What kind of new video/graphics card would you suggest I get?

Now that school is over with, I have time to upgrade my PC with a new video card so I can play more games. But I have never done this before and I need some help!





Here's what my PC already has:


Windows XP Home Edition


2.7 Ghz Celeron processor


512 MB RAM


25 GB of HD space left (out of 60 GB)


64 MB Intel Extreme 3D Graphics card (integrated, it sucks)





My PC has 2 or 3 PCI slots availble, so I need a PCI card.


I was planning on getting just a 256 MB PCI video card. I really only want it to get the games that I already have to run smoother and so I can actually get the newer games to run. Also I have about $80 in gift cards for Best Buy (from my birthday a couple months ago) and not much cash in my wallet, so I would like to get one around $80-$120. I would also like something thats easy to install, but if it's not I can always get my computer game geek Uncle to help me out :-)





Thanks!

What kind of new video/graphics card would you suggest I get?
First of all, that 2 or 3 PCI slots that you're looking at, is NOT PCI-E. There's a difference. Current videocard supports PCI-E, and not PCI. Considering how old PCI graphic cards are, you'd probably won't be able to find any now.





But I suppose your motherboard has an AGP slot? They are usually black in color. Or if it's quite recent, maybe it will have PCI-E 16x which is use for graphic card. Either one, you won't find both AGP and PCI-E 16 on your board.





You didn't specify the exact model of your motherboard so we can't tell if your system supports AGP or PCI-E. If you still have your motherboard manual, you can easily find the info in it.





AGP is a little old, and your options may be limited, but it doesn't matter. Here's where your system limitation comes in.





Celeron is a budget processor, meaning the performance is compromise for the sake of budget. It's not a fast CPU. Also, your system ram is quite limited. A 1gig RAM (1024MB) is bare minimum for today's gaming.





So, that two will pose a problem, or some kind of limitation to how fast your CGA card can run. Certain instruction are run by your CPU and if your CPU is slow, a very fast graphic card will spend alot of time waiting for the CPU. So, my point here is that a very fast graphic card will be a waste of money as it will be bottlenecked by your system..





The older GeForce 6600GT would probably suit your system but they are rare these days. You might look at GeForce 7600GS. Not the best card but it should do well in your system, as your system may not handle anything faster than that anyway. Both cards I mention there, they have AGP8x and PCI-E16 version, buy one that's compatible with your motherboard.
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