If you only had ~$50 to spend on a graphics card...

What specs would you consider in a GPU and what would you buy? I've been looking all around newegg, tigerdirect, etc... some decent deals (after rebates, etc.), but video memory is the only spec that I am really able to tangibly understand. Benchmark scores are obviously very helpful, but I have a hard time finding them. Where would you look, what would you look for, and what would you buy if you were in this situation?

Current machine:
AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+
2GB RAM
OCZ PS 450w or 500w (can't remember)
Nvidia Geforce 7600GT
....(this is robably funny compared to what I read in most of your sigs )

any potential bottlenecks I should watch out for?

And I guess I don't really have to stay under any certain amount, but is it naive to think I can get a good card in this price range?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-lis [...] dition=all

That is about the best you can do, anything faster will be bottlenecked terribly. Your current 7600 GT is close to being bottlenecked by your CPU.

I know that some games are GPU dependent and others are CPU dependent, but how can I tell what kinds of things (specs) will bottleneck my athlon x2 3800? Will a 7950gx2 bottleneck my CPU? I apologize if I'm being redundant in my questions, but I'm still learning as much as I can about this stuff.

The framerates I find on benchmarks usually don't have MINIMUM framerates, and that's what is important when dealing with a slow CPU, right? Just in terms of gaming, that's the worst time; when the action heats up.

Yes minimum FPS suffers a lot from CPU bottleneck, but the average FPS does too. A 7950 GX2 will be bottlenecked by your CPU, which should be slightly faster than the 9600 GT I showed you.

What motherboard do you have? Now that I think about it, if you have an AM2 board you do have the ability to upgrade your processor, as there really is no overclocking headroom in that 3800+ that will do you much good.

Damn it DFI made an AM2 and a 939 version!

Alright download this and tell me which socket:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

In its day the 3800+ was a great overclocker, with clocks ranging from 2.5-2.7 GHz in good hands, but that won't give you much extra performance as the chip is just very outdated. Not only that but it will take you a lot of work and patience to learn how to overclock that thing safely. You should be able to get it to 2.4 GHz pretty easily, and if you have no other choice then do the research, but I simply don't think it will be enough.

Back when the 7950 GX2 came out it took an Athlon 6000+ to feed a 7950 GX2 well, preferably a C2D, which wiped the floor with a 6000+.

I posted this in a different thread but didn't want to hijack the original question. So I apologize if I'm being redundant, but I'm still learning as much as I can about this stuff, and a more specific thread might be appropriate here. (If you're a mod and you think that this thread is unnecessary, please feel free to delete it.)

I know that some games are more GPU dependent and others are more CPU dependent, but how can I tell what kinds of things (specs) will bottleneck my athlon x2 3800? I'm running a 7600GT right now and someone told me that THIS is almost bottlenecked by my processor. Will a 7950gx2 be bottlenecked by my CPU? The framerates I find on benchmarks usually don't have MINIMUM framerates, and that's what is important when dealing with a slow CPU, right? Just in terms of gaming, that's the worst time; when the action heats up.

Addt'l q: Can I calculate the approximate addition to my power bill based on the difference in max power draw, in watts, of the cards I'm looking at?

Good point about that era of hardware.

Make sure you have enough amperage on your 12V rails.

This next topics has been merged by Mousemonkey

• Athlon x2 3800+ processor, how do I avoid a bottleneck w/ new vid card

My old 3800 x2 is back with me at the moment because one of the cards died and took the primary slot with it but the rig still works on the secondary slot (even though the manual states that it won't) and I'll bet that a single 7900GT can out do your 7600GT without a so called CPU "bottleneck" coming into play.

Then you may need to do some overclocking, just be careful as those chips were not quite as lenient as what we have now.

The 9600GT is 3 tiers above the 7950GX2 according to the hierarchy chart;
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 676-7.html
While this list thinks they aren't quite that far apart it concurs that the 9600GT is notably better;
http://www.overclock.net/graphics- [...] -last.html

I would really just grab an HD4670 or GT 240 as has been suggested.