help on upgrading your video card

[lodder]

thanks


Great Q, my budget is not so hot. There is a store here that sells second hand from store close outs, liquidations, from bankruptcy, from fires, you get the picture. Like Ross Dress For Less or Goodwill only they have electronics and gadgets too. If I found an odd ball brand for $20 would that be a bad idea? Maybe I should go with nVIDIA and cough up the extra?
Anything good around $100 or less?

odd ball brand and computer parts generally do not add up to good results

$100 will net you a 7600GT, although you might have to check your power supply to see if your comp can handle it-the GTs usually require a 350watt

 

[Michael Alan]

odd ball brand and computer parts generally do not add up to good results

$100 will net you a 7600GT, although you might have to check your power supply to see if your comp can handle it-the GTs usually require a 350watt

Hmmm OK I checked with HP and they said my power supply is 300 watts and has a PCI express x16 slot.

The nVIDIA 8 series will run directX 10.
The 8400 GS needs a 300 watts minimum supply, is not overclocked and is for 17 to 19 inch monitors. I have a 17 ".

Thoughts:
1) The "OC" idea scares me, I hear people who burn up CPUs that way. Is that good to avoid OC cards?
2) I assume DirectX 10 cards play all the games designed with lesser directX versions.
3) Also my power supply exactly meets the minimum specs, maybe that's cutting it too close?
4) BFG offers lifetime warrenty on their video cards << something to look for?

According to BFG
Minimum System Requirements
"300W PCI Express-compliant system power supply (Minimum system power requirement based on a standard PC configured with an Intel® Core™2 Extreme X6800 processor) "

BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS 512MB PCIe
$109 at Best Buy, in the store, not online.