Video Card Upgrade Question

[dishalish]

Hello everyone,

I just joined up because I'm looking to upgrade my video card, but I was looking to see if anyone could give me an idea of what to look at. I want to get CoD2, I can handle the demo on my rig that I have now...with lower settings of course, but I think I want to upgrade the Vid Card and my Memory for it, but I'm not sure to what.

Currently these are my stats:

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
Memory: 512MB DDR-SDRAM(1 stick - I have another slot open)
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9000 PRO 128 MB
80GB HD
Soundblaster Live

Anyways, it's a decent pc to just mess around with, but I want to see if I can't beef it up a little without spending too much money because I'll be getting a new PC in a few months. So, can anyone suggest a decent videocard to look at, or perhaps whether I should worry about that or memory, or both?

Thanks in advance,

dish

[Luke2]

Could You tell us your budget ???

[dishalish]

Budget for the Vid Card is probably around $150

I'd spend more if I really need to get more memory, which it sounds like it helps a good bit if you grab an extra stick.

[jfk]

At that price point I would look hard at a NVIDIA 6600GT. That would be the best performance/cost performer out there. A second choice would be a ATI 9800Pro. I would also grab another 512Mb of memory. Memory is cheap right now and COD2 DEFINATELY benefits from more system memory. JMO.

[dishalish]

I did a little research and as much as I like my ATI, I think I might take your advice and go for the 6600GT, it sounds like a good bargain for the price and I have seen very few complaints about the card. I believe I'll purchase one with another stick of 512 and then see how she runs. Thanks for the input! :D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122201

that's what i'm looking at for the vid card.

I like to mess around with pc's but I am not an expert by any means and I was wondering if you could tell me what I should look at to see if I could have a seamless install of this 6600GT into my current rig. I can post more involved specs if need be. - Thanks

dish

[oleblue73]

The 512MB RAM upgrade sounds good, but for the same price, instead of a 128MB 6600GT, I'd get a Radeon x800GT with 256MB( and 256-bit memory instead of wimpy 128-bit). I'm looking at the X800 GTO for myself which is even faster for only about $190. The advantage of a 6600GT, though, is the NVIDIA cards features better video playback. (Impotant if you watch movies on you PC or do any video editing.) Just my 2-cents.