Q: OK. I have a windows Xp, what kind of graphics card can I buy? I have a very poor one right now and I need one to play the new Runescape HD. any ideas?
A: That may be the most broad question I've seen in a long time. Currently today Graphics cards range from $10-$500. They also have different slots in your motherboard, AGP, PCI, PCI-E, PCI-E 2.0, you need too find out a budget, and what kind of slot you have on your computer. If you have an AGP slot, the best card you'll be able too get is the ATi Radeon HD 3850, which ranges from about $80-$130, and that is relatively low for a video card, because AGP is outdated, but a good amount of computers still use AGP. If you have PCI-E, the best card is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 280, but will cost you $500. I will now say what I feel is the price/performance video cards. For the $50-$75, the Radeon X1650 PRO 512MB For the $80-$100, the GeForce 9600GT 512MB For the $105-$135, the GeForce 8800GT 512MB For the $140-$180, the Radeon HD 4850 512MB For the $200-$250, the Radeon HD 4850 1GB For the $255-$300, the Radeon HD 4870 512MB For the $305-$380, the Radeon HD 4870 1GB For the $400+, the GeForce GTX 280 1GB, which is the best card on the planet right now. Hope this helps, just remember, find the right slot for your computer. You also have too say, what do I need in a video card? Gaming? Photoshop? Video Editing? 3D Renderng? Intense Multimedia? For those things, a solid video card is needed, but for just surfing the web and watching youtube videos and such, you can spend $10 on a video card and it'll function perfectly. You then need too figure out your price range, I highly recommend those video cards depending on your price range. Also, keep in mind, these prices are JUST for the video card, not the entire computer, it's $400 for just the GTX 280. You can also use what's called either CrossFire for the Radeon cards, or SLI for the GeForce cards, which is using two-three video cards in one computer. This is not needed for average use, only for intense multimedia, gaming, photoshop, video editing, etc. And, the only thing that matters when it comes too a video card is the slot on your motherboard, it doesn't matter if you have vista, or xp, what processor you have, none of that, just the slot on your motherboard. I hope this helps.