Recommend me a new video card

Factual Questions
1

At the beginning of this month, I pre-purchased Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Having done so, I have access to the beta. This has been less than enjoyable, since it has been in turns unplayable due to bugs, then unplayable due to low framerates, and now unplayable due to graphic corruption/glitches. So, unplayable.

I updated my gfx drivers last week, but since the latest game patch a couple days ago, the graphic glitches have been so bad I could not see well enough to sign into the game. New drivers and/or game patches may fix the bugs, but I suspect I will still be left with low framerates, and I don’t think any tweaks and optimizations made before game release will be adequate to fix this issue. I would like to upgrade my gfx card before the scheduled March 2nd game release.

I can only pay about $100 - $120 to my door. Not much, I know, but this wasn’t a planned purchase, and I don’t want to wait much longer before being able to get in on BadCo2. Also, a card that’s a relatively low power draw would probably be a plus, so as to avoid needing to upgrade my PS. If I only have $120 for the gfx card, then I sure don’t have any more for the PS. I’m looking at this place for a purchase. I bought from them recently, and it was a satisfactory experience. Their prices seem good, and they have a 10% off sale going on now (maximum $10 off total).
http://www.ewiz.com/query.php?dp=5&categry=634&dt=2&ob=d&nl=20&anchor=#displaytop

Apologies, as their sort/search doesn’t seem to be as versatile as some other places. I’ve tried to post a link to take you directly to the price range I was interested in. NewEgg is an old favorite of mine, but they have a warehouse in my state, so I have to pay 9.5% tax on all purchases. This naturally makes them a less appealing option. My eyes are crossing from trying to keep the alphanumeric gibberish card names straight, and from trying to make sense of all the various specs. Tom’s Hardware recommends the Radeon HD 4850 in my price range, though it seems to be out of stock everywhere it’s priced under $120. I’d rather not pay 20% more if I can avoid it.

Sorry for being so long-winded. Does anyone have any suggestions to meet my needs?

System info:
I’m running Win7, 6 gig RAM, a 2.2ghz Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale, and a Geforce7950 GT (PCI-e). I use two CRT monitors at 1024 x 768. Many gigs free on every HD partition.

This is my motherboard:

My 450-watt power supply:

2

You shouldn’t need a new PSU. Your graphics card is generations out of date. The Radeon 4850 is a fine card and will do you well. NewEgg have it in stock on a this-weekend-only special offer for $94.

3

Given your constraints, would go with a Radeon 5750 or 5770. On that Ewiz site they have the XFX Radeon 5770 1 GB for $165, which is a pretty powerfull card, yet it doesn’t use that much electricity. Though assuming that 450 watt power supply is from a reliable vendor, you don’t have to worry about it unless you are getting one of the really pricey cards.

The Radeon 4850 is also a pretty good card (about on par speed wise with the Radeon 5750, albeit needing more power and it doesn’t support DX11) and Ewiz has a 512 MB on for $95 and a 1 GB version for $135. Given that you run at such a low resolution, getting the 512 MB version wouldn’t make a difference now, but could in the future if you got a higher resolution monitor.

4

Thanks for the help, folks. Yeah, I’ll be running at 1024 x 768 for the next year or so, as I’m not planning on getting a new monitor during that time. I just need this card to work for me for new games released in next year, and I’m used to sacrificing some gfx quality.

I’ll go take a look at the cards you’ve suggested. Thanks again.

5

A modest point, but going with the 5 series Radeon would allow you to add a third monitor and use the 3-way output. Dual monitors rock for office use, but triple monitors are wix for games.

6

Im playing the Bad Company 2 demo on an 8800GTS and it works pretty well. You can get that card for $100 or less nowadays. The 4850 is good too, about the same performance as the 8800.