Looking to upgrade my video card...

Before emptying your wallet on a new video card I’d like to ask a few questions for you.
A) Are the FPS issues happening in single player, multiplayer, or both? (If the issue only happens in multiplayer it maybe the server you connect to)
B) What game is it? (The game could just be buggy and have framerate issues)

$50—$100 go with a GT8800
$100—$150 HD 4830
$150—$200 HD 4850
$200—$250 HD 4870 512mb (I have this and it runs everything like a dream)

Another thing you should look at is, does your motherboard have 2 PCI-E ports. If so leave the old one in there and buy another one to chuck in next to it. This will greatly boost your power instead of wasting the old card.

@hype: It’s a single player game… Rise of the Argonauts. It just came out today. I’ve read about a few glitch issues but nothing about FR problems.

@joey: Unfortunately I only have 1 PCI slot.

Follow-up question… I have an Asus EN8400GS Silent still in the box but I don’t know if that would be an upgrade or not. Bought it for another PC a couple months ago and never used it. Don’t really want to open it if it’s not going to help.

Although Asus is a good brand it’s not my first pick when I look at video cards. Why not look into another nVidia card or an ATI card. So far my Nvidia card is my favorite. It’s an old card so I’m not sure digging out the model number would be of much use to you.

After a bit of research (based on Eambos’ suggestions) I’m lookin’ at the Powercolor Radeon HD 4830. Newegg has it for just under $120 with S&H. Not 100% yet but I’m feelin’ pretty good about it so far lol

I’m not sure if they still do, but I believe the Diggnation podcast offers coupon codes for Newegg.

Cool, I’ll check it out. Thanks

If not I believe the code “Diamond” works.

The 4830 is really nice, but if you look a little, you might even find a 4850 for $130. I know one was on sale for $119 last week, and a 4830 was $99.

Just make sure that you have a sufficent power supply. I think the 4830 needs a 400w psu and the 4850 may need a 450w psu. The required wattage may be lower, so look that up.

@hype – nVidia has been king for a while, but now ATi has taken that throne away from them. Their latest 4800 series is amazing, especially at the sub $300 price point.

It really sucks when you buy a new component and you don’t have the power to run it.

Asus make some of the best Nvidia cards but the Asus EN8400GS Silent won’t be much of an upgrade. 8600GT should be the bare minimum you should be considering and only because they are very cheap and play most games that are out at the moment (but not at max settings). Best value as already mentioned is the 8800GT. If you have a bit more cash to spend consider the Radeon HD 4870 X2
http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6196419/index.html
or one of these Nvida offerings
http://uk.gamespot.com/features/6192545/index.html

Bear in mind that most benchmark tests on review sites are done with stock drivers (i.e. the ones that come on the cd with the card). You can actually squeeze a lot more performance out of Nvidia cards by updating the drivers to their latest or beta versions whereas Ati drivers are a lot less frequent and offer less of a perfomance boost – infact I recall their site advising not to upgrade drivers unless something is broken/not working.