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Hi, I've just bought a new computer and was looking into putting a decent graphics card into it. The computer I have is an advent qc6003 with an intel q8000 core2 quad processor and 6GB RAM. The graphics card is only a basic intel G45 card and I was hoping to replace this with something a bit more powerful for some good quality PC gaming. I was thinking it would be easy but every one of the millions of graphics cards nvidia and ATI makes seems to then go to a million billion different companies who then make their own changes, make up a price, and stick a different sticker on it and say it offers the best graphics to date. This has proved rather confusing. I think I have narrowed it down to an nvidia 9800gtx+ which seems to start at £110~5 ish but rises sharply. Now I know with most computery things the bigger the numbers the better, but its geting complicated, as nowhere on the web have I found a page that says at £x buy this and at £y buy this one. 9800gtx+ seems to be the last of the 'just over' £100 before the hike up to the gtx260 at around £200+. This is why I was looking at the 9800gtx+ but every time I google to get more info I get more numbers that simply confuse me! To give you an idea, i'm planning on playing things like cod4, gtaIV, etc at higher settings but i'll settle for just off max if it means saving loads of money. To show how much my graphics grags my pc down the scale i'll tell you my results from the windows experience index.

Processor: 5.9(max value for vista!!!)
Memory(RAM): 5.9(max again!)
Graphics: 4.1
Gaming Graphics: 4.0
Primary hard disk: 5.9(again max for vista!)

The intention isn't to get a maxed pc, if I wanted that i'd have gone further afield than pcworld for my computer! I just want to enjoy good quality gaming.

I thought i'd post this here since if you play pc games you might know what graphics card is best for me.

While I haven't actually bought a graphics card for a computer in ages (I currently run on a laptop that can't handle games for crap), I find that finding the next-to-last Video Card released by a company will save you somewhere around $300 USD that you'd be spending if you went top-of-the-line. If said card is the 9800gtx+, I'd say go with it. Trailing just behind the head of the pack is a good idea, as it will save you a ton of money in the long run. You can always improve later, and chances are you'll still be saving money buying two Graphics cards that are slightly less than the best at any given time, and spending 500USD on one when you'll probably get left in the dirt two or three years from now anyway.

Sorry I can't be of more help, my computer hardware savvy has kind of came and went. A tight budget has kind of naturally brought me around to console gaming.

Check out www.hardocp.com. They've got really good reviews of video cards; check the Enthusiast section.

Also, http://www.newegg.com has really good prices for computer parts, if you're looking to buy online.

Whatever you decide, make sure your computer's power battery (or whatever it's called) is strong enough to handle the graphic card. It could cause harm otherwise.

So generally, if you have a "old" computer, don't think of buying the latest strongest card without checking it's ok first and if you need to add extra power supplies.

Computer was only purchased a few weeks ago so it should be able to cope. Read a couple of reviews and it should fit. Thanks for the advice. If anyone has any better advice do tell.

In the end i changed my mind and bought an asus eah4850 @£120 with 1gb of dedicated memory and 2782 MB of shared system memory. its awsome, been running all my games on top settings no problem. just thought i'd let the people who offered advice know.