Video card in my pc is getting ready to crap out. It's old and outdated. In the market to get a new one. This is what I told the wife, I just want to be ready to play Black Ops....

My motherboard supports PCI X 16 express

I have a few questions...

Can I use 2.0 and / or 2.1 cards?

What is the difference between the two?

Will a 32 bit system support a newer video card?

Finally need a recommendations for a card under 200$ that is better than my current Nvidia GeForce 6600.
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I don't do much gaming on a pc anymore, but I did look into the pci stuff. It looks like its just a speed thing.


The PCIe 2.0 standard doubles the per-lane throughput from the PCIe 1.0 standard's 250 MB/s to 500 MB/s. This means a 32-lane PCI connector (x32) can support throughput up to 16 GB/s aggregate. The PCIe 2.0 standard uses a base clock speed of 5.0 GHz, while the first version operates at 2.5 GHz.

PCIe 2.0 motherboard slots are fully backward compatible with PCIe v1.x cards. PCIe 2.0 cards are also generally backward compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards, using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1. Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v 2.0 will be able to work with the other being v 1.1 or v 1.0.

PCI Express 2.1 supports a large proportion of the management, support, and troubleshooting systems planned to be fully implemented in PCI Express 3.0. However, the speed is the same as PCI Express 2.0. Most motherboards sold currently come with PCI Express 2.0 connectors.



Looking on Newegg.com they have a lot more 2.0 cards and I think you will get more for your money.
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I use a Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT. I paid like $125 for it. It'll run anything I've tried perfectly. I run a AMD Phenom 2 X4 965 black edition processor and 4 gigs of ram.
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This card fits your criteria and has excellent ratings - a lot of them gamers.

MSI R5770 Hawk Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card


Ron
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I have been very happy with MSI lately. Very usable components and motherboards.
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My net is being fussy right now... (big surprise)

So I cannot make accurate suggestions for you. However, know that you will never need to worry about whether you get a PCI 2.0 or 2.1 card... all PCI versions are backwards compatible so they will work in any motherboard 1.0 and newer.

Now, for a suggestion, I would probably guess that a GTX465 is around 200 dollars on Newegg. I would recommend EVGA if you go the Nvidia route. EVGA has the best warranty in the industry, and the step-up program is a huge plus.

If you want more info, just PM me. I have been building PC's for years and have lots of experience with hardware... (would be nice if a potential job would see my potential, but they all want certifications over actual experience it seems)

The biggest hinder on an upgrade that I would see would be your Power Supply size. You will need a beefy PSU to power any newer cards. Your old 6600 probably doesn't even draw enough power at load to run one of the newer cards at idle lol.

A full list of system specs (as close as you can get) would be very helpful.
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ok, little update. After doing a ton of research last night, and some online banking ( :-):-) ) I ended up getting a new 550w power supply and a video card that was a little cheaper. I picked this card up http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150472

For roughly 85$ then with a decent mail in-rebate it looks to be decent. I read a lot of reviews online and this card will over perform what I would need. a lot of the other cards I checked out had horrible reviews etc. Plus xfx has a nice 2 yr warranty.
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That card will do you nicely. It is about comparable to a 9800GT in performance.

XFX isn't my favorite company, but they get stuff done. I have to wonder about your warranty options tho, since XFX is no long an nvidia partner. It's too early to say tho.

What PSU did you buy?
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Ended up getting a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817170010

Reviews were decent and the price was right. I'm not sure about the xfx nvidia thing. The card had some good reviews compared to the sapphire that was similar price and capacity. I've been out of the pc game for quite sometime now. But after doing a round of repairs I'm itching to build a new rig after tax season.
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PSU should be alright.

The XFX Nvidia breakup happened in mid October. Basically Nvidia was disgruntled with XFX for some reason and cut them off.

XFX only sells ATI/AMD cards now.
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Thanks for the info Derrick. The card I picked up is just going to be a temp card. At 60$ after rebate I wouldnt be too upset if it crapped out on me early.
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