What's a decent video card and do I need one?

[Buckeye Jack]

Hi all,
This might sound funny, but I am new to playing pc games and I will ask here. This is the first computer I've owned that plays games decently. I'll type in what I do have and if you don't mind give me some pointers to help me out.
I bought this from tiger direct , it is a visionman box.
The mother board is a Biostar tf7025-m2 AM2 socket. Processor is amd 64X2 4200 at 2200mhz.
The memory is pc6400 ddr dual channel at 800 mhz. 1 gig only one stick right now. I have 4 1Gig sticks of crucial ballistik coming. The hard drive is a 500 gb W.D. sata with a 16 MB Cache. The on board video is NVIDIA GEFORCE 7025 . There is also an onboard GB lan.
What I need to know is what is better in the cards, more ram ? A faster GPU?
I was looking at some at buy com and tigerdirect and I am figuring an Nvidia with 512 MB ram. I have one pci express slot x16 . I believe my power supply is 585 watts.
I dual boot win xp pro and SL 3.4f.
Do I need a card? What is a decent card I am looking at cost too.
Would a GeForce 8600 GT with 512 mb ddr2 memory be a good choice?
Also are there any issues in adding a card, like do I have to disable the onboard video?
will this help with watching video like DVD's ? If you have a minute to reply it would really help me out.
Thaanks, Jack

[koch]

Hi all,
If you have a minute to reply it would really help me out.
Thaanks, Jack

i have a minute.

ok,...

1. board and cpu are not the parts to play the new games like crysis or hellgate with maximum "power".
2. if it is still possible cancel the 4 gigs of ram and buy 2 gigs of GOOD AND FAST ram. i do not know which ram you want to buy but search some games-boards. you will see what is good.
3. yes, for games you need a card.
4. forget the 8600
5.yes, you have to disable the onboard-video.

6. and 7. are the most important points:

how many money you want to spend? what kind of games you want to play?

answer the above and more will follow...i have a second and even some more minutes, so just ask.

[Stupot]

2. if it is still possible cancel the 4 gigs of ram and buy 2 gigs of GOOD AND FAST ram. i do not know which ram you want to buy but search some games-boards. you will see what is good.

RAM is RAM. As long it is the fastest speed (which 800 MHz is for the AM2 socket) and it works, then I say go for it. Brand names aren't important. Crucial has reliable RAM, so I see no need for him to cancel.

As far as the video card goes, what I would do is determine how much money I can spend and spend it all on the best NVIDIA card I can find. I say NVIDIA because it has the better linux support (although AMD/ATI is working on it). The speed of the GPU clock is more important than the amount of memory, as long as it has enough. I would say 512 is more than enough memory to handle everything out there today. I only have 256 MB of RAM in my video and it could handle Oblivion and FEAR on their highest video settings just fine.

If you're looking to play Crysis on the best video settings, you'll need to make sure your new video card is DirectX 10 compatible.

[koch]

1. do you really need 4 gigs of ram, for what?
2. yes, nvidia
3. why dx10? do you use vista or xp. do you use microsoftware or are we talking only about linux-games. should have asked that before, sorry. i play crysis beta3 and single player-demo with xp and dx9 and it is great. i use nvidia 8800gts 640 mb grphics card.

but as we both said, what about the money?

no worries about money, then buy an intel e6750 and nvidia 8800 ultra and a board that supports both components.
no money...well, tell us.

[Buckeye Jack]

Well, yes money is a concern. I am getting the ram 2 X 1 gig sticks for $49.99 after a $50.00 mail in rebate so I am O.K. with this. I had to send a set to my mom's to do it. I'm planning on playing games in xp and SL. I don't know the difference between direct X 10 or 9 or even what they mean. I'm not to worried about having the fastest system, some of those 8800 cards cost more than my whole setup. I am new to Sabayon, and still learning. I was looking at spending between $150 and $200. But less might be better. It's not like I will be playing all the time. The 8600 Gt card i saw was only like 125 bucks. If this will be a great improvement over what I have now I will get it. Heck I was using a p2 400 up till I got this.
I thank you for getting back . Jack

[koch]

in this case i agree. so have alot of fun with your system

[Buckeye Jack]

O.K. Thanks guys. I was hoping it would work for me I know its not top of the line but neither am I!
Jack