New to tinkering with computers; video card upgrade advice?

Hello everyone. I'm looking to upgrade from my sub-par Nvidia GeForce 7500LE.

I have no idea what kind of information is relevant to the decision of which card to purchase, but my system looks like this:

HP Pavillion A1750Y
256MB Nvidia GeForce 7500LE
Intel core 2 duo processor (e4300, 1.8ghz)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM

All I know about my current card is that it's rather low-end and runs out of a PCI Express slot; I do play PC games, but I don't need anything top-of-the-line.

Thank you in advance; you all seem incredibly knowledgeable and helpful on these forums, and I hope that I may someday return the favour.

 

Which card you will need depends on what you play. If you want to play a game that is brand new that is pretty demanding then you will need a better card than one to play say... CSS or something that is not so graphically advanced. Let us know what you plan on playing.

 

Your system is pretty decent overall, but for high end gaming you'll want a new CPU as well as a new graphics card. However, you could try overclocking your Core 2 Duo to get extra performance for free. Google around for articles on overclocking the core 2 duos.

As for a graphics card, a 7900 or higher card would be an improvement depending on your budget. The LE cards are crippled, as well as yours being the 7500 model.

 

He has a Core 2 Duo. It's just a mid range C2D. There are three ranges; E21xx, 4xxx, 6xxx. All three are great overclockers and all three are perfect for high end gaming riggs. I still need to know what you plan on playing. But if you want something that you will want to be able to play pretty much anything you throw at it, just do what most people are doing and get one of the g92 stepping 8800GT cards.

 

Thank you for the replies, everyone, and I apologise for not being able to get back to you sooner.

Gazaway, I am currently playing Lord of The Rings Online, which I can run at close to max settings with minimal degredation to performance. I also have games such as Fable & Oblivion installed, and I will be playing Warhammer Online once it arrives.

I'm not looking to spend over $250 for a video card; the upgrade is essentially an interim purchase until I can flesh out my knowledge of building my own DX10 rig, which is yet months away.

Thanks for the overclocking advice, Addis; I'll have to add that to my to-do list.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

Warhammer is going to be a beast unfortunately. All benchmarks I have seen done with it have actually tested the latest hardware pretty well. If you plan on playing that and only want to spend ~$250 then an 8800GT is RIGHT up your alley. Soon you'll be able to get the 8800GT 512 for under that price, as it's !$260-300 right now. If you can't wait for the prices to drop (due to the new 98xx series comming out) and you want this card now, the 8800GT 256 or the ATI 3850 or 3870 would be right up your alley. All of these cards will be able to play Warhammer, depending on how textile intense it is.

Another plus of buying this will enable you to throw it into you Dx10 rigg you say you are building and if you've got the money you can get another matching card to SLI/Crossfire (obviously depending on which you get.) It's kind of an investment if you think of it that way.

 

Thank you, Gazaway; that was exactly the information I was after. Before I was leaning towards some lower-end cards, but it really does make the most sense to grab the 8800. I'll wait a bit for the prices to drop on the 512Mb model like you suggested; save up a bit more and purchase the two of them.


EDIT: One more detail, though this probably belongs in another forum; with the inevitable purchase of the 8800GT (512Mb), I should probably upgrade the 300w Power Supply that is currently installed, correct?

Thanks again for assisting yet another neophyte from the quagmire of component-ignorance.

 

Yes, I would recommend upgrading that 300W PSU. Although the new 8800GT models are quite easy on power consumption (right above the extremely low consuming 8600GTs) you will still want to upgrade that. I would recommend a decent name brand in the 450-550 W range. That will give you the room to SLI a couple of 8800GT cards at a later date.

 

Thanks Gazaway. You've been a ton of help to me.