hello / suggestion for new v.card

hi there, im new here. (first post w00t) I hope this is the right place to ask this question...

specs:
Athlon 3000 xp
Radeon 9600 Pro
1 gig ram
MSI K7N2 Delta

Ive been wondering which new graphics card should I get? Im looking for something to run games as new as battlefield 2 on at least medium settings reasonbly well. right now bf2 runs on medium with about 15-30 fps... id like to improve that. how fast a graphics card can I go without bottlenecks because of my cpu? which is the best value?

Im thinking either 6600 or 6800... but there are so many different cards; 6800 gt, 6800 ultra, 6800, all different brands, different specs, I just dont know which would be the best for my computer and the cheapest. please help! :)

Price of the 6800 series should be dropping now that the 7800 is out.

Your processor will seriously bottleneck a 6800, time for an Athlon 64.

I think a standard 6800 would probably do a fine job if you could find one cheap. Even though your CPU may limit the raw speed, you should be able to use the extra GPU processing power to enable Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering without much impact on performance.

i dont' see a problem with a regular 6800

yeah, of course I would like to get a new cpu, but that would require a new motherboard, and I cant right now. In the future though.

Would it be a justified to buy a 6800 or higher simply to have one for if I ever upgrade my cpu? or would that just cause problems?

btw would I have any problems with overheating or anything? I dont know my psu power so I know thats a dumb question, but Ive looked everywhere for it. would getting this new card put alot more strain then whats on it now?

thankyou for replies :)

I had a pny 6800 with my old athlon xp 3200+ and I don't think it was bottlenecked. I am actually trying to sell the 6800 right now b/c I'm building a new rig. Let me know if you'de want it.

sorry, I doubt ill be getting this for a couple months. I just wanted to start thinking about it.

The problem I see with an upgrade stategy is that the new video card will have to be AGP not PCI Express unless you upgrade the MB and CPU at the same time

sorry you lost me there... im not the smartest computer person. AGP, PCI?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Drin

sorry you lost me there... im not the smartest computer person. AGP, PCI?

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These are the names for the slots that the vid-card goes into. The older "agp" slot is being phased out slowly, while the pci-e slot is the new thing. A vid-card will only fit in one or the other, so you have to match it up with whichever slot your mobo has. Your mobo is bit older, so you would need to buy an agp vid-card to go with your mobo's agp slot.

For example: your current 9600pro is an agp card.

oh, ok. I looked up the 6800 on newegg, it seems like about 75% of them are 'agp'. Im guessing it wont be a huge problem?

Everyone's moving to PCIE so you may have to buy a whole new video card in the future if you buy an AGP 6800 now, or pay more for a board equipped with an AGP port.

oh, right, so if I ever upgrade my mobo then I will probably have to upgrade my video card too? I see your point.

how much more would an AGP equipped board be?