Help choosing a video card

Hi, I'm looking for a decent deal on a video card (I've been shopping through newegg..) and what I'm basically gonna be using it for is a few games here and there, along with some editing (faster rendering qualities), and watching HD movies. I'm not sure what I'm really looking to pay, but just a few cards in this ballpark would be greatly appreciated.

 

A little vague there.

What "games" do you play here and there? Do you play minesweeper & patience here and there, or is it Crysis & Call of Duty here and there?

 

Nah, mediocre graphics like WoW

 

I would recommend the GeForce 9800 GT or something that has similar specs to it. It's not an expensive card (you can find some online for less than $130) and it can run most new games like Black Ops quite smoothly. It should be perfectly capable of running WoW with no lag. Also, it has HD DVD and Blu-Ray support.

 

Well, rendering speed would be a CPU upgrade.

My RIO and I have a pretty decent gaming pc in our room (living on base ftw!) running dual 8800GTs with SLi enabled and a simple Wolfsdale 8600 Processor and 6 Gb of RAM on Windows 7. It mows down a lot of modern games pretty easily. WoW will run smoothly maxed out on the 8800GTs.

If you want to go a little bit modern, I hear the GTX 480 is really, really well made, but they are a bit pricey. If you're an AMD guy, go with a ATI 5650 HD.
Though it's possible that in order to get the most out of your 5650, you'll have to spend a some extra money upgrading your system.


What are your PC specs?

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-recommendation-upgrade,2803.html

should be reasonably accurate YMMV

 

Can never go wrong with the chart. I have a ATI 5770 and I believe you can find one around $150 if you look in the right place.

 

this.

 

this

 

this. I'm currently using it and its great.

 

9800GT was a good card... two years ago.

it's outdated and better can be had now for less money.

 

Now its all about the 500 series NVIDIA or the 6000 series ATI. The 560 and 570 are great deals, stay away from the 580, over priced for the performance.

 

I currently am running an ATI 6870... very nice card for around ~$200. Hasn't given me too many problems outside of having very little support for a Linux distro... but who needs that

 

While those are phenomenal cards, he doesn't need that much power for World of Warcraft .

As someone mentioned before; GeForce 9800GT. You probably won't be playing the game maxed out, but there's not much of a difference when it's maxed out.

 

Get a GTX 460 or a radeon 6850.