M2TW: is Nvidia 6800 GT a good card for it?

[Forward Observer]

It's not your power supply, but the type of slots that are on your motherboard. Starting just over a year ago, most computer manufacturers switched to mobo's that only come equipped with PCI-Express mounting slots for graphics cards. These have all but replaced mobo's with AGP slots for graphics applications

PCI=Peripheral Component Interconnect (slots first available for any type of card and still on mobos for other apps such as sound or ethernet cards.

AGP=Accelerated Graphic Port (replaced the simple PCI slot for graphics cards)

PCI-E=Express version of the PCI which is supposedly faster than either of the above.

If you have a computer that only has an AGP slot, you will not be able to use the latest generation of graphics cards. I think about the best NVidia card you still get in AGP is the G7600GT, which is what I have. I don't know what the ATI equivalent would be. My rig is a couple of year old, so I am also still stuck with AGP. I plan on a new system just after the first of the year when I figure prices should drop with the holidays over.

You should have some documentation somewhere that will tell you what you have. If nothing else go to your manufacturer's web site and find out.

As far as the card, the type should be listed on the box or somewhere in the description if you are shopping on line.

Cheers.

PS. I just replaced a G6800 with the G7600 because the G6800 performed so poorly in the demo with the big battles. I spent $200 on the thing which is kind of stupid when you think about the fact that AGP cards about to go the way of vinyl records and VCR's