Need Help On A Decent Graphics Card (:

[ChaseTheSky]

Well, I need a new graphics card, one that can run Left 4 Dead at a nice speed. My computer is less than a month old. My computer's spec are:
~Inspiron 518
~Intel Core 2 Quad Proccessor Q8300 (2.5GHz, 4MB cache, 1333MHz FSB)
~6GB memory
~Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator x3100
~Model # i518-2283
And I'm not looking for anything amazing, something under a 100 dollars.
Any help would be appreciated, because im technologically illiterate ><&quot;


Notice: My graphics card is so poor, when i break windows or glass, it turns purple and black checkered.

[Darkness]

... you have a 2.5 quad and 6gigs of ram and you kept the integrated card?

what OS (operating system, windows vista, windows xp, linux, etc)?

[ChaseTheSky]

uhm, a Windows Vista.
(:

[Darkness]

Ill look some stuff up for yah, not sure off the top of my head. But if you have the money, i suggest getting top of the line graphics card because this machine is way top of the line.

edit: you can get an ATI4850 for 114.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121272)
Which should get you to medium to high settings I'd think.

What is your Power Supply (er... How much power does it supply is what im getting at) and what mobo?

[ChaseTheSky]

mm, i'd like too but i don't have the budget.
i just need one that runs the game at around 40-50 fps.
:]

edit: i have no idea what your talkin' about, so you'll have to tell me how to find it.
sorry d:

[Darkness]

But absolutely under 100 bucks, I think the best card below 100 is this (ATI4830) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102822). But I would investigate to make sure the card will fit into your computer (size restraints) and make sure your mobo (aka motherboard) is compatible.

[ChaseTheSky]

is there a website to figure this stuff out? d:


edit: this stuff being mobo and power supply :D

[Darkness]

this stuff being...?

[doa]

It's not very uptodate but anandtech is down right now: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics -charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,30.html (http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,30.html)

[ChaseTheSky]

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics -charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,30.html

wait...
i don't get how this helps.

[Darkness]

um... did you buy this assembled as is or did you assemble it yourself (picking options from a website that then builds it and ships it to you falls under this category as well)

[ChaseTheSky]

i bought it assembled.
:)

[Goldkills]

well u have a quad core so bottlenecking will be less of a problem i would get a GTS250/9800GTX a GTX260c16 or the HD4850 or HD4870 1gb but i will say the Nvidias cards are better for price to performance u can also get a GTX260 for about 175$ after rebates and such right now on Newegg thats way better then ATIs 4870 price.
trust me is u got the computer less then a month ago u have the needed slot only thing u need to check is your Power supply for most of the cards u need 500+Watts of power u can check on the sticker on the side of your power supply in your computer.

[ChaseTheSky]

for about 175$ after rebates and such right now on Newegg


unfortunately, i don't have enough dough for that :P

[Goldkills]

Well how much can u spend? if u say i can help a lot more

[ChaseTheSky]

i can spend up to 100$

-including tax and shipping-

(pathetic, i know)

[Darkness]

And I'm not looking for anything amazing, something under a 100 dollars.

He did say Goldkills. Just need to read :-P

Thus why I suggested an ati4830. @ newegg right now for under 100. See my 2nd link.

Do you have some kind of link to where you bought it?

[ChaseTheSky]

unfortunately no, i was at costco, needing a new computer and it was on sale for 899.99 with a 23&quot; screen, so i just decided, what the hell, why not?

(my old computer was a 3 year veteran of constant use)

[Goldkills]

Well u might be able to find a 9800GT or a 9600GT/HD4830 for that price.

4830: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16814102822 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102822)

9600GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16814143161 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143161)

9800GT: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16814187030 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187030)


the 9800GT is the best deal the 9800GT can run L4D on High easy and its cheap

[ChaseTheSky]

right. thanks Darkness, Goldkills.
will there be any problems with the &quot;mobo&quot; and wattage?

[Goldkills]

u just need to check the watts and see if u have 300+ for any of the cards listed i think the 9800GT needs 400+ tho

[ChaseTheSky]

hmm. wait, so i just check the power supply? some people said it has a label with the watts on it.

[Tyr]

If you want a decent not-top-of-the-line-but-still-very-good card I recommend the Gigabyte nVidia 9800GTX+ with 1GB RAM. It's not the prettiest card but it's very good quality, especially for the price. I have one myself.

[ChaseTheSky]

whoa, can you give me a link? can't find it online. (:

[Tyr]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16814125245 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125245)

Hopefully you can still find it, Newegg says it's been deactivated.

[Goldkills]

ya the 9800GTX+ is going to be well over 100$ tho the sticker is on your PSU tho on one of the sides it should tell u the watts

[ChaseTheSky]

thanks.
and what if the card is too large?
O:

[Goldkills]

What case do u have? the 9800GT is not that big maybe 6in long if that i don't want to go downstairs to open my bros case to find out and the 9600GT and the 4830 are about the same the 9800GTX+ is bigger tho its about 9-10in long


Edit nvm u have a dell it will fit fine my brother has a dell case it will fit fine i just would not bet it would hold a huge top of the line card like the GTX260/HD4870 they are big cards

[ChaseTheSky]

mm, i'll hold u to that.
jk.

thanks (:

[ViperGrendal]

For that price range a 4830 is probably your best bet. Personally I'd raid my spare change collections to try and scrounge up enough for the 4850 though.

Either way you'll be able to run L4D just fine. The 4850 will just give you a little more &quot;pretty&quot; options on a 1680x1050 display (I'm assuming that's what you have). If it's 1920x1200 then I would strongly suggest the 4850 1GB.

Why they insist on putting the intel integrated garbage in a fairly powerful desktop is beyond me. A laptop yes(low power usage), but not a desktop. At least you have the option to upgrade.

[ChaseTheSky]

well, my screens resolution is 2048x1152. o o&quot;

[DTard]

Honestly, if you REALLY wanted a kick ass video card, the best out there is the Nvidia GTX296 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150333)

It blows everything else out of the water, especially in SLI.

I have the 9600 GSO, and that was $75 on Black Friday. It's pretty good. I can play L4D and TF2 on max settings.

The better deal for a 9600 GSO is about 109 but you get COD4 &amp; 5 apparently.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16814150340 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150340)

but if you TRULY can't spend over 100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16814150358 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150358)

[ViperGrendal]

What kind of monitor do you have again? When you said 23&quot; I was thinking it was some funky LCD that's actually 22&quot; that's a tad bigger so they called it a 23&quot;

It sounds like you have something all together different. Like this thing http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16824001317 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001317)

I'd go with a 4850 1gb or better yet the 4870 1GB if you want to run native resolution on that. But, that's out of budget..... They make a 4830 1GB, but I couldn't say if it would do it. Get the biggest card you can afford I guess.

[ChaseTheSky]

yep, thats pretty close.


alrite, thanks guys.

that was really helpful (:

[ViperGrendal]

I was gonna say something about crossfire/SLI but I looked at your machine specs so forget it. I just wanted to say that I'm not partial to ATI or Nvidia (I have a gtx280) Just at that price range my opinion is ATI is the better choice.

[ChaseTheSky]

mm, rite.


and what's crossfire and SLI? d:


edit: ah, the wonders of google.

[Goldkills]

well for what i posted that 9800GT is cheaper then the 4830 and will give better performance i think.

[ChaseTheSky]

if i get a 9800GT will i be able to run it on full resolution?

[Goldkills]

ya my brother uses a 22in LCD his game runs very well with the 9800gt

[ViperGrendal]

Thinking about it more you're actually similar to 1920x1200 resolution. Your monitor is just 16x9 instead of 16x10. So, when reading reviews consider yourself in the 1920x1200 club. Here's a decent article you might want to check out.....

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-ra deon,2218.html (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-radeon,2218.html)

If you bump your budget to $130 you'll have some really good options. If it's just L4D you're worried about read some reviews on the cards you're looking at and see if they use L4D (a lot do). Depending on the game different cards will do better.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3523 &p=6 (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3523&p=6) <--shows how 4850 and GTS250(9800GTX) compare.

I think you'll be ok with L4D with the 4830/9800gt, but you'll probably have to sacrifice a little on detail settings.

Shop around, you might find a sweet deal somewhere.

[Korn007]

I have a 9800gt I can sell you for under 100 used it for 2 months and has a life time warranty