Getting a new video card

I'll second Garret's opinion. OrangeBox isn't very demanding so most any card over $100 will do a good job. But in the $100-150, you should at least be able to pick up a 8600GT.

Personally I have this
NCIX.com - Buy Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 575MHZ PCI-E 256MB 1.38GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI-I TV-OUT Lite Retail Video Card - 11095-01-20R In Canada.
Sapphire X1950PRO, and it runs OrangeBox maxed with alot of AA and AF at 1280x1024. It's a bit over $150 at NCIX, but if you quality of visuals is more important to you, pick up one of these over the 8600GT.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by neothe0ne

Don't listen to the above posts. The 8600GT is weaker than the 7900GS and similarly priced Radeon cards, especially in the older Source engine games. I myself have an 8600GT, I wouldn't wish it on anyone else in place of my recommendation, especially since the prices should be identical after rebates and such. Although the 8600GT can run CSS fine at 1440x900 at max settings and 16xCS anti-aliasing on my Vista computer with an Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and 2gb slow DDR2 RAM, you can get better performance with a 7900GS.

If I had to guess, it sounds like you are comparing the 8600GT in Vista, to a 7900GS on WinXP. In this comparison, yes, the 7900GS will surely win because Vista sucks balls for video game performance.

I'm not gonna claim that one of these 2 cards is better than the other, but I believe they are in a very similar performance catagory, and either would be a good choice.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Sepharite

Heh, I have still yet to get a card. But I will be getting one within the following week!

Someone suggested to me the new HD 3850. He must be crazy... they're over $200, from what I can tell. Or have I been looking at the bad sources.

HD 3850's are $179. HD 3870's are $219.

A 3850 looks to be a great value buy. I highly doubt that the 8800GT 256MB will be retail at the same price. The performance of the 3850 is good, and if you can squeeze an extra $30 bucks to your previously mentioned maximum price, I think it would be well worth your time/money/effort.

Linky:
NCIX.com - Buy HIS Radeon HD 3850 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I Hcdp HDMI HDTV Out Video Card - H385F256 In Canada.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

As long as you don't have a crappy, crappy, small little power supply, the 8600GT will be just fine. They barely pull power. The 8800GT is way out of your price range, and it does draw quite a bit of power, so if you did decide to get it, then I would say you should find out about your powersupply.

The HD3850 is great on low power consumption, and is the better card and will put you more future proof. But 8600GT will for sure do you good for TF2 right now.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Sepharite

Woot. Just got a XFX 8600 GT XXX... it was the cheapest one -- $100 ><'' Sucks that I can't get access to my computer until tomorrow night. But I was wondering if overclocking this card is advisable, or too dangerous for the card?

Anywho, cant wait to try out Team Fortress 2. Thanks for all the replies =)

It's OCed already. So there's a bit of head room, and it's probably worth it to try and OC it. It will play TF2 well. Be ready to be pretty happy

This is a review of your card and results of OCing.
[H] Enthusiast - XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Sepharite

Dude. Wtf. My computer has a PCI slot, but there isn't any room to fit the fucking card. AHHHHHH. I AM SO PISSED. Is there a way to somehow get it to fit?

Do you have a small Dell pc? If you have a smallish PC, that is gonna limit your options. I would send it back and get something else. Are you sure you cant fit the card, and that you can't open or disassemble the case any further? And is the card too long, too tall, or too fat?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'd personally go X360 if you don't want to PC upgrade, but yeah, sorry dude. That's the suck of having those more "budget" PCs.

How ya doing, buddy?