I do want to point out that I have in fact read Toms Hardware's graphics card article, but I'm NOT technically inclined, and I think the cards listed are way over my head.

After the Xbox and the computer died in the same week, my husband and I have decided to consolidate and do all gaming on the computer. We will be buying a new one, probably used or rebuilt, and I need to know what kind of graphics cards will best serve both of us. My husband likes shooter games like Half-Life and the like, but I play more casual games like The Sims 2 and City Life. Is there a card that can fill both of these needs? We are not hardcore gamers by any means, so we need little more than the bare minimum to run these games. Amazing 3-D grpahics are not that important, we just want the games to run decently, which they wouldn't on our old comuter.

The computer we are considering has an nvidia 8400 GS card - is that enough to run both or these kinds of games smoothly? If not, how much higher do we need to go for a mid-level experience?

I am not technically gifted - please explain in extreme layman's terms, if possible.

Thanks in advance for anyone with time to help out.

hi,,, i use to have a nvidia geforce 8600gt 256mb,,,,
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+...productId=29821
not bad,,, plays most new games,,, price is good too,,,,, if you want something a bit more,,, then try an 8800gt 512mb,,, i was recomended an msi geforce 8800gt 512mb on this site,,, so i got one,,,, plays anything very well for a lot less money than the bigger and newer cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814127329
about £110 to £130 in the uk.
good luck

I agree with figgs the 8800 Gt would be the way to go. Its not the absolute best on the market but its far from stock. The price is attractive and it will play anything on the market at decent frame rates. About the only game You husband may have trouble with is Crysis, but then again most computers have trouble with that game. He can play it but he won't get the holy grail of 60 FPS (Frames Per Second).

and the 256MB 8800GT is only 100 bucks on newegg right now

100 bucks,,,,,,, about 47 quid,,,, wow ,, i wonder if newegg deliver to England,,,,,lol

Graphic card buying is one of those situaitons where if you don't know what your looking for you end up buying a lemon and the whole technology wizzes by.

I'm a keen gamer, however I do not have the finances to run 3 SLi Geforce 8800GTS's. I recently upgraded to a BFG 8800GT OC 512MB. This cost me around £105 which equates to $204.56. I am able to play the latest games (see below) at a superb fps the only downside to these newer cards is heat, so ensure that your machine has the facilities to cool the card down. Also the more powerful the card the more power it utilises from the power supply.

IMHO, you have to look at a couple of factors:

1) what games are you wishing to play? The latest Crysis / Assassins Creed / Bioshock? or do you just want to play simple backgammon.
2) Ensure that you motherboard supports that technology. PCI, AGP, PCI-E, SLi, CrossFire there all terms used to describe the type of graphics card.
3) Budget - Can I really afford this item
4) Futureproofing - If I buy this card now, how long will it be before its outdated.

Lastly (seems like a rant I know) Crysis is a game that pushes most people's machines to the limt. The developers have gone far and beyond in designing the environments, effects and physics. However many of the features of the game are only accessible to the most powerfull of cards. Having said that, the desingers of the game have 'futureproofed' the game, in that there is content that will only be accessible once the hardware is avaialble.

To summarise, if your buying a pre-built machine (HP, Dell, Compaq etc) ensure that they come with a decent card GeForce 8600GT (at least) or even better a Geforce 8800. The same applies to if your picking your own components for a machine to be built, ensure that motherboard, powersupply will support the graphics card.

Unfortunately I'm not up to speed with the ATI cards, therefore I can't comment.

Hope that helps!