Can someone tell me about video cards?

Question

Okay of course i want to know about video cards, but first let me tell you that i currently have a Geforce Ti 4600 128mb card. I installed Call of duty 4 and when i go to open it up it says video card or driver doesn't support something. I am willing to spend up to $100 for a good card. My main question is about ATI cards. How do you know how good the cards are? The numbers of the models are all off. I just really need a good geforce card or ati card good enough for COD4 and maybe for some future gaming.

Please help me.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Firstly, ignore the AMOUNT of memory on the cards.  Many board makers try putting outrageous amounts on a video card like 512MB so that the average uninformed consumer will think that's what determines the value of the card.

One of the most important things on a card is the latency of the ram.  Say for example you have a card with 64bit memory vs one that has 256 bit memory...the 256 bit memory will wipe the floor with the 64 bit card.

The model number, though sometimes hard to place because of changing  tendencies throughout different series do tell you pretty much everything you need to know.  For example in the Nvidia line, the lower 2nd number usually tells you what latency ram to expect.  Take the 7xxx series as an example and the 7100, 7200 and 7300 cards in the series will almost always have 64 bit memory while the higher up 7600, 7800 and 7900s will usually run with 128 bit or 256 bit ram.  The same is true with ATI to an extent.  

If you want a useful Gpu comparison tool to compare cards to each other:

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php

You are running a geforce ti 4600 so I am going to assume its an AGP slot, so 2 of the best deals you will probably find online are:

http://3btech.net/saatirahd26x.html

http://3btech.net/hisatirahd263.html

Both are under $100 (and free shipping) though I invite you to use a website like ebay or froogle.com to find those same models cheaper elsewhere (3btech has free shipping and no taxes unless you live in that state).

DirectX 10 capability for under $100 on an aging AGP system ain't bad :-)

Answer 2

It sounds like your system doesn't have PCI-express for the video card connection on the motherboard.  If so, the fastest card I know of is a 7600 GS from nvidia.  It's no slouch and I play COD4 with it.   You may have to turn the resolution down some to make it fast enough to be competitive, but until you upgrade to a newer system with PCI-E you're stuck with the 7 series of cards (and I think that's the minimum series that COD will accept.  Good luck!