Recommendations for upgrade from Nvidia GeForce 8600 256 mb video card?

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Doc

Currently I have an Nvidia GeForce 8600 256 mb PCIe card. I'm not a
big gamer but have been playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 which is a
couple of years old and find I can't run it on the highest quality
setting. It doesn't look bad at the med setting but wondering what it
would look like on the highest available settings.

What's a card that would give a decent upgrade in performance, and
give me the headroom to play newer FPS games? Doesn't have to be
latest greatest and I'm not too proud to go used off eBay.

One thing I find I need to be conscious of are the PSU specs. Mine is
an Antec Earthwatts EA380, 380 watt. I was looking at an EVGA -
GeForce GT 520 2GB currently on sale at Best Buy but it requires min
18 watts on the 12v rail and this PSU apparently has 17 watts.

Thanks for all input.

System Specs:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L mobo
XP Pro SP3
Core2 Duo E6550 2.33 ghz
Antec Earthwatts EA380 380 watt PSU
Nvidia GeForce 8600 256 mb video
 
Doc said:
Currently I have an Nvidia GeForce 8600 256 mb PCIe card. I'm
not a big gamer but have been playing Battlefield Bad Company 2
which is a couple of years old and find I can't run it on the
highest quality setting. It doesn't look bad at the med setting
but wondering what it would look like on the highest available
settings.

What's a card that would give a decent upgrade in performance,
and give me the headroom to play newer FPS games? Doesn't have
to be latest greatest and I'm not too proud to go used off eBay.
Click to expand...

There can be a big difference between "latest and greatest" and
"used off eBay".

--
 
There can be a big difference between "latest and greatest" and
"used off eBay".
Click to expand...


What I'm looking for is a not latest greatest card better than the one
I have that can be had for a bargain. Got any specific recommendations?
 
Doc said:
Currently I have an Nvidia GeForce 8600 256 mb PCIe card. I'm not a
big gamer but have been playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 which is a
couple of years old and find I can't run it on the highest quality
setting. It doesn't look bad at the med setting but wondering what it
would look like on the highest available settings.

What's a card that would give a decent upgrade in performance, and
give me the headroom to play newer FPS games? Doesn't have to be
latest greatest and I'm not too proud to go used off eBay.

One thing I find I need to be conscious of are the PSU specs. Mine is
an Antec Earthwatts EA380, 380 watt. I was looking at an EVGA -
GeForce GT 520 2GB currently on sale at Best Buy but it requires min
18 watts on the 12v rail and this PSU apparently has 17 watts.

Thanks for all input.

System Specs:

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L mobo
XP Pro SP3
Core2 Duo E6550 2.33 ghz
Antec Earthwatts EA380 380 watt PSU
Nvidia GeForce 8600 256 mb video
Click to expand...

Beware - there are 2 connector types for video cards. Everything these days
is PCIe, but your motherboard might be an older VESA connector. A quick
google search on the model number suggests that its PCIe, but best to check
that before you buy anything. The webpage that Paul gave me recently is
http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu. The 8600 card is not on the
list, but the 8600GT and GS versions are - scoring in the 400-600 range, so
that should give you a few performance pointers. I don't know if your card
is much slower than the GS and GT versions, but the 520GT scores about the
same as them, so potentially not much of an upgrade!
 
GT said:
Beware - there are 2 connector types for video cards. Everything these
days is PCIe, but your motherboard might be an older VESA connector. A
quick google search on the model number suggests that its PCIe, but best
to check that before you buy anything. The webpage that Paul gave me
recently is http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu. The 8600 card is
not on the list, but the 8600GT and GS versions are - scoring in the
400-600 range, so that should give you a few performance pointers. I don't
know if your card is much slower than the GS and GT versions, but the
520GT scores about the same as them, so potentially not much of an
upgrade!
Click to expand...

To add to what GT posted, I bought a GT520 1GB GDDR3 December of last year
and can honestly say it was the most disappointing $50 I ever spent (and
I've bought some really bad crap in my many years). I was going to replace
an older GT240, thinking it was a pretty cheap upgrade. Cheap, yes; upgrade,
no! The 240 runs circles around it.

I haven't played Bad Company on my 240, but I have played Far Cry, Bioshock,
numerous Call of Duty releases, and the whole Painkiller series, and use the
highest possible settings with no problems at all. Probably pick one up
pretty cheap now.
 
Beware - there are 2 connector types for video cards. Everything these days
is PCIe, but your motherboard might be an older VESA connector. A quick
google search on the model number suggests that its PCIe, but best to check
that before you buy anything. The webpage that Paul gave me recently ishttp://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu. The 8600 card is not on the
list, but the 8600GT and GS versions are - scoring in the 400-600 range, so
that should give you a few performance pointers. I don't know if your card
is much slower than the GS and GT versions, but the 520GT scores about the
same as them, so potentially not much of an upgrade!
Click to expand...


Mine is an 8600 GT, I left the GT out.
 
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