Can anyone tell me any good affordable graphic cards? Does changing it mess or change your computer? Does it have to be the same type of graphics card but or differenet version? I currently have a a ATI Radeon X300 series only, 128 MB. Can play The Sims 2, EaW demo, etc. Idk how good that is. I was wondering how much a better Radeon series graphics card is, and who installs them and where do i buy? Just information I need to know, thanks!

I don't know much about ATI, but it seems the guys in this thread (http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=159997) know a little bit about them. Weird that 2 threads of the same topic would appear in different forums at the same time. From what I can tell from that thread, the X300 is a little behind the most current, to say the least.

But to answer some of your other questions, no, changing your video card won't mess with your system or anything, you'll just have to get the newest drivers and stuff like that.

I prefer nVidia myself...

And you can install it yourself. It's a simple matter of ripping out the old one and putting the new one in it's place. YOu have to do it right, of course...

and who installs them and where do i buy?



You can buy them online from their manufacturers homepage (http://www.ati.com), or from site like www.newegg.com). But I just buy my video cards from Best Buy.

Like the Doctor said you can install them yourself, it's very simple, or someone at Best Buy would probably do it if you bought one there.

And personally I like the ATI Radeon 9550 256mb(currently the card I'm using) it cost me about $130 a year ago, not sure what they go for now.

Also, make sure you get the right kind of card, if you get an AGP card, make sure you have AGP slot/s.

I personally have had bad experiences with ATI, although I'm sure it's just my bad luck rather than the quality of the cards itself. For the money, I found the GeForce 6600GT 128MB was the best value for the power it gives you. I bought mine from Newegg when they had a sale, and it was pretty cheap. I don't remember exactly what I paid for it, but I know it was under $140.