Greetings,  
 
I am looking for some suggestions on an upgrade for my Graphics Card. And, yes, I did do a search before posting on here.  
 
Currently, I am running an NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT with 256 MB ram. PCI-E is the bus. I have a Gateway GM5474 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000 3.0 GHZ
 
I am looking for dual outputs so that I can run dual monitors. Preferably dual DVI.  
 
I bought a GeForce 8600 with 512 MB of DDR2 and I didn't see much improvement other than being able to run Dual monitors.  
 
The Windows Experience Base Score went from 4.8 to 4.9 for Graphics. Gaming Graphics was unchanged at 5.1. I only threw this in for a reference.  
 
I am not a heavy gamer, but, I do enjoy playing RPG games on occasion. Currently, FATE.  
 
Any suggestions? Like most people, money is primary. However, I am willing to spend a little more to get a much better card.  e.g. if I spend $150 vs $120 I get a marked improvement.  
 
Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Dan

How much are you wanting to spend?  You can probably get something for your current 8600gt on ebay, maybe even your 8500gt if you've got that, that can offset the price a little.  If you look on newegg.com, they've got the 8800gs which can be had for about 150.  Spend about 170 though and you'll be able to get a 9600gt, either of those should be way better than what you have, look around google and search for reviews, they should give you an idea what kind of performance you could get.  

XFX PVT88SFDF4 GeForce 8800GS 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150275

Best card for budget gamer, your eyes will literally fall off when you see the kind of improvement over the 8500GT. Think of it like the 8500GT is an engine that can push a car to maybe 60mph tops, while the 8800GS is the kind of engine that is able to do anywhere between 400-450mph and still has potential for a decent overclock that will take you even further (8500GT overclocking is amazingly pointless)