Help choosing a graphics card

[lionhard]

Now some may say this is the wrong place to be asking this question but its the only forum community im on really and EB is the only game i play.

Now i currently have a Nvidia geforce 8400 which is bottom of the range and old now and im looking to buy myself a nice christmas present. It struggles to play med 2 and wont play empire. So ill obviously need a nice new 1 to play EB2

My pc is a low profile 1 so i need low profile graphics cards, the best 1 iv found is the Sparkle 9800gt 512mb ddr3 pcx http://www.tronixcomputers.com/spark...ack=googlebase

When i spoke to a computer company near where i live they said the best card for me is the GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD 4350, http://firstreact.co.uk/details.php?...ket.&msgtype=2 the specs on this card are aweful compared to the sparkle and its a third of the price, but the guy i spoke to insisted it was better and would play todays games with ease.

I was also looking at this card http://www.tronixcomputers.com/galax...ard-p-986.html

I want the best low profile graphics card i can get around the £100 limit. Please help EB community :)

[Karamazovmm]

This guy is lying to you, the HD 4350 will give you almost the same performance that you have today with you current graphics card.
There are some important things to see.

1- Series

Nvidia
9800>9600>9500>9400>9300>9200
and for the suffix GTX+>GT>GSO

ATI
4800>4770>4600>4500>4300

Yes there are newer graphics card, but they aren't low profile, like the gt 200 series for nvidia and the hd5000 for ati

2 - Quantity of the ram

Since you're going to play strategy games, you might as well buy a card with more ram, for the amount of units that it will have to process. Your best buy would be 1gb

3 - PSU

What's the wattage of the PSU? Remember buying a card with more power, you might need a dedicated power connector to the card

4 - Heat

Buying a card more powerful will generate more heat, and as such you will have to be more careful to put it in a such compact pc

5 - Advice

this article should shed some light on your quest http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...5970,2491.html, it's a reliable site, and maybe look if there's low profile available for this one http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforc...iew-31731.html
The gt 240 is apparently your best buy, look if there is a low profile card, if not I might recommend the 9800 if the heat is not a problem and if it is the 9600

[lionhard]

Thanks for ur advice, i really want the 9800gt but no where in UK seems to have it :((((

[mountaingoat]

eh they are in abundance down here

i would say go with ATI if you would also like to play many older games ( STW and MTW for example)

[antisocialmunky]

Buy a EVGA, BFG, of XFX card to get the good warranties. XFX manufactures ATI cards so go look for it on newegg.com.

[SwissBarbar]

I have an ATI Radeon HD4890, is perfect