Hi Guys, I need your expertise in buying the BEST graphics card that would suit my needs. First let me give you a little detail about my present CPU -
Intel DH55TC Motherboard, 2GB RAM.
OS= Windows XP Professional SP2 x86
I am looking for a Nvidia GeForce Graphics card that runs latest games.
Also, my budget is around Rs4000. The less the better.
So what are your suggestions
Welcome to Anandtech!
1. You will want to upgrade your RAM to at least 4GBs for gaming. To run dual-channel, you'd need same sized RAM sticks (so 2x2GB or 2x4GB, etc.). If you are on a budget, grab another 2GBs. Otherwise, I suggest you just get rid of that 2GB stick and buy a 2x4GB kit right off the bat (get a kit with 1.5V or lower, spec DDR3-1333, DDR3-1600 recommended).
2. Can you please provide the resolution of your monitor?
3. What Power Supply do you have? (wattage and Amperage on 12V rail).
4. What graphics cards are available for RS4000 where you live? Also, please list NV and AMD alternatives. Based on the conversation rate, it appears to be around $90 USD. That's not a sufficient budget for a graphics card required to play the latest games with highest details and anti-aliasing. The best cards < $100 are probably going to be a GTS450 or an AMD HD5770. However, if you can stretch the budget a little, GTX460 768mb is the best card for gaming (assuming your monitor's resolution doesn't exceed 1080P). Again, it would be good to know the market prices of these cards in Kolkata.
5. If you have a dual core CPU, then be prepared to lose anywhere from 25-30% in performance in certain games that take advantage of 4 cores (BF2:BC, probably more in BF3,
Dirt 3 and
Witcher 2).
6.
Here is a comparison of top budget videocards under $150 USD (you can see HD3000 in there is unusable for modern games - that's the fastest Intel Integrated graphics, which is 2x faster than yours).