Can someone help me with finding a graphics card?

[Snaffle J. Bean]

So, a few days ago was "Move crap into the new house" day. So, everything was fine, good, going as planned. but, someone set the computer brain net to some magnets. And, when started it up, nothing would show on screen. my brother took the side off of the computer and slid the graphics out. He told me to try it again, and sure enough, it worked.

So, my graphics card is corrupted and now I have an excuse to actually buy a decent one.

But, I don't really know anything about graphics cards. If I wanted to run recently released games on the medium graphics setting, what card and specs would do what I want it to do?

[Ad Bot]

[General Nick]

Required things:
-Budget, how much money you're willing to spend.
-Motherboard slot. See this image for help and tell me which of these orange slots looks like your graphics slot. The second and fourth one are the same, yes.

[Snaffle J. Bean]

I've got two of the last one, and one of what looks like the third one, but without that thing that looks like a hook on the left side.

I'm willing to spend a little over $100, about $120

[General Nick]

I've got two of the last one, and one of what looks like the third one, but without that thing that looks like a hook on the left side.

I'm willing to spend a little over $100, about $120

So you're saying your graphics card is usually in what looks like the last one?

[Snaffle J. Bean]

So you're saying your graphics card is usually in what looks like the last one?

Yes.

[General Nick]

Yes.

Ouch. Your choices here are really bad cards, but the best you can get is a GeForce 9500GT. I don't know about ATI though because I don't know ATI
EDIT: Why did I say really bad? Wrong wording.

The choices here are limited, but decent in gaming. You'll probably run games at lowest settings though.

[Snaffle J. Bean]

Ouch. Your choices here are really bad cards, but the best you can get is a GeForce 9500GT. I don't know about ATI though because I don't know ATI

Damnit. Well, I kind of assumed that, though. The computer I have is an office desktop from 2005/2006 :/

[Osak]

Do you have a PCI-E, or PCI? If you have a PCI, the highest you can go is Nvidia 8400.

[Snaffle J. Bean]

Do you have a PCI-E, or PCI? If you have a PCI, the highest you can go is Nvidia 8400.

The corrupted one is a GeForce 8400, and there's a barcode sticker on it and it says PCI-E. So, I guess I have PCI-E because that card worked.

I think I found a pretty good one that will work with my computer. What do you think?

[General Nick]

Do you have a PCI-E, or PCI? If you have a PCI, the highest you can go is Nvidia 8400.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187084
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB PCI for only $90.


Edit: Wait wait what? You have PCI-E? Oh, then you got plenty of options then.
Also that 9500GT you chose isn't very good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130435
Geforce 9800GT 512MB GDDR3 for only around $100.

If you're willing to fork an extra $30, you can get the 1GB one but honestly there's no difference.

[Snaffle J. Bean]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187084
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB PCI for only $90.


Edit: Wait wait what? You have PCI-E? Oh, then you got plenty of options then.

Okay... But, I'm still restricted to 9500GT and under, right?

[General Nick]

Okay... But, I'm still restricted to 9500GT and under, right?

No. Being that you actually have PCI-Express, your choices are a lot greater and higher.

[Inv3rted]

It also depends on his power supply...also, not having PCI-E 2.0 will bottleneck any higher end cards.

[General Nick]

It also depends on his power supply...also, not having PCI-E 2.0 will bottleneck any higher end cards.

True that too.

[Snaffle J. Bean]

No. Being that you actually have PCI-Express, your choices are a lot greater and higher.

Okay. So, if a card is PCI-E, it will work on my computer?

It also depends on his power supply...also, not having PCI-E 2.0 will bottleneck any higher end cards.

Okay... How do I check if I have PCI-E 2.0 or not?
And, the power supply. How do I check that?

Sorry for the stupid questions. I don't really know anything about computer hardware.