Do I NEED a new graphics card?

[ND]

I recently bought a Dell 9150 which came with a PCI-E 256MB Radeon X600 graphics card. I've upgraded the system DDR2 RAM to 1.5GB.
Now, I'm old school (and out of practice) when it comes to games - the last game I really enjoyed and was any good at, was Quake 2. So I've just bought F.E.A.R., Quake 4, Starship Troopers and Hitman 2 to try my PC out.
F.E.A.R. nearly had me with an involuntary bowel movement two minutes into the game!
Question is, would I benefit from a graphics card upgrade? I would only be allowed (yes I'm married) to spend £50 - £100, and I don't play games often (did I mention that I'm married?). I'm looking to future-proof as far as I can, but have lost the plot as far as graphics cards are concerned, and believe that perhaps I should hold-fire until I KNOW that I need a new card. I guess I'm looking for confirmation of this belief more than anything.
Much obliged.

[PlexShaw]

The card you have is a bit rubbish to be honest. It really depends on what kind of performance you are looking for.

You could try lowering the settings on the games you are trying to play (which I would guess you are trying to play at full pelt), as well as updating the drivers for the card, but even that is a poor substitute for a better card with more grunt.

Most of the decent mid-range performers seem to cost around the £150 mark, so you may have to up your budget a little (perhaps this could be done by selling your current card afterwards?). I'm not really all that clued up on what is good at that price range though, as I went straight to the top of the food chain and got a 7800 GTX. Perhaps someone else has some suggestions...

[]EGG[]

Any decent branded Nvidia 6600GT PCI-E based video card (around the £80- £100 mark) should help :)

[llololloy]

Yeah, I would say a 6600GT or hunt around to see what radeon X8xx cards you can find. The x800GTs and GTOs are quite nippy and are sometimes hackable to unlock rendering pipes (though this isn't always guaranteed and DOES invalidate your warranty).
Have a look on www.hexus.net for some info, that's the place I tend to look at.

[Ds3]

EGG[']Any decent branded Nvidia 6600GT PCI-E based video card (around the £80- £100 mark) should help :)

Yep, if you're budget is limited to £100 then the 6600GT has got to be the best bet. If you can sneak a few more pennies out the piggy bank without her indoors noticing then £150 might find a X850XT on ebay or such like, and that would mean FEAR at full res and some very brown underwear for you ;)

[Solar.]

Yeah, I would say a 6600GT or hunt around to see what radeon X8xx cards you can find. The x800GTs and GTOs are quite nippy and are sometimes hackable to unlock rendering pipes (though this isn't always guaranteed and DOES invalidate your warranty).
Have a look on www.hexus.net for some info, that's the place I tend to look at.
i read the GTO are quite crap but the GTO2 is an exellent card for flashing
apparently you can get a xtpe out of it with no future hassle
but i wouldnt recommend a 6600gt, i would go for the 6800, you could pick one up for near £100 now

[Ds3]

According to the Tom's Hardware charts the performance difference between a 6600GT 128MB and 6800 256MB is only 8%. A 6800 Ultra would be better but you'd be lucky to find one for £100.

http://images.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga_charts_viiiuk/3dupgrade-big.gif

[ND]

Food for thought. Thanks folks. :thumbs:

[PockyMonster]

i run a 6600GT and playing Battlefield 2 just makes me wish i had a 6800GT. or an ultra. or two of them. or a 7800. or two of them... thank god my overdraft is already nearly maxed eh ;)

[Blokie]

A 6800 can often have the extra pixel pipelines and shaders enabled via software (to make 16x6) which gives a big performance boost. Do this in conjunction with GPU and Memory overclocking and you can get near 6800GT performance levels for around the £100 mark (as opposed to £175+ for a 6800GT).

[ND]

Eventually ordered an XFX 6800 GS PCI-E XXX Edition. :thumbs: . When it arrives, I'll let you know how I get on.
Slightly :eek: over my original budget, she tells me :help: