Hi,

Last week, my PSU went crazy and blew my mother board up. Now I dealed with mom and hse authorizes me to use her computer. Here are the specs:

What was in
What I bought

AMD Athlon 64 @ 2.4GHz
512mb RAM (DDR2)
Stock 180W PSU ---- Retail+ 550W PSU (Not yet installed)
Integrated GFX ---- ????????????

Now that I got a proper PSU and I know that the rest of the system can follow, I have 260$ (CAD) to spend on a decent graphics card. What would be the best choice for me? My mom only play Sims 2 on her computer so it's not like she is gonna use a lot of it. I would like to fit in the budget so please don't suggest me a 8800GT. Thanks!

Suggestion : what about a http://www.canadacomputers.com ... 17402&cid=999.243.390

Nvidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB DDR3. I've heard that is quite a good card for a tight budget.

Yah, I would recommend a 9600GT as well. You get plenty for the buck as it is quiet speedy.

First of all - does your PC have an AGP or PCI-e slot?

Quote from Jakg :

First of all - does your PC have an AGP or PCI-e slot?

It does have PCI-E slots (2) so most of the cards can be used on this one, not like my 3 years old Sempron.

Mu thought it; what GFX will 'do the job' with only 512mb of RAM? I coudl buy more, but right now I only want to buy the GFX itself, I can still buy a 1go or RAM later on... Also I want something that won't get fuzzy if I ever want to overclock it a bit. I think a GeForce 7800-7900 would be right for me, but now which one should I take?

The 9800GT is a bit expensive to my taste, considering it's only going to be used for LFS and Sims 2. :S

Edit: I think I will go for a Nvidia GeForce 7600 or 7800. Now I only want to know which one, and in which version. Thanks!

If your going to buy a 78/7900 check the price is right - they are about £60 in the UK, however because the stocks are so low i've seen 'em for £150.

If it's ONLY gonna be for the Sims and LFS then you might as well get a 7600GT.

If i had a SLi mobo I would get two 7600GT & run them in SLi mode that will give you massive performance, equivalent to a very expensive card.

No, it wont.

Two 7600GT's in SLi are slower than a 7900GTX. And they will be noisier. And use more power. And be expensive.

SLi sucks unless you get the cards REALLY cheap, use a massive (30+ inch TFT running 2xxx pixels or more) monitor or if you have THE best cards on the market - trust me, i tried the same thing with 6600GT's back "in the day". It was crap.

According to toms hardware guide 7600 gt in sli are equal in performance to a 7950GT.
I saw them on offer 2 for £70incl so if you have the power it's worth a shot.

7950GT's aren't that good. They are between a 7900GT and a GTX, and sort of don't make any marketing sense.

Don't get a 7950GT and a 7950GX2 mixed up.

Toms Hardware's benchmarks are imo always a little bit oddd - they use ooooold drivers and then compare them to a brand new card with the latest drivers and declare a result based on that.

Will a 7600GT + 1.2go or RAM handle LFS with everything maxxed out + 4096 skins + 2048 textures everywhere + 4x AA + AF Over 120FPS? I'm really a bling-bling whore so I need to know!

i have th 7950 gt ko superclocked(factory),still prety good i can say,however its getting old.

I stopped my choice on a Nvidia GeForce 7600GT and 2GB of RAM from Kingston. The whole package will cost me under 150$ so I'm pretty much happy with that.

I gotz myself a club 3d 7600gt 256mb version ddr3... as far as i can tell.... lfs has not gone below 100fps =] and i got that card for 60$ so im happy... but.. it only gave me 3220 3d marks on 3dmark 06.