which graphics card do i buy? Help please

[Pooleman]

Firsty Hi all, its my first post so please be kind.
My pc was built by my late brother who i went to with all my pc problems.
I normally play COD4 and it plays it ok, I brought cod5 world at war the other day and it dosnt play it, just goes to black screen, ive been to activions site, done all what they say and it comes down to my grachics card which is a Radeon X800GTo only has a shader of 2 and it needs to be 3 or more! this means nothing to me except i need to buy a new graphics card.Which is why i need your help please. I dont want to buy a card which will be out dated in say 1 year and i have £150 to spend, any help would be apprecated.

My currant pc is :

Asus A8n-sli series motherboard
Amd 64 processor 4000+ socket 939
2.00Gb of ram
800w power supply

[Pooleman]

Hi sorry something to ad, ive been looking at a geforce 9800Gt with 1mb of onboard memory from ebay for £131, what do you think? item number 220312963843

[NeedMoarFarms]

geforce 9800Gt with 1mb of onboard memory from ebay for £131

Blimey! That's a cracking bargain !

[NightshadowUK]

Hi sorry something to ad, ive been looking at a geforce 9800Gt with 1gb of onboard memory from ebay for £131, what do you think? item number 220312963843

You can pick those up new for a tad over £100 so steer clear.

Look at the ATi HD4850s on Scan - they offer very good bang for buck at the minute and would eat through COD5 no problem. Stick around and you could even get free delivery.

P.S. Welcome to Hexus!

[Dingo]

I'd be with Nightshadow on this one......the 4850 is a cracking card and excellent value for money!!

[matty-hodgson]

check this out

[Pob255]

First off, Hello pooleman and welcome to hexus, I hope you have a pleasant stay

Have a look at the thread matty linked to, it general advice for best card for the price bracket.
For £150 you're looking at a ati 4850 512mb or 1gb, nvidia 9800gtx+ 512mb or 9800gt 51mb

which you should go for varies, the next question is your monitor, how big?/what resolution?
If you run at 1280x1024 or 1440x900 (common resolution for 17" & 19" screens) then Id consider the 9800gt 512mb for around £95, no real need to go for a more powerful card.

If you play at higher resolutions then consider the 9800gtx+ and 4850 (they perform around the same level, the 4850 is slightly cheaper and the card is smaller however does run hot which sometimes causes problems, the 9800gtx+ is slightly more money and the card is very long (may cause problems depending on your case) but has exellent stock cooling