What card to buy ?(Pc specs and Money range given)

[meterate]

I have 5000 rupees in hand(Living in Chennai/India).
Initially had a 8600 GT(Mercury) which i purchased some one and a half years back and recently the fan came out(leg broken) and the concerned authorities said no replacement for physical damages.

So searched all over the internet for a better card(price to performance ratio).
Started with Ati series,
The Hd4670 model looks really cool.But i liked the one that comes from HIS.
" HIS HD 4670 ICEQ TURBO 512MB(128 bit) PCI-E"
I couldn find any place inside India to purchase it and nearest place is Karachi, Pakistan.
And i couldn understand how come there is a lot of difference when purchasing online with diff currencies,
example this model is quoted 79 dollars Max everywhere,but when i went to 20north.com which actually puts prices in rupees, quoted it around 4800 rupees which is a big difference.

These are my Pc specifications :

I just wanna know if i get a good graphic card, will i have bottleneck problems ?

Processor : Intel Pentium 4 Cpu 3.00 GHz, 1 core(s), 2 Logical Processors

Motherboard : ASRock FSB160
G31 M-S DDR2 800
Dual Channel

RAM : 2GB DDR2

SMPS : Model - ATX P4
DC MAX O/P 550W

HARD DISK : 500 GB - Seagate (Barracuda 7200.12).

A 15" LCD monitor.(And a Dvd writer - LG)

When i purchased 8600 GT 2 years back i wasnt sure abt any specifications.Just bought for fun .
Now i have 5000 rupees with me and i can add not more than 200 or 400 rupees to it.
What graphic card can/should i buy ?

Please share your opinions on this.
Thanks.

 

[mactronix]

Hi, Welcome to the forum.
Your system is very similar to a lot of the systems we see that ask much the same question as you are asking.
The HIS 4670 is a very capable card and will fit well with your system, It is generally the card that would be recomended as a good upgrade to a system like yours.
I personally have owned two or three ICE Q Turbo cards and can say from experiance that the brand is a good one.

Mactronix

 

[meterate]

Thanks for the reply, that was quick .
I live in India and HIS products are not available here.So i have to ship it from other country, i have never done this before(i mean, ordering online).
So questions of reliability, new(fresh) products come to my mind.

And 9600Gt also falls in to the same cash range.
At present if ye convert the amount i have in to dollars it will be in the range of 90 to 95 dollars max.
any ideas ?
Thanks .

So remotely confused and i have only 2 days to decide on what to do.

 

[mactronix]

I fully understand where you are coming from. We here in the UK get a bad deal of things with prices as well. To import from America would be about 30% cheaper but with shipping and VAT added at arrival it all but cancels out any gain. This review contains performance numbers for a good few cards to help you decide.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_4650_OC/6.html

Mactronix

 

[meterate]

Thanks for the reply .
If i buy 9600 or 9800 will my psu be able to withstand it ?

Smps - ATX P4 , dc o/p max 550 watts.

 

[mactronix]

Thanks for the reply .
If i buy 9600 or 9800 will my psu be able to withstand it ?

Smps - ATX P4 , dc o/p max 550 watts.

Sorry its been a while, i cant find any info on the quality of the PSU you are using. Do you know the Amps rating for the +12v rail ? Im not 100% sure with out knowing how good teh PSU is but would think that the9600 should be ok but i would be very unsure about the 9800.

Mactronix

 

[meterate]

The amps rating for 12 volt rail is
"15 A"

 

[meterate]

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4222/pics022.jpg

 

[meterate]

 

[mactronix]

Ok well thats not so good but not to worry you can still upgrade but only look at cards that do not require extra power from the PSU, so cards like the 9800 which require the connection of an extra power cable are not going to run on your PSU. The 9600 GT has differant models some do use the extra power and some dont.
My advice would be to get the HIS 4670 as it definatly dosent need any extra power and is performance wise about the best you can get without needing extra power connecters.

Mactronix

 

[meterate]

Ok well thats not so good but not to worry you can still upgrade but only look at cards that do not require extra power from the PSU, so cards like the 9800 which require the connection of an extra power cable are not going to run on your PSU. The 9600 GT has differant models some do use the extra power and some dont.
My advice would be to get the HIS 4670 as it definatly dosent need any extra power and is performance wise about the best you can get without needing extra power connecters.

Mactronix

Thanks mate.
I dont think HIS is available here, if i dont get HIS HD4670, shall i switch to the sapphire model instead ?
It also has some good cooling(artic cooling) !

Also there are two models one with 512 MB and another with 1 gig.

Whats the difference in video memory ?

will it make any difference in my 15 " lcd monitor ?

And i will definitely be buying a new smps after two or three months.(Reason being it will take that long for me to save money, still a student only... soo...)
Which is better ?
Is the cooling master series better than the gigabyte ones ?

 

[mactronix]

Personally i have never had any problems with sapphire cards in fact im running one now. you wont need more than 512mb at your resolution and i doubt the card can actually properly use 1gb of memory even if you did have a bigger screen.
As far as the other issue goes its probably best if you can link to what it is you are looking to buy and then you can get some advice on teh one you are looking at. generally i would say the coolermaster ones are a bit better, it does depend on the model and specs though.
let us know what you are looking at and then we can advise.

Mactronix