Looking for new graphics card please help!

Well it seems my 8800GTX 768MB card went/is going out so its time to buy a new card. I have been searching the net for good replacement but would like to get some input on what yall think.

EQ2 is the game I play on my pc, I run two monitors one 24" and one 21" at 1900 on the 24" and 1600 on the 21".

Seeing how EQ2 is primarly based off Nvidia platform I would like to stay with Nvidia. I don't want to spend anymore than $100 - $300 on a new card. Some have suggested that I can get a nice card for under $200 and then get a new processor to handle the new card?

Here are my spec's

If I do end up getting a new CPU while I'm at it what do I need to do in order to make sure it works well with my current motherboard?

1000watt--Thermaltake toughpower W0132RU power supply quad sli rdy
processor (intl core 2 duo processor E6700 (2x 2.66ghz/4mb L2 cache/1066fsb)
motherboard (MSI P6N SLI-F nForce 650i SLI chipset w/7.1 sound, GB lan, s-ata usb 2.0 IEE) <-------this is strange because the book i have for my motherboard says P5n-E SLI....humm
memory (2048MB [1024mb x2] DDR2-800 PC6400 memory module corsair xms2 xtreme <-----------I added another 1gig chip later on
video card (nvidia geforce 8800gtx 768mb w/dvi + tv out
hard drive Serial ATA-150, 10,000 rpm WD raptor wd1500adfd
Windows XPHome


I have been hearing good things about Nvidia's 200 series cards any suggestions there? Want something that is at least current generation.

I am rdy to buy now



Thanks

Best Nidia card in your price range is the GTX275, a considerable upgrade from the 8800.
But then again the HD5850 is in a similar price range and wipes the floor with the GTX275 in many tests.
If you find the 8800 gives enough performance, then I'd suggest getting a GTX260, it's a little faster than your current card and a lot cheaper than a GTX275. And you can put some of the money saved towards getting a total of 4Gb of RAM

for 32 bit windows, yes you will not be able to use more than 4GB or RAM (RAM+ graphic VRAM). if you have the chance to upgrade your windows try upgrading to something like win 7 64 bit. btw with win XP you're stuck with dx9. so there a no real difference in getting dx10 or dx11 cards. if you must upgrade because need more performance then something like GTX260 will be good

Don't bother adding more ram. While 32 bit XP can technically handle 4 gigs in practice most only end up with 3.2-3.5 gigs being recognized by the system so the upgrade would be very marginal.
The HD5850 is also my recommendation but if that's really the only game you play I would think that a GTX 260 or 275 would handle it admirably.
As for the CPU just get a decent fan/heatsink and OC. You should be able to get it up to 3.5 ghz without much of a problem. If you want to upgrade to a quadcore this website should help on what chips your board can handle;
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/

Well it seems every where I go folks are recommending the AMD 5850 card as the card of choice right now. So think I am leaning that way, while I am at it I would also like to upgrade my CPU. Current CPU is processor (intl core 2 duo processor E6700 (2x 2.66ghz/4mb L2



Have had some suggest this Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz


Would I see a nice performance improvment with the new card and that CPU vs my old card and CPU?

Well got a notice from Amazon today about a ETA on RADEON HD 5850 1 GB DDR5 PCI Express Card ROFL!!!! According to them it will be after 12-25-09 my lord that is insane! I mean I can understand when something new comes out and is a hot item it can be a bit hard to find it in stock but 2 months!!

And the wait contiunes sadly.

Ended up ordering a diffrent card just to hold me over until I can get the 5850 wife was so very happy when I told her....lol