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Please help with the right card for a brand new rig ... (1st build)

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Ok Guys ....

1st off this is a lot of 1st :-)

1st Post
1st PC Build

1st Problem

OK lets get to it ....

Im not an extreme gamer - Morrowind / Oblivion and a few on-PC RTS games ... but occasionally ...

Surfing / email - like mad

PShop Pro / Photoshop - regularly

now Im getting into Poser / 3ds Max and want to upgrade my Paintshop pro ...

So I just got made redundant so I start to spec out a nice machine - not bought anything yet but Im getting stuck on the graphics :-)


Processor : Intel® Core 2 Duo E8400

Mainboard : Asrock P45XE-R

RAM : Corsair DIMM 4 GB DDR2-1066 Kit

now do I go for ATI ? or NVIDA

I was going for a
Palit GF9800GT Super+
Sparkle 9800GT 1024MB, PCI-Express


... but then saw 9800 for extreme gamers ... I Im not into WoW etc but I do Like Second life ... and these cards are not cheap ...

so then

Club3D 9600GT, 512MB, NVIDIA Geforce 9600GT, PCI-Express

but I heard its a real old card and


Well

MY question

whats a good card for and all rounder who likes the odd game, modifying photo's creative pc photography and is just starting 3D graphics ..

something that I won't have to junk in a year


I haven't bought it yet but I was going for this

SAMSUNG 933SN High Glossy Black 18.5" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 DC 15000:1 (1000:1) - Retail

my current LCD is samsung and its 4yrs old .... never had a problem .... but its 15 inch ...
Related ressources

Every card you mentioned will do what you want. The 9600 is maybe a waste of money. A 4830 will beat it in every game for $80 - $100. The 4850 is amazing for the money.

Here's a rough performance breakdown:

Nvidia 9800 GTx >= ATI 4830
<= ATI 4850
< ATI 4870

If you run 1600 x 1050 or lower resolution there's really no difference in any of the the cards in terms of playability. The 4870 is certainly the best by a wide margin.
The 4670 should be mentioned as well. 4670's in cross fire do surprisingly well in the benchmarks. 4670's are $70 and 4830's are $90. The $20 is worth it.
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