Nvidia geforce 260

Based on my experience with RadeonHD 4850, RadeonHD 5770, and Geforce GTS 250, a Geforce GTX 260 should be able to manage 1680*1050 with all Ultra Mode Settings maxed out.

Would I buy one? hell no.

Right now the cheapest GTX 260 you can buy on Pricewatch (a US site) starts at $191: http://www.pricewatch.com/search?q=G...cn=Video+Cards

For starters, a RadeonHD 5770 will blow right past the GTX 260 in terms of raw speed, and run DirectX 11 / OpenGL 4.0 games in 1920*1200... for around $30-$50 less: http://www.pricewatch.com/search?q=R...cn=Video+Cards

A RadeonHD 4870, the feature equivalent Radeon to the GTX 260 (DirectX 10 / OpenGL 3.0) also starts around the $150 mark: http://www.pricewatch.com/search?q=R...cn=Video+Cards You have to be careful though, RadeonHD 4870's are disappearing from the market, so much like the Geforces, prices can go up if you aren't careful.

If your dead set on spending $200, there's the very big problem that is the RadeonHD 4890: http://www.pricewatch.com/search?q=R...cn=Video+Cards When HardOCP looked at it to start with, it had no problems burning a GTX 275... and later driver updates (such as the recently released Catalyst 10.3a performance driver) is doing a good job of nipping at the heels of the GTX 280 and GTX 285 cards... Spending $200 on a GTX 260 when this is available? Well. That's sort of like pulling out a list of great martial arts or action-hero actors and passing over Jackie Chan, Tony Jaa, Chuck Norris... going through the B-lists of Rain and Jet-Li... skipping past the C-lists of Val Kilmer and Jean Claude Van Damme... declining the muscle guys Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vin Diesel, and Holk Hogan... and getting all the way down to Steven Seagal... and going "That's our Guy"

Yeah, you could. But..really. Why?

***

If you don't mind breaking the $230 price point, which you will if you want a Good Super Clocked GTX 260... there's the other big problem called the RadeonHD 5830: http://www.pricewatch.com/search?q=R...cn=Video+Cards

Again, DX11 / OpenGL 4.0 support... and more performance than a GTX 285 in pretty much every game shipping.

***

So, it's your choice really. If you buy one of the GTX series of cards, you are getting ripped off. Period, Stop, End of Story.

If you've got the money to burn though for a graphics card that is slower and has less features, hey, go for it. It's your money. Buy what you want to buy.

I'm currently running a GTX 260 on WinXP x64. It performs admirably at 1920x1080. Only in a couple places (like the lower city in Cap Au Diable) do I get stuttering.

You'll want a PSU with a miminum rating of 500 Watts and a pair of 6-pin PCI-E power connectors.

As for memory. I'd recommend 4GB. Memory's cheap nowadays.

Also, if you're upgrading to Windows 7, be aware that it's a clean system install (no running it over the top of what you have now to upgrade). If so, do some checking with your other apps and hardware for 64-bit Windows compatibility. Unless you have a showstopper, I'd recommend going Windows 64-bit.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.