Graphics card advice and recommendations for a newbie

Hello,

A few months ago I bought a Dell Ubuntu desktop. The basic spec was pretty low so I upgraded everything except the graphics card, where the only option was an 8300GS. It was fine until I installed Vista (my own fully legal copy) and tried to play TR Legend. That, and a bit of reading since has shown my card to be absolutely pants.

So I need a better card, and I'm new at this so I have a couple of questions.

1) Does my 8300gs use PCI-express? (ie do I need a PCIe replacement) - I haven't had the case open yet but I'm not event sure what PCIe looks like.

2) What's with all the different brands? If I type k850i into amazon (or whatever) I get one kind of phone by one manufacturer (SE). If I type in 8600 GT, I get allsorts - different brands, prices, options, etc. Why buy one over the other, and why don't I just get one "nvidia 8600 GT"? Which should I choose?

3) - this is the biggy - What card should I get?
For more background,
- budget: £50 - £70. I know that's really cheap, but I can't understand why some cards cost £300+ . That's more than a new console and I've already spent £700 on a PC. I can't understand why cards cost that much or why people buy them... Also see next point.
- I don't need cutting edge, just something that will run half decent slightly older games without choking.
- I still want to use Linux/Ubuntu (does that indicate nvidia is the way forward?)

As suggested I'm thinking about the 8600 (GT or GTS?), but I'm confused by question 2 above. Also when reading the "best cards for the money" article, it specifies that GDDR3 is a must - how do I know if the card I'm looking at uses GDDR3 if it isn't mentioned in the description on the website?

If anyone can answer any (or all) of these questions I'd be really grateful.

Thanks,

Tim

1) According to this: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=550399
your computer is using a PCI-e slot. I've read in other forums that your computer uses PCI-e, so it's probably pretty safe to assume that you do.

2) The difference in brands is due to the fact that Nvidia only makes the processing chip while the manufacturers (BFG, EVGA, etc) make and put together the board. Different manufacturers simply have different options, some with better cooling, some with better warranties, some with slightly higher clocks. It would probably be best to check forums and reviews of different manufacturers in order to get a good idea of what you're looking for in a card. I only have experience with EVGA, and I would recommend them, but the card was a 8800GTS and was significantly different from your 8600.

3) I would recommend Nvidia, simply because they are significantly more friendly to Linux users. It's hard to tell, however, if the 8600 would suit your needs. It depends on things like monitor resolution and how old the games you're playing are. Most people don't use screen resolutions higher than 1680x1050, and the percentage of people using a lower resolution is pretty large, 1280x1024 is probably still the most common. The reason people pay 300+ for a card is if they like to play with the highest quality, highest resolution graphics. If you're playing games like WoW, Quake 4 and BF2142 or BF2, chances are good that you'll be able to play these games at 1280x1024 with decent frame rates.

Any of the UK's online stores that I looked at listed the type of memory, I couldn't find any 8600's that used ddr2. I looked at spire.co.uk and entaonline.com. Other than it being listed explicitly, you could probably check out the manufacturers website which will list the part number of the specific card and will tell you the memory type.

Hope this helps and good luck.

I love the internet and forums and helpful people (even the ones that think they look like idiots )

I think that answers my questions very well (even if I still don't quite understand how anyone can justify £300-£400 - tesco sell whole PCs for £150!)

Cheers for all the help and a happy [insert festival of choice here].

Tim