Best single slot card

I'm not exactly sure if you should use any variation of the word "perform" with 8600 GTS or HD 2600XT. These cards are entry level DX10 cards. What is misleading is that "DX10" label is assigned to them by AMD and Nvidia. More likely in truth is that these cards DX10 performance is lackluster at best. If you do purchase one of these cards it will probably be best for light to moderate DX9 gaming at lower resolutions and lower detail.

Check this out at Tom's hardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/24/hd_2600_and_geforce_8600/

I guess to answer your question maybe an X1950 Pro or an 7900 GS (keeping prices reasonable) as these two cards will far out perform the 8600 GTS or the HD2600XT. Their only faults are they are not DX10 compatible cards.

The thing is that the system will have to last me for another 5(?) years, so I'm not thinking about resolution or detail that much, more of longetivity...the GeForce 2 handles even NFS Most Wanted on 1280 x 1024 with some, say medium settings but newer games don't run because of no hardware T&L or something.

So I'm thinking more if the DX10 cards would be better after some years in terms of...that it would actually let me play

You will have to buy something like an 8800 gtx for that kind of longevity, hardware is moving faster all the time compared to back then, the riva tnt lasted for like 4 years compare that to the 2 years MAX that the x1900 has been around and it is already dropping off. So good luck.

If his GF2 can "run" MW at 1280x1024, then he must be able to deal with extremely low framerates, so he could go with any card really. The x1900's aren't dropping off if you can play games at 15FPS.

I don't know how many FPS i get, but the image moves smoothly...and some of the options are greyed out at off  

@Rabidpeanut
"...hardware is moving faster all the time compared to back then..."

actually, the 5 year old set-up I got rid of 2001 (Pentium @ 90MHz, 16 MB RAM) couldn't even scroll the text in winamp when playing (or at like 5 FPM) and today my even a bit older PC is fairly usable, if you surf, watch video or do word processing...and that's what most people do.

At times like these, I just hate progress...stupid game addiction  

That's coz it's DX7 hardware  

Aren't all 8800 GTS' dual slot?

The one I tested is dual slot...