I want to upgrade my graphics card to something better, hopefully not too expensive, not sure what a decent graphics card will cost, ideally under £100 but if a quality card costs more then so be it. What I'm looking for:

1. A card which has working AA in GPL/LFS

2. A card which will fit easilly into whatever slot the ATi comes out of, I don't know if the fittings are standardised or not

3. Quietness

4. A card which will run GTL/rFactor/RBR and so on properly

5. I don't want a ground breakingly good card, I currently get around 35 FPS in LFS if it could go up to 50+ that'd be great

My PC specs are:

P4 2.8 ghz
GIGABYTE MAYA RADEON 9000 PRO
PSA2 Ultimate Edge Philips sound card
512 MB RAM

Packard Bell
XP home

http://www.tomshardware.com/20 ... a_charts_viii/page18.html

There are some charts comparing both Nvidia and ATi Graphic Boards. Nearly all of them should be a good replacement for your card. Even replacing your Radeon 9000 with a 9600 or 9800 should give you a good boosst. But I wouldn't by those, choosing a passively cooled X800 or Nvidia 6800 should be a good choice.

Just check your boards documentation wether you need PCI-e (express) or AGP type.

Sorry I'm afraid I don't know where my card would be on that list, my guess is it wouldn't even be on it. Seeing as the 6600 GT was right at the bottom and it was a bit above the maximum I wanted to pay for a card, having heard it's noisy rather put me off. In reality how good is a card like that going to be compared to the heap of junk in my PC atm?

As for board documentation where can I get it from, is it possible to find it through the control panel?

Itll be an AGP slot card, so thats what you will be wanting.

Personally, for what your after i think a Radeon 9600pro or 9700pro would be pretty much perfect for your needs. You could stretch to a 9800pro, but i honestly dont think you will need to.

Thanks for the advice

Looking at some on Amazon and I see there are different versions of the 9600, whats the better one to get? I can see at least the Saphire 128MB and Powercolour 256MB, not sure if that's all of them likewise there are 3 versions of the 9700 Pro. Whats the difference between these, is there an idiot proof guide to all this somewhere

6600GT from Gigabyte is available with a passive cooling, means there is no fan resulting in absolutely NO noise. Your system is fine for a better card than a 9600/9700. Choosing a 9800pro would give a good boost, but those are not available without fans, meaning noise.

the 128Mb 9700 pro cards have slightly faster onboard ram than the 256mb version , the best cards have L shaped ram configuration , I think the pic quality is better with the 9700 pro than with my 9800 pro and is only a few Fps lower .

are you looking at 2nd hand cards as there are some bargains to be had on ebay also the 9500Pro (Lshaped Ram ) should run as good as the 9700 non pro easily .

I have a 9700 pro I have just taken out of my shuttle sys up for sale soon .

SD.

Looked on ebay and I'd of thought £56 + £8 postage would be reasonable for a 9700 Pro?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hercules ... ZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Also whats the difference between a Hercules card and an ATi one?