How is this video card?

I'm in the process of upgrading a few things on my computer. Mostly just more RAM and a new video card. I'm currently running a GeForce 6600 and I'm planning on upgrading to this card:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...3&sku=P56-9818

The problem is, I'm not very knowledgeable about video cards or computers in general. Does anyone have any experience with this card that can tell me any pros and cons before I finalize the order?

Thanks in advance

That is a significant upgrade from your 6600, and the performance will definitely reflect that, however have you made sure that you system meets the power requirements for this card?

I have it.

I like it.

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I have a 500 W power supply which I've been told should be able to handle it. My brother built my computer a few years ago with the CoH specs in mind. Of course, at the time CoH was already three years old and we forgot to take that into account when meeting the recommended specs, hence the relatively low-end video card.

Catharctic, can you confirm that 500 W will be enough power?

It's not the total wattage that is the significant factor, it is the amount of amperage available on the 12v rail, and that can only be discovered by you opening your case and taking a look at the power supply.
There should be a label there which lists this information.

Here is my power supply:

http://www.directron.com/aps500.html

I couldn't find anything about the amperage rating, but I know we purposely bought a bigger power supply than we initially needed with upgrades in mind.

Thanks for all the replies so far. You've all been a big help. I really should spend some time becoming more knowledgeable about this stuff.

From the looks of it, I'd say rutruh, but I'll let the more tech-savvy folks check it out. It looks like the +12 rating is very low (unless I'm reading incorrectly).

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It's also nice to see the sweet deal I got on mine. BestBuy wanted them off the shelves a while back for the sake of newer cards. I got mine for 119 right after Christmas 08.

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This is, word for word, what's on the label:

AC Input(50/60 gHz): 100V- 240V /7A

DC Output: +5V-/22A, +12V1-/14A
+3.3V-/27A, +12V2-/13A
-12V-/0.8A, +5VSB-/3A

+5V & +3.3V shall NOT exceed 193 W.
+5V & +3.3 V & +12V1 & +12V2 shall NOT exceed 375 W.

If your machine is a few years old, you'll also want to confirm you have a PCI Express x16 video card slot and not an AGP x8 slot.

If you have PCI Express slot and enough power supply, you may want to look at a GTX 260. It's a lot more video card for the same money. Don't be fooled by the memory. The place where the GTX 260 outruns the 9800 far greater bandwidth to the memory and almost 2x the stream processors.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...564&CatId=3775

If your power supply is borderline the GTX does require more juice.

Agreed with Miuramir.
That's perilously close on the amps that you need.
That Corsair PSU which was recommended is aces as well.
I've used it on builds, and was vey pleased.
If you're stuck ordering from Directron, firstly, you have my sincere sympathies.
Secondly, you may want to try this one
http://www.directron.com/ees400awt.html

Thanks to all of your advice, I've made up my mind and made my purchase.

I bought the PSU that Miuramir suggested, the video card that I wanted and 2 gigs of RAM. I had planned on using TigerDirect, but couldn't find that same PSU there, so bought from NewEgg and saved 20 dollars on the graphics card and 6 dollars altogether on the memory. The upgrade was cheaper than I anticipated (before I started researching I thought video cards cost hundreds of dollars).

Plus, the graphics card came with a free MMORPG from the competition so now I can finally quit COH! (Just kidding )

First you can't add the two rail amperage amounts together. One rail is current limited at 14 amps, the other at 13 amps. Nowhere does it say you can pull 27 amps of 12 volt current all at once.

Second the 26 amp recommendation is for the whole system and not just the graphics card.

Third that PSU doesn't have any PCIe power connectors, you will need two spare old style hard drive power connectors and the adapter included with the card to properly power it. That PSU only has three MOLEX connectors to begin with.

In short, it's a sad excuse for a 500W PSU. This PSU after the rebate is a very good value on a very good PSU. The combined 12 volt amperage is 36 amps (432 watts).

As for the video card. Depending on how much memory you have and if you are running a 64-bit OS or not, a 1GB video card may end up limiting the total amount of memory that would be available for software. If you are running with 64-bit OS or a 32-bit OS with only 2GB (or less) then it shouldn't be an issue. Otherwise that 1GB of memory will displace some of the memory installed in your machine.

Edit: Oops, just noticed the OP already went ahead with the purchase.

hey i know its rude to post a question on anothers thread, but the people answering on here seem very knowledgable about graphics cards and such, so heres my question. night before last my pc went into seizures and i got that nifty blue screen of death, had to do a windows reinstall, afterwards i couldn't find the ethernet drivers for said pc anywhere so i gave up and switched to another pc, now the first pc was able to run CoH pretty well, a bit slow due to my lame graphics card on it, but the one I'm on now won't run it at all due to the graphics card, even though the graphics card on this one is better. still old, but better. its a Nvidia tnt2 riva model64/model64 pro, i thinking that the problem might be the drivers for it but i cant find find an updated driver for it anywhere, not even the nvidia site, is there anyone who can help me either find the proper drivers for it so i can get back on and play? I'm going through withdrawl here! lol or if not the drivers, tell me how to overclock the card?

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