No. Forget the 9xxx series, although I used to advocate nVidia I’d have to say check out ATi’s new line of graphics cards. They have some very competitively priced, well-performing GPUs. Or just wait for nVidia’s fermi…
Bollocks, I got a 1GB GTX250 a few months back. Did I do the right thing?
If it’s anywhere close to my 285 1GB, then yes. I love this card.
i.e. it sucks 
In the same price range as the 9500, there’s the Radeon 4670, which I have, which will run EP2 smoothly at max, or close to max settings. The 9500 probably would as well, dunno.
Radeon have perfect Price to Performance ratio.
Guys… seriously, dont confuse the poor guy any further.
If you want the best-of-the-best single GPU cards, the Radeon 5870 and 5850 lead the pack by far. I’m sorry to say, but nVidia really fell behind.
If you want nVidia for some reason, the GTX 275 is as good a value as you’re gonna get. Its not as powerful as the GTX 280, which is nVidia’s most powerful single-gpu card, but its pretty damn close at a better value. keep in mind though that the radeon 5870 blows both of these away, and even the dual-GPU GTX 295.
Simple as that. but keep in mind that the amount of volts your PSU outputs on the rails is as important as the wattage of the power supply. Also make sure that it has the necessary 6 and/or 8 pin connectors, and that your PC has enough room for these cards (they are hella long).
If u have the cash get a 5970…good luck finding a place with it stock hahahaha.
Some people don’t have hundreds of dollars for a GPU.
…yeah, I know. I was just listing the better cards in case the OP wanted to futureproof his PC.
The 9600GT is a pretty decent all-around card. If your limit is $100 you can get a decent 9800GT.
The rest: yes. This: no. Granted there’s a little over a hundred dollars difference between them, but the GTX 295 by most all benchmarks outperforms the 5870.
…The evidence I found supports just the opposite. With the obvious exception of Crysis, which always runs better on nVidia hardware, the 5870 blows the 295 out of the water, especially considering that its a single-GPU card.
https://forums.ocworkbench.com/showthread.php?t=89780
https://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=27110609
EDIT: I’ve found some of the benchmarks you are referring to, and in those tests the testers used beta drivers for the 5870. Since its release and several consecutive driver updates, performance has improved greatly.
If you want a cheap graphic card that is decent, maybe try the ATI Radeon 4000 series.
If you want a cheap AMD card I suggest the Radeon HD 5670.
I recommend the Sapphire Radeon HD 5770
It can run HL2EP2 fine at maxed out settings, 1600x1200
If you’re serious about upgrading your CPU and want the most bang for your buck, get the i5-750…though you might need to replace the motherboard as well.
Thanks for all the help. Sadly I’m on a really tight budget. For a graphics card I have about $100 to spend, then I need to find one that’ll actually fit my PC… I’m gonna look into all of these, check prices and find out if any will fit in my PC. I have an HP Pavillion p6203w-b, So if anybody happens to have this PC or a similar one, lemme know what you think’ll fit in my PC 'cause I’m not really sure I wanna crack open my PC case and screw it up or waste $100 for something that wont even fit. That happened to me like, 2 computers ago, and I don’t want a repeat of that. Again, thanks for all the help.
Also: https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-500GB-p6203w-b/12347231
that’s the page for my PC if you need a closer look at the specs. (It’s not the best but it was in my budget and could run Half-Life 2 and Gmod without problems so I’m happy)
I actually just bought that card, however I bought it for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. (So now I am a little worried.)
Do you actually have this card and have you tried it on Bad Company 2?
I am only asking this because I am currently staying with a friend and unable to install the card at the moment.
Cannot remember my other specs either however everything other than my graphics card has been recently upgraded and probably fine.
-snip-
I do not own Bad Company 2. I do actually own this card, I’m running it alongside an Intel Core i5-750. Planning on getting another to run it in Crossfire. Sometimes it slows on Episode 2 when I have AA and AF maxed out + motion blur to ~30 fps, but I use vsync, so I imagine it would be less if I didn’t use vsync. It’s a nice card, seems to do well with overlocking, though I have not personally tried yet.
Good choice
no, if it’s anything like the geforce 8400GS that I had to use for a while, you would need to run it on medium to get more than 30fps.