Need advice on a video card.
 

Basically, I want to get my girlfriend a video card for x-mas. She plays a decent number of games. Mostly WoW, but also other RPG's like Dragon Age and Elder Scrolls, and Fallout 3.

However, we set limits for xmas presents this year, so I am limited to 100 dollars. Also, she only has a 375w PSU, with 12v.

Sooo, what are my options?

Any suggestions?

Yeah, check out Lasereth's sticky video card buyers guide thread. In your price range the GeForce 9600 GSO is $60, and the Radeon 4850 is $99.

Check the specs for each of those cards and see what power supply they require. I don't know what cards will run on 375W these days. When I had my 400W, I had GeForce 6600GT and it was no problems with that set-up.

Yeah I got the Radeon 4850 and it runs Dragon Age at max detail settings. Lasereth's sticky thread about video cards is hand's down the best guide on the net about video cards. It's what I used to purchase my video card and I recommend it to anyone wanting to buy one.

At what resolution?

From what I've heard, this is no difficult feat. (I'm doing it with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT, 1600x1050, vsync enabled.)

But, yeah, check out Lasereth's sticky.

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/tilted-...ght=video+card

With what she's playing, the Radeon HD 4850 or 4870 512 MB would be more than enough.

A 9600 GT will also fit the bill. nVidia recommends 400 watts for power, but there's substantial overage built into that. It should be fine on 375, assuming a non-shitty PSU.

I would get the 4850. The PSU will probably be fine. Keep in mind that if it's an older PSU, you may need a molex to PCI-E power adapter. Some videocards come with them; some don't.

1440x920? Wide-screen windowed mode. I don't run at full screen.

I ended up getting the Newegg.com - Galaxy 98TFF6HXXEXZ Low Power Edition GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards.

We'll see how it goes!

That's a good choice even though it's less powerful than the 4850. But that uses less power and won't require a power rail going into it like the 4850.