Graphics Card Help

[Fsu280]

Hey, just wondering if some of you guys could help me out. I'm going to buy a graphics card and was curious for some your opinions. Right now, I have a Dell Dimension 4600i, with crappy Intel Extreme Graphics 2. 2.8 Ghz. I have an AGP slot. I'm just curious what cards you guys think I should get, I play mainly Winning Eleven and games like Rome:Total War and stuff like that, nothing too crazy like Oblivion. So I don't know how advanced of graphics I should get. I was thinking about GeForce 6600 GT. Just wondering if someone out there can help me make my decision easier. Thanks.

[ac11367]

Re: Graphics Card Help

Try GeForce 6800 GS. It's like $200 and it's better than
6600GT. Try to find it in pricegrabber.com

[Fsu280]

Re: Graphics Card Help

Is it substantially better?

[ac11367]

Re: Graphics Card Help

Substantially? It depends. There's a free software called Rivatuner where you can unlock 4 more pipelines and a vertex shader from the 6800 GS to make it performs like a 6800 GT. You can Google it to get more details. But this unlocking scheme is a hit or miss. I've done it successfully with my 6800 GS and the graphics is very good, quite a bit better (especially in performance) than my cousin's 6600 GT.

[Fsu280]

Re: Graphics Card Help

What about ATI graphics cards?

[garnettrules21]

Re: Graphics Card Help

Go to newegg.com and look at the graphics cards on there. They have pretty much any and every card you can imagine. People give tons of helpful reviews on each one as well. Plus newegg is the best place I've ever shopped on-line for price, service and fast shipping.

[Fsu280]

Re: Graphics Card Help

Go to newegg.com and look at the graphics cards on there. They have pretty much any and every card you can imagine. People give tons of helpful reviews on each one as well. Plus newegg is the best place I've ever shopped on-line for price, service and fast shipping.

Yah, that's where I've been looking, I'm just not sure which one to get...Since I have never bought one before....

Also, I just want something good that runs smoothly something I don't have right now. I am not a crazy gamer with 4 screens and stuff like that.

[garnettrules21]

Re: Graphics Card Help

The main thing to look at is speed (ex. 500 mhz) and memory (don't get anything less than 128 mb). The higher the better on both. ATI and Nvidia are both top dogs. 50% will say ati is better while the other 50% will say its Nvidia. I personally have a ge-force 5200 pci 128 mb,which basically is a weak card but it plays the sims 2 suprisingly well on high settings. However I do have 3000+ athlon processor and a gig of ram. That always helps as well.

[Fsu280]

Re: Graphics Card Help

Well the GeForce 6600GT are only 128mb, while most 6800 are 256mb or 512mb, so should I just go with the 6800?