New Video Card Help

[Haggus McGee]

I got the following for xmas: new 1400x900 tft monitor (a v. nice upgrade from my big box one); Cod 4, 5 and Bioshock.

My PC keeps shutting down abbruptedly (crashes i think) during COD4 (the only one i've tried), sometimes on TF2, and on L4d.

I have a problem. Aulthough I have a big processor, lots of ram; gametracker tells me I have a ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT video card. It came with the PC. It had been fine with Tf2 etc. with my old resoloution on the teeny tiny monitor with glass screen.

I assume that this is caused by a bad video card. I plan to buy a new one unless someone points out that would be foolish. The thing is, (where you come in) I have seen a huge variation of prices, even ?50+ for 256MB, and ?45-?200 for 1GB ones. I am so confused, I don't know what to buy on quality, brand etc. So I would like a card which runs games in high resoloution with good quality settings. If someone could project a budget, and even specifications I would appreciate it.

The one that looks the best to me for less than ?60 is this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154994

Model - NVIDIA 9500GT 1GB with HDMI
Part - NE29500THHD01-PM8796
Interface - PCI-Express 2.0
Memory - 1GB DDR2 @ 800MHz 128-bit
Core - 550MHz
Max Res - 2048x1536
Outputs - VGAx1, DVIx1, HDMIx1
OS Support - Windows XP, Windows Vista
Features - DirectX10, PhysX, CUDA, SLI, Silent Cooler, SM4.0, Dual-Link HDCP Capable.

Please tell me if this is suitable or if I need to be spending more.

 

[bigbaddabooma]

your card was ok back in the day,im wondering if maybe heat is a issue here.when was the last time you took a can of air to it and blown out the dust,cause if your fans on your card is clogged with dust that will cause the card to crash.
well 1 that card is not that great its not really a hardcore gamer card..look for a 9800 or a 8800gt cause 9800s are just relabeled 88s..that card dont have a fan on it so unless you have a great air tunnel running threw your rig,that cards going to get hot.
this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155103
or this will kill games
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155030
I would go for the second 1 cause it has a better cooling fan on it.and there pretty much the same,and both are very great makers of cards.
And if you plan on gettting a new card,you better make sure your power supply is up to par
atleast 500 watts 22 amps to run a newer card.

 

[pillar]

just a lil heads up, heres the difference between the 9500 & 9600 (ull def notice the difference): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...mpareItemList=N82E16814127333,N82E16814130378

also when lookin for a newer card, i would look into some kinda card that will have a limited lifetime warranty (i just got an evga card that has that & since i got it registered, i really dont have 2 worry bout it cause if it goes down or somethin happens 2 it, ill get it replaced or possibly upgraded!!)

 

[.[BORN]2kill]

just a lil heads up, heres the difference between the 9500 & 9600 (ull def notice the difference): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...mpareItemList=N82E16814127333,N82E16814130378

also when lookin for a newer card, i would look into some kinda card that will have a limited lifetime warranty (i just got an evga card that has that & since i got it registered, i really dont have 2 worry bout it cause if it goes down or somethin happens 2 it, ill get it replaced or possibly upgraded!!)

Do you have to register it to get the lifetime? I have one I got last year but never registered.

 

[SixSicSix]

EVGA 9800GT rocks, also the 9600GSO is good from what I hear.

 

[Haggus McGee]

Thanks everyone, especially bigbaddabooma.

 

[L1m!teD]

I have an ASUS EN9600GSO 384MB DDR3 and it runs great! I play all the games on high resolution, games like Fallout 3, NBA 2K9, NFS Undercover... Also it has a Glaciator Fansink, which keeps the temperature low and you can overclock it a lot. I overclocked it from 800MHz to 1100MHz Memory Clock and from 425MHz to 700MHz GPU Clock. Now it runs like 9800GT. And I don't think that it was expensive (actually I don't know because my dad owns a PC shop and he gives me all kinds of cool upgrades for my PC) PS I got this card for New Year.