Not having this thread exploited to argue about everyone's favorite brand.
Simple answers.
With that in mind, the predicament: I'm looking around for a video card upgrade. My current is a NVIDIA GeForce GT120, which is apparently about the same as a 9500 GT (source).
(Edit- Actually, now NVidia actually has it up on their products page- when I bought my compy they didn't have that so I had to compare it. See here.)
This is my compy- I've had it for about a year now and it works fine (I've just been playing Spore, Runes of Magic, Sims 2 a little, and stuff like that). Please no comment on the computer- I don't care how uber yours is or how much cheaper it is to build your own. I was just showing it for reference.
Assuming I have a maximum wallet of roughly $150. Say I just wanted a one-step upgrade, if that makes any sense.
Well depends on what kind of games you want to play.
I have a BFG 9800 GTX+ that came slightly overclocked out of the box from BFG.
Its a pretty good card and its in your price range.
I can run Farcry 2 on MAX settings, and Empire Total War on most of the settings on MAX, the only time it sort of gets slow if everything is maxed is during the naval battles because the water is so awesome in that game.
There is a difference between the GTX and GTX+, the + is better, also there are differnces on who manufactures the card, like I mentioned before, the BFG card I have was slightly overclocked out of the box (no problems what so ever so far, its been about half a year since I got it) With a GTX+ I am sure you can run all of the games you have listed on max with very good frame rates.
150$ is actually a tiny budget man..if you want something good, wait and save up some more cash, so you don't blow it on rubbish. ATI is your best bet, since their prices are lower than NVIDIA. I don't know any specific cards, so this is my advice.
if you save say about another 20 to thirty dollars you could go onto newegg and get a ATI Radeon HD 5770 which uses DirectX 11 currently ATI is the only one who has DX11 cards Nvidia shouldn't be long. 5770's run like 4890's only with the support for DX11 and are cheaper at newegg.com so I'd say they'd be your best bet.
EDIT: If you get an HIS one or one of the SAPPHIRES they are 159.99 and they come with Dirt 2 a DX11 game so that might be worth it.
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Yeah I think I'd get HD5770 if I were you.. it is quite even in power with 4870 which IIRC is cheaper but 4870 runs hotter and keeps more noise and it doesn't have DX11.
The problem is you'd also need to replace your power supply, as that 9500GT is pulling almost no wattage when compared to some of the cards that go for $150.
If you didn't have the power supply issue, I'd go with the HD5770 for ATI, and from Nvidia I would go with a GTX260 if I could find one for the price, but the HD5770 is a bit faster and has the potential to be even faster with newer drivers (they come once a month from ATI).
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It's the decisions you make when you have no time to make them that define who you are.
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With that in mind, the predicament: I'm looking around for a video card upgrade. My current is a NVIDIA GeForce GT120, which is apparently about the same as a 9500 GT (source).
(Edit- Actually, now NVidia actually has it up on their products page- when I bought my compy they didn't have that so I had to compare it. See here.)
This is my compy- I've had it for about a year now and it works fine (I've just been playing Spore, Runes of Magic, Sims 2 a little, and stuff like that). Please no comment on the computer- I don't care how uber yours is or how much cheaper it is to build your own. I was just showing it for reference.
Assuming I have a maximum wallet of roughly $150. Say I just wanted a one-step upgrade, if that makes any sense.
Advice. Non-sarcastic, please.
I have a BFG 9800 GTX+ that came slightly overclocked out of the box from BFG.
Its a pretty good card and its in your price range.
I can run Farcry 2 on MAX settings, and Empire Total War on most of the settings on MAX, the only time it sort of gets slow if everything is maxed is during the naval battles because the water is so awesome in that game.
There is a difference between the GTX and GTX+, the + is better, also there are differnces on who manufactures the card, like I mentioned before, the BFG card I have was slightly overclocked out of the box (no problems what so ever so far, its been about half a year since I got it) With a GTX+ I am sure you can run all of the games you have listed on max with very good frame rates.
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EDIT: If you get an HIS one or one of the SAPPHIRES they are 159.99 and they come with Dirt 2 a DX11 game so that might be worth it.
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If you didn't have the power supply issue, I'd go with the HD5770 for ATI, and from Nvidia I would go with a GTX260 if I could find one for the price, but the HD5770 is a bit faster and has the potential to be even faster with newer drivers (they come once a month from ATI).
It's the decisions you make when you have no time to make them that define who you are.