What's the optimum graphics card I can use?

[Space_Coyote]

My 'current' system is very outdated but I don't have much money for upgrades. This is what I'm dealing with right now:

Athlon XP 1800
GeForce 4 4800Ti 128MB
1GB Ram
350W Enermax PSU

My buddy is giving me his old Athlon 2200 and AGP Mobo (not sure what type ATM, sorry). It will help a little but not a whole lot so I was going to buy a $100-150 GFX card too.

What is a decent card from this range that will work ok with that CPU and PSU?

I found this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130220

It says min 350W so I should be ok but will the 2200 slow it down too much? If so, please recommend one that will make the best use of what I will have. I'm looking for the best price/performance ratio without upgrading the PSU (which I will do eventually when I ditch the whole thing and go PCI-E).

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Space_Coyote]

I'm thinking the 6600GT might be overkill for the Athlon 2200. What about either of these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150086

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102585

 

[Computergen1]

Whoa! With a 350W PSU u dont wanna run a 6600GT.....that would require too much....

Not too sure about the 6600 or the X700....

 

[mr.monger]

it should run fine with 6600gt so long as you dont have too much extra junk like led fans and all that. you may want to invest in a better psu though... they can go for really cheap.

 

[Space_Coyote]

Really? You don't think it will 'bottleneck' with the older CPU? I will try to find out more about the Mobo. I could upgrade the PSU to a 550W or something in anticipation of my future build.

 

[mr.monger]

no i doubt it, you really dont need a awesome cpu to run games on high if you have a good gfx card. except games one the source engine because they use more cpu than most

 

[Space_Coyote]

Ok, I'm pretty sure the 350W PSU will be able to handle a 9800pro/6600/X700 card. They are around the same price and look to have about the same performance. Which one would you suggest and why?

 

[Space_Coyote]

How much does the graphics language affect performance? I was looking at these 2 refurbs, one is 256MB but the other is made by ATI and has OpenGL 2.0 and higher speeds.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102450R

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102352R

I like the look of the Sapphire more, what are everyone's thought?

 

[Space_Coyote]

Crap, i just noticed they were 9600's, not 9800 like I thought, doh! Can someone recommend a 9800pro?

 

[Gamingfreak]

if i were u i would get the 6600gt because it performs very well and is very reliable and i think its better than teh 9800 pro