First post, need new graphics card recommendations.

[Damascus]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I've been out of the loop for about a year and a half as far as new technology goes, but the last system I had was an A64 3700+, 2GB DC DDR500, DFI LP NF4 SLi board, and an eVGA Geforce 7800GT PCI-E graphics card... back when I built it the 7800GTX/x1800 series cards were the best out there, but I sold the system and never could afford to build another one for gaming... anyways, now, I'm back into the business, and have threw together a system from spare parts, a P4 3.0E, DFI i865PE mobo, 256MB DDR333 (all I had - even though this board can use DC DDR400, I don't have any, although I DO have a set of 2x512 DDR2 667, but can't use it ), and am using a Geforce 4 Ti4600 128MB - and I can't play many of my old games, I can't play F.E.A.R., CoD2, HL2, etc, let alone any new games!! I can play Far Cry, Doom 3, etc though... And yes, I know I NEED more memory, and I borrowed a friend's 1GB stick just to see if I could run FEAR with more memory, but the old graphics card isn't enough.
Anyways, after rambling on too much, I need to know what you guys think is the best "bang for the buck" on graphics cards around the $175 - $220 range... the Geforce GTS250 is what someone else recommended to me, any opinions?? Oh, and I know I need a PCI-E motherboard for a new graphics card, and I am getting one as well, as I mentioned earlier, I do have a set of 2x512 DDR2 667 and a Pentium 820 dual core CPU I can use for the new setup.
Ok, I'm done now, thanx!

 

[CardboardSword]

Anything like a GTS250 would be horribly bottlenecked by a pentium processor (trust me ) You could go for a low end card like the 4830, the 46XX series of cards or the 9400/9500/9600GT. Another thing you will want to consider is that your power supply is probably not powerful enough to run much in the way of modern cards, so you will most likely need a new PSU as well.

 

[Damascus]

Anything like a GTS250 would be horribly bottlenecked by a pentium processor (trust me ) You could go for a low end card like the 4830, the 46XX series of cards or the 9400/9500/9600GT. Another thing you will want to consider is that your power supply is probably not powerful enough to run much in the way of modern cards, so you will most likely need a new PSU as well.

Oh, I know The CPU I have (forgot the # before) is a Pentium D 820 - I know it isn't much, I just wanted a card that will "futureproof" me for a year or two... I don't plan on keeping the P-D system, just need something to play games on till' I can afford to get a better CPU/board. I don't run super-high resolutions either when I play, my LCD only goes to 1400x1050 - which some games support, otherwise I just run 1280x960/1024, and I like to MAX every setting I can, usually with no AA and AF maxxed... so I need a card that can do that, assuming it has a CPU that can feed it fast enough - so I don't need something thats top-shelf - but a low-end card probably won't be enough for the newest games.
Oh, and I think I've got an old OCZ 550w PSU lying around here somewhere that should run most cards till' I can get something better, it ran a friend of mine's 2x7900GT setup for a while when his PSU went out.
Thanx for the input! Is the GTS250 better than the 9800 series cards? They both are in the same price range - but the GTS seems to have more features and looks (on paper) to have a more powerful GPU - correct or no? I've always tried to stick with Nvidia cards ever since the 6xxx series came out - but that doesn't mean I wouldn't buy an ATI, if the card ATI offers in my price range is better.

 

[smoothjk]

Anything like a GTS250 would be horribly bottlenecked by a pentium processor (trust me ) You could go for a low end card like the 4830, the 46XX series of cards or the 9400/9500/9600GT. Another thing you will want to consider is that your power supply is probably not powerful enough to run much in the way of modern cards, so you will most likely need a new PSU as well.

This. Don't be so quick to discount his advice, getting even a DECENT video card is a complete waste on a Pentium CPU. If you're expecting to play modern games with that processor, you're doing a little too much wishful thinking bro. There is no such thing as future proofing on a system that is already years out of date.

Also, you really need to consider whether your mobo will even take modern PCI-e cards (I'm not familiar with old Pentium mobos). You might be stuck with AGP, in which case, go for the Radeon 3850.

P.S. To answer your question, a 250 is basically a newer architecture version of the 9800 GTX+...way too powerful for your system.

 

[Damascus]

Ok, I'll try again - I'm not very good at putting thoughts and points into words... I know the Pentium 820 is too slow for a modern gaming machine... I don't intend on keeping it for very long - I just am throwing together a system to hold me over till' I can afford to finish my next rig intended for gaming, which will probably be based around an AMD Phenom II X4 940 3GHz or something similar (in the range of $140 - $180), running on some sort of mobo w/ nvidia chipset.
What I am wanting is a graphics card that will allow me to run the games I already own - and then be "futureproofed" a bit when I stick it into my next system. A low end graphics card might fit the P-820 perfectly, but won't be able to do too much when I stick that low end card in the upcoming rig. Make sense?
I've been reading around, and so far, the GTS-250 is the best mid-range card on the market, from the few reviews I've read anyways...
And yes, I will need a PCI-E 16x card.
Also, I'm finding some killer deals on used cards, especially in the 8800 series, are they too old now to keep running upcoming games, on the settings I run? (1280x960/1024 - 1400x1050, no AA, max AF, high/max details) Thanx a lot for the advice thus far!

 

[bomberboysk]

Ok, I'll try again - I'm not very good at putting thoughts and points into words... I know the Pentium 820 is too slow for a modern gaming machine... I don't intend on keeping it for very long - I just am throwing together a system to hold me over till' I can afford to finish my next rig intended for gaming, which will probably be based around an AMD Phenom II X4 940 3GHz or something similar (in the range of $140 - $180), running on some sort of mobo w/ nvidia chipset.
What I am wanting is a graphics card that will allow me to run the games I already own - and then be "futureproofed" a bit when I stick it into my next system. A low end graphics card might fit the P-820 perfectly, but won't be able to do too much when I stick that low end card in the upcoming rig. Make sense?
I've been reading around, and so far, the GTS-250 is the best mid-range card on the market, from the few reviews I've read anyways...
And yes, I will need a PCI-E 16x card.
Also, I'm finding some killer deals on used cards, especially in the 8800 series, are they too old now to keep running upcoming games, on the settings I run? (1280x960/1024 - 1400x1050, no AA, max AF, high/max details) Thanx a lot for the advice thus far!

Well, you know what might be more beneficial? Saving up some cash to get the mobo+cpu+vga at once, as i noticed you mentioned you would need to get a pci-e mobo. Then you would be buying two motherboards when you only need one... Maybe go for cpu+mobo now, then a vga later? What kinda power supply you have for your rig?

 

[Damascus]

Well, you know what might be more beneficial? Saving up some cash to get the mobo+cpu+vga at once, as i noticed you mentioned you would need to get a pci-e mobo. Then you would be buying two motherboards when you only need one... Maybe go for cpu+mobo now, then a vga later? What kinda power supply you have for your rig?

Oh - yeah, I re-read my original post and now I see why it looks like I am looking for a card for the 820 system... What I should have said is that the P-820 w/ 2x512MB DDR2-667 is something I'm building for my cousin - for college, so I'll be having to buy a S775 board for it anyways... and the rig I am using to type this message, the P4 3.0E w/ AGP 8X ; I know it's too old to bother with... I was going to get a good PCI-E card for the 820 system, use it, then when my funds replenish, start a gaming rig, either AMD or Intel CPU in the $140 - $180 range (preferably >$150).
As far as the PSU, right now I'm using a OCZ 550w, and I also just acquired an Antec Truecontrol II 2.0 yesterday, so I have that available as well. BTW, I'll be running 2 SATA HDD's, and only 1 optical drive, so I'm hoping 550w will be enough.

 

[smoothjk]

Oh - yeah, I re-read my original post and now I see why it looks like I am looking for a card for the 820 system... What I should have said is that the P-820 w/ 2x512MB DDR2-667 is something I'm building for my cousin - for college, so I'll be having to buy a S775 board for it anyways... and the rig I am using to type this message, the P4 3.0E w/ AGP 8X ; I know it's too old to bother with... I was going to get a good PCI-E card for the 820 system, use it, then when my funds replenish, start a gaming rig, either AMD or Intel CPU in the $140 - $180 range (preferably >$150).
As far as the PSU, right now I'm using a OCZ 550w, and I also just acquired an Antec Truecontrol II 2.0 yesterday, so I have that available as well. BTW, I'll be running 2 SATA HDD's, and only 1 optical drive, so I'm hoping 550w will be enough.

Assuming you already have a PCI-e capable mobo, then yes, the GTX250 is a good buy. But if the Radeon 4770s ever come back in stock, then that would be a better purchase, considering it's about as strong and it's probably cheaper.

Your 550w PSU should be enough.

 

[Bodaggit23]

the GTX250 is a good buy.

Sorry, but there's no such thing as a "GTX 250".

It's a "GTS 250"