Windows 7: Quick Question

Whats better, NVIDIA GEForce 210 or NVIDIA GEForce 8800 GTS, or are they even the same thing?

On paper, the 8800 is better. Assuming it's clocked to what Nvidia have on their site of course. In my experience most of the cards I've had are underclocked. The memory bandwidth alone is almost 5x better on an 8800 though.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
NVIDIA Geforce 210

From experience, I have had a 210, and it really depends what you want from it. It is definitely not a gaming card, but if you want a decent entry level card that can play some older games, and watch HD video, then it is not bad at all. I've never had an 8800 so can't comment.

Check this link for a comparison between the two:

Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com

The 8800GT has been around longer than the GeForce 210, but indications are it's the better card of the two.

I made the mistake of buying a 210 a year or so back, it's a very basic card, can play old games like call of duty 4 on low settings.

In comparison my father in law at the same time had a 8800 gts and that could play it on the highest settings.

The 8800 is certainly an older card but will far out perform the 210.

The real question is whether it will run off of your PSU. Don't suppose you happen to know the wattage?

Good point Martin, for reference my father in laws ran for around 4 years in a Mesh PC with an unbranded 500 watt PSU, I think Mesh liked to cut corners and that is most likely the reason they went into administration recently.

I would always recommend a quality branded psu.

My 210 ran fine on a OEM unbranded 250W PSU, so power is definitely not an issue there. It also draws power straight from the PCI-E slot, don't know about the 8800.

As I said though, it depends what the OP want's it for. If they don't play games, then the 210 is a good little card.

Yes the 210 is a real low power card, the 8800 is certainly not so the psu will play a part in the decision.

Here's some specs
Pentium e5300.
Mobo; emachines emcp73vtpm cpu1
The 8800 I picked up at a garage sale for two bucks. The guy said he doesn't know if its broken or not, would it be safe to try it in my pooter?

Safe? Well that's a relative term.

If you put the 8800 in, and your system doesn't have enough power, then yes, it's perfectly safe. If on the other hand your system doesn't, and it crashes while Windows is doing something important, then there is a chance that you could break something. Not to mention that random power downs etc. are not good for PC's anyway.

What wattage is your PSU? You are obviously comfortable with opening the case, so take a look and see what it says on it.