Need help deciding on a new graphics card.

[MagellanFreet]

My current is an Asus 7600GS 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA TVO PCI-E Graphics Card. I'm looking for a suitable, cost effective upgrade. I want to play stuff like COD 4 and Age of Conan on a decent setting and according to the manufacturers specs my graphics card is the only thing that's lacking (It meets minimum but not recommended). I have a budget of around £70-£100 max, would prefer lower price if possible! (140-200$), so i've not really got much to spend. I'm not looking for a state of the art 8800 or anything just something better than what I've got that will make a noticable difference to my FPS and the level of detail I can run games at. WoW is fine for me, 60 FPS always but on games such as Assassins Creed it runs a bit choppy and the models look kind of jagged round the edges. I know quite a bit about computers but I'm a total noob to graphics cards, I don't understand what anything above means. I know that 512mb isn't too bad but the rest of it might as well be a different language, and when searching for a graphics card I have been very confused. So if you could explain what is better about the one you recommend and how it will improve my performance I'd appreciate it. Also I've noticed my textures are a little messed up such as the grass on the floor in Garrys Mod is a little glitched and I think this might be due to my graphics card or current configuration.

For COD 4 it says Recommended: 3.0 Shader Support recommended. Nvidia Geforce 7800 or better or ATI Radeon X1800 or better.

For Age of Conan it says Recommended: 512 MB DirectX 9.0c Graphics Card with Shader 2.0 support (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent).

So I will be needing a card with these things, whatever they mean. Age of Conan is more important as I haven't got COD 4 yet and only thinking of getting it.

Thanks in advance.

[Sonic Waffle]

If I was you, I would go for a Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX since it's an HD GPU...

Designed for extreme HD gaming, the NVIDIA® SLI™-Ready GeForce® 7900 graphics processing units (GPUs) deliver the most graphics performance bang for your buck, including ultra-realistic gaming experiences and resolutions up to 2560x1600. A 256-bit memory interface and fast GDDR3 memory enable blazing graphics performance with maximum quality so you don’t have to choose between frame rates and image quality.

Need a break from gaming? The GeForce 7900 GPU also delivers smooth, high-definition video playback and crisp picture quality thanks to its advanced NVIDIA® PureVideo™ technology.

[MigIdiot]

If you are thinking of playing Age of Conan, I recoment you read this: Detailed AoC hardware and performance analysis.

[meh]

If I was you, I would go for a [color=Red]Nvidia GeForce 7900 GTX since it's an HD GPU...

no definitely don't get a 7900gtx, they are 3 series old now.

You want to look at either an 8800gts g92 rev 512mb, a 8800gt 512mb, or sli 9600gt's


even a single 9600gt can be found for cheap (under 150$) and will run the games very well.

[Narudan]

agreed on the 9600gt

[solarn]

imo inno3d 8800gt oc

[MagellanFreet]

Thanks for all the recommendations, I finally settled on an 8800GT 512mb. Just ordered it ^^. Did some research from what you told me and that seemed to be the best one for the money. Don't think I've got an SLI motherboard, how would I tell?