Upgrading my video card...

[Kimarous]

I think it's fine that I finally upgrade my computer's video card. I think it's starting to "give out", as it were... I find that random, individual pixels tend to be the wrong colour (and not just in games; it extends as far as the computer's loading sequence) and that graphical bugs in games tend to be more and more frequent/extreme.

My current card is an NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS. What is a decent replacement that is both up-to-date and reasonably priced in the general market?

EDIT: I've upgraded to a GeForce 9800 GT. I no longer need suggestions for a new card.

 

[Kimarous]

200-ish... Canadian dollars.

And how do you recommend counteracting this "artifacting"?

 

[ribonuge]

Need more information. Such as Power supply wattage and space in your computer.

 

[JRCB]

What do you plan to be doing with the card? Playing graphics-demanding games, or something else?

 

[Kimarous]

Need more information. Such as Power supply wattage and space in your computer.

How do I about checking these?

What do you plan to be doing with the card?

I primarily use my computer to play various games (my most recent of which is "Dragon Age: Origins"), go on the internet, and occassionally write using Microsoft Word.

 

[ribonuge]

Need more information. Such as Power supply wattage and space in your computer.

How do I about checking these?

The power supply should look something like this

And the wattage should be displayed somewhere on its surface. Should say 700W or something to that effect.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

I would suggest the 9800GT (1GB vram version)

It's pretty affordable, I have one and it plays everything on high settings in 1920x1080 (excluding AA which I usually have to stick on 2x or 4x) with a reasonable framerate. The only obvious exceptions being Crysis and Far Cry 2, and games that are badly coded/ported such as GTAIV or Borderlands. Though it still plays all those on fairly High settings too.

Obviously it depends on the rest of your spec, so that adds in a lot of variables, but overall I'd go with that as its going to give you the best performance/price ratio.

 

[AkJay]

I use a Geforce 9800 GT, It seems to be in your price range (you did say 200, right?) and it's pretty badass, if I must say.

 

[tomvw]

I have a GeForce GTX 260 myself (which I think is in your budget) and it runs most mainstream games very well.
But you should check your power supply and also your other pc specifications, a fast video card isn't going to do you much good if you're processor isn't fast enough to keep up.

 

[JRCB]

I have a GeForce GTX 260 myself (which I think is in your budget) and it runs most mainstream games very well.
But you should check your power supply and also your other pc specifications, a fast video card isn't going to do you much good if you're processor isn't fast enough to keep up.

Yeah, I picked one up a few months ago, at about $220 CDN. It's a good card, but huge.

 

[tomvw]

Yeah, I picked one up a few months ago, at about $220 CDN. It's a good card, but huge.

Oh forgot to mention, if you're going for the gtx 260, make sure you get the core 216 variant, I don't know if it's standard by now.

 

[Kimarous]

I did a DirectX Diagnostic and got "Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)" under the "Processor" label... that my wattage?

Also, my RAM is 2046MB.

 

[ribonuge]

I have a GeForce GTX 260 myself (which I think is in your budget) and it runs most mainstream games very well.
But you should check your power supply and also your other pc specifications, a fast video card isn't going to do you much good if you're processor isn't fast enough to keep up.

Yeah, I picked one up a few months ago, at about $220 CDN. It's a good card, but huge.

I got a GTX 285 when I assembled my PC which I coined "The ultra build". It is a monster.

 

[ribonuge]

I did a DirectX Diagnostic and got "Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)" under the "Processor" label... that my wattage?

Also, my RAM is 2046MB.

Quoted from google.

To determine your wattage "The easiest way is to open up your computer case and check the sticker of the power supply. Somewhere should be a code of , for example, XXDX400. That 400 means, in most cases, that's a 400 W supply. Otherwise there is going to be another sticker with more detail specifications of the power supply. Check there."

[small]excuse the double post[/small]

 

[stone0042]

I did a DirectX Diagnostic and got "Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)" under the "Processor" label... that my wattage?

Also, my RAM is 2046MB.

Not even close, that's your processor. You're going to have to physically open your computer case up and find the power supply.

 

[Kimarous]

Hmm... I'll have to do that later. I had both my flu and H1N1 shots today; I don't exactly want to call my tower back and forth with my arms feeling how they are right now.

In any case, since my main concern is actually dealing with this artifacting issue (I didn't know what it was called, and also assumed it was tied to my video card alone), I think I should do a defrag and see if that doesn't fix things up. Depending on how well things improve, I may in fact forego the card update for the time being.

 

[Sneaklemming]

I'd say go for an x275 or above.

an x260 is you need cheap

 

[Kimarous]

Sorry for the topic necromancy, but I have an update.

I upgraded my card to a GeForce 9800 GT; my graphical bugs are gone, the artifacting is gone, and everything is improved overall.

That said, I don't know very much about boosting the quality of my current settings. Could someone explain to me WTF anti-aliasing is and what it does?

 

[Sneaklemming]

I would recommend an nVidia x260, for lower cost but great stuff, or the x275 for slightly pricier, but better stuff happens. I think the x260 is about 200euros, while the x275 is about 250, I havnt the faintest how strong the canadian dollar is, but if it's weak like the american dollar then I expect these cards will be out of your price range, and in that case, I recommend the 8800GTX, its the next best thing to an x260 in terms of price. Skip the 9 series, theres little or no difference between the 8800 and the 9800 cept for price.

 

[Chucky99999]

Anti-aliasing

Short version: it helps remove jaggies.
Long version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing

Higher the #, lower the performance, but less jaggies.
IMO going past 4x rarely looks better.