My computer's onboard card sucks and so I decided to upgrade it. (Its an ATI Xpress 200 series :-$) I have to play just about every modern game in the lowest settings. And still its still quite a laggy experience. Just performs a bit better.then play-able. I'm looking something around $50 that can run games well on high settings. I know I can't get a real gaming card... If you have experience buying a card around this price that runs your game well, please list the game and at what fps it runs it! (Just to get an idea) ___ If need any specs, ask please :)

"I'm looking something around $50 that can run games well on high settings" The 1st problem is you're not gonna find a card that can run games at high settings for $50. The 2nd problem is power. The Xpress 200 draws very little wattage but a decent card (even a cheap one) can require 100W or more under load. Can your power supply handle it?

Well if you look at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... There is a bunch of reviews saying that they ran their games on the highest settings with a good fps. And just how do I check my power supply? Im going to try and open my computer and look inside. ____ More PC Specs: Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) D CPU 3.20 GHz Ram: 1Gb. Slots - PCI Express And I found on my power supply saying "Max - 300w". Looked up the model and it confirmed it.

"There is a bunch of reviews saying that they ran their games on the highest settings with a good fps" Me thinks they exaggerate. An 8600GT with GDDR2 memory is not a good card for the money. With shipping, it will cost you close to $70...there are plenty of better cards in that price range. I thought you only wanted to spend $50? I got in trouble for recommending this Radeon HD3850 to an nVidia fanboy...hopefully you're more openminded. Only $55 shipped & it uses 256-bit GDDR3 memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ... Check the difference in gaming scores: Tom's Hardware - Benchmark Mass Effect: HD3850 vs 8600GT "And I found on my power supply saying "Max - 300w"" OK, now find out how many amps are on the +12v rail & whether or not it has a 6-pin PCI-e plug. http://www.legitreviews.com/article...

Hmm...$70 I can do. I did say "around 50". "Only $55 shipped & it uses 256-bit GDDR3 memory:" Well as I understand, the more memory the better? 256 seems low. (My ATI Xpress 200 is that much!). I even found one thats 1gb for $40.. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat... Or actually if you look on this page: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat... Theres a few under $70 that seem to be good -- from my limited understand :-$ "OK, now find out how many amps are on the +12v rail & whether or not it has a 6-pin PCI-e plug. " Well I looked at it again and this time I found 3 "Max" all with different numbers. And I think Im looking at the specs of the Cd drive here! Lol, I don't see any information for the power supply. The only way Im sure is because where every I go it tell me that the "5188-2625 / Compaq Presario 300w Regulated Power Supply" is used on my computer's model. Btw, someone from Yahoo answers gave me this: "It's not the grafix card completely. Your Celeron CPU only has 256 or 512k cache. Not enough to process the info fast enough to hand it off to the GPU on the graphics card. Or take a chance, www.geeks.com has some really good deals on graphics cards. Try to get a full version chipset. like GT not GTS. Higher the number seems to be the better but that's not always the case." Sorry to bother you with all this =/

"Well as I understand, the more memory the better?" No, that's incorrect. 512MB is plenty. 1GB is a waste. Besides, you have to pay closer attention to the specs. 256-bit is totally different than 256MB. It has to do with the width of the data bus. Think of it as the graphics highway...the more lanes wide it is, the less chance of congestion or slowdowns. When looking for a card, there's a few basic things to look for (or look out for): Buswidth - the 3 you'll see most often are 64-bit, 128-bit, 256-bit. 64-bit should be avoided for gaming, 128-bit is OK, 256-bit is best. memory type - you'll see DDR, DDR2, GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, GDDR5. The "G" means that it's graphics memory. GDDR2 is the slowest of the "G"...it should be avoided for gaming. Always go with GDDR3 or better. memory amount - you'll rarely see 64MB or 128MB anymore unless it's an older model. Modern cards have 256MB, 512MB, 1024MB. You can get by with 256MB but 512MB is better. 1024MB really isn't necessary unless your system is an extremely hardcore gaming rig. stream processors - the more, the better. ATI & nVidia do things differently but the HD3850 has 320 stream processors, the 8600GT has 32...which do you think is better? The benchmark chart I posted in response #3 speaks for itself. You won't find a better card for $55.

Thanks for all the info :) I'll go with your suggestion. Wow waitup, the card you suggested... "SAPPHIRE 100226L Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail " PCI Express 2.0? I don't think that will be compatible.