just want to know people's opinion on what they reckon is the best graphics to use. i already have a geforce fx5200 pci card, but i'm finding that, although it's pretty good, i could do with better. i was looking at the geforce fx5700, and radeon 9800 pro. i don't really want to go overboard on cash...possibly up to £160. also, what is nvidia GPU? is it built in to cards, or is it a seperate card altogether? cheers 'if it aint broke, buy a new one anyway'

GPU = graphics processing unit...it's the chip used on the video card. ATI & nVidia are currently the top manufacturer's of GPUs. Your GeForce FX is just one of the many GPUs from nVidia's lineup. http://www.digital-daily.com/video/vga-roundup/ http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @8x210mhz 512mb PC3200 Ti4200/8X 128mb WDC 60GB

thanks for that GeForce FX 5200 1Gb DDR 3400 Athlon XP 2700+ Gigabyte K7 Triton 18Gb Cheetah X15 2 x Maxtor 60Gb

You find that a Geforce FX5200 pci is pretty good ? Wait to see a 9800 Pro.

I recommend ATI's Radeon X800 XT graphics core with 256MB DDR video memory. Make sure that your motherboard supports AGP 8x or PCI-Express 16x bus speed, because the Radeon X800 XT comes in 2 bus modes.... i have not seen the X800 XT in PCI format, because im sure that gamers hate PCI bus as the bandwidth is extremely limited, as compared to AGP 8x, and PCI Express 16x... but, if you want to go with Nvidia and there GeForce FX6800GT or FX6800... but I believe that the Radeon X800 XT is truly better in design...

"and there GeForce FX6800GT or FX6800" It's just the 6800, the GeForce 6 series. Yes gamers do not like PCI interface because of very limited bandwidth. And about the differences between the X800 and GeForce 6 series... Forever it seems, ATi cards have always been the better performers in Direct X applications. The Nvidia cards have been better in OpenGL or "open graphics language". The new GeForce 6 cards also support the new shading technology called Smart Model 3. ATi cards only support Smart Model 2. Both are great cards and either way you go, you will be getting outstanding technology. If you only want to spend so much money, the best card in your price range is probably the ATi Radeon 9800 Pro. It outperforms the other cards from that generation fairly well.