in full 32bit then the way ATI's Radeon cards write the image means there performance hardly changes between 16 and 32bit other card designes can suffer a 25% performance hit.
Look at the Radeon 7500 at around £120, faster than a G/force 2 Ti200 at around the same price and will give you a bit of future proofing, if there is such a thing! Martin Vote if you found this post helpful please!!