New video card suggestions?

[amariani]

I'm want to upgrade my pc with a new video card & ram, any suggestions? You can find my pc specs in the Technical Support forum under "AH2 & Vista" posting.

[BaldEagl]

I started to do a little research on your system.  It appears you have a PCIe x16 video card slot available and DDR2 533 RAM with a 300W power supply.  I was trying to get specs on your power supply as most of he better video cards these days are going to need 350 watts (Nvidia 9500 GT) or more.  Based on your CPU I wouldn't go over a 9600 GT which needs 425 watts.

As close as I can tell you've got a uATX/BTX form factor PSU but I'm not convinced of that yet so would need to do more research.

Anyway, your options are to get a lower end video card (Nvidia 8600 or 9400 or lower) which will give you a marginal performance boost or get a new PSU to power a better card.  It would be good if you could measure your power supply and post the dimensions here.

As to RAM it looks like you have 1 Gb.  I'd get 2 new 1 Gb matched sticks of DDR2 533 or better.  That alone will give you a nice bump up in performance.

[amariani]

Thanks for your input! Do you have any suggestions on where on the web can I get good priced hardware?

[BaldEagl]

newegg.com or tigerdirect.com

[Ghosth]

don't forget Mwave.com

Normally competitively priced with Newegg often with lower shipping.

[amariani]

Thanks guys for your input! I plan to do the whole thing (new ps, more memory & new video card) during the weekend.

[BaldEagl]

There was just another post in another thread here and eVGA is now making a 9600 GT that only requires a 300W PSU with 18 amps on the 12V rail.  You can open your case and there should be a sticker on the PSU.  If the 12V rails lists 18 amps or better you can just get that card and not have to worry about a new PSU.

[amariani]

Thanks BaldEagl. Will check tomorrow on that!

[amariani]

WEll, I did it! Got the video card (BFG GeForce 9500GT 1GB DDR2) and more memory (PNY matched set 2GB total). Now I can play AH2 on my pc with no flickering and I can even play the beta @ max settings! Thanks guys for your recomendations.