Which Graphics card?

EvilMonkey

Watcha,

I'm aware that my Pc is getting a bit long in the tooth (coming up to 2 years old now), but the main area this impacts is that it struggles to play a couple of games (mainly call of duty). So rather than shell out for an entire system I've thought about just upgrading the graphics card.

At the moment control panel tells me I've got a 64MB Radeon 7500, (on a 2.5Ghz pentium 4, 512MB memory).

I've no real idea either the cards, the different types of slots they plug into etc. I stopped paying attention when PCI was king.....

So to play reasonably modern games (the aforementioned Call of Duty, Battlefield vietnam, possibly Halo). at the lowest cost (or best value). What should I be looking for?

Brand?
Type?
memory?

Any hints or tips gratefully received...

mjr600

I have a P4 2.5 with 512meg also.

Do not buy a PCI card, its the slowest graphic interface and technology from 3 generations ago.

Without selling the family jewels a 128meg ATI Radeon 9600 Pro at about £60 will do all you ask.

It will go in the AGP slot on the motherboard. AGP is yesterdays technology having been superceded by PCI-E but your motherboard is unlikey to have the appropriate slot and they cost an arm and a leg anyway.

My 9600 Pro 128meg plays Half Life 2 at 1024x768 with no problems, make sure you get the latest drivers from the ATI website.

I have run Doom3, Far Cry, Halo etc all at high res. This card will utilise Direct X 9 which is the latest graphc thingummybob which the newest games require.

Check out some prices on Froogle

http://froogle.google.co.uk/froogle?q=9600+pro&scoring=p&cat=1379

By the time this card becomes redundant you'll be ready for a new PC anyway.

mjr600

One last thought, these cards also have a DVI output which means if you have a TFT monitor with a DVI input you get a true, accurate, sharper digital image.

Which is nice.

EvilMonkey

this sounds like the kind of thing I'm after, now I'm off to find a site with pics of an AGP slot to make sure my PC has one!