Windows 7: PCIe compatible Graphics Card

Hi, I have a 2 year old PC with Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 8I945GZME-RH motherboard, 2.80 gigahertz, Intel Pentium D, 16 kilobyte primary memory cache, 2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache, Bus Clock: 200 Megahertz, Power Supply: P4 ATX Version 1.3 Switching power supply, AC Input: 200-240V/63Hz/5 Amp. I am looking at a budget PCIe graphics card with good performance that will enable Windows 7 to work smoothly and high end graphic games to be played. The current on board graphics is not enough for even the low end games. The 7 and 8 series from NVIDIA are hard to find and the current in the market is the 9 series. Any suggestions here please.

If you wanna stick with Nvidia (the way its meant to be played ) My card, the 9400 GT is just what you are looking for, cheap ( i guess thats what you want) awesome, and playing those high-end games. 1gb memory of its own, and a 550 mhz Gpu.
If however, you want to cross over to ATI, they got some awesome cards too, like the 4670 which is also cheap and good (not as good, but good)

Hope this helps!
Coolness
H

I don't know from personal experience, but it's possible that "high end graphic games" may not see adequate performance with an old Pentium D, regardless of the graphic card.

The PCI-E X16 slot on your mainboard is specified as X4 electrically. I don't know how much that would bottleneck a high-end graphics card.

That said, I'd guess that the best price/performance break at the moment is for the ATI Radeon HD4850. It can be had for about $100US at the moment (www.newegg.com). That's with 512MB of VRAM; add another $25 for models with 1GB. It needs a single 6 pin PCI-E auxilliary power connector. (You may be able to use a Molex to PCI-E adapter, which is supplied with most cards.) You'd also want at least a 450W PSU, although wattage is a poor way to spec the PSU.

If you need a card that requires less electrical power, you could consider the Radeon HD4670. It gets all of its supply from the PCI-E slot. It's also less expensive than the 4850. (And considerably less powerful.)

I'm unfamiliar with the current nVidia product lineup. A lot of their "new" models have been relabelling of older products, possibly partially justified by die shrinks. I've used both nVidia and ATI cards. I prefer nVidia's drivers, but ATI sometimes offers better performance for the price.

+1 the 4850 is a great card and so is the 4670 but it is slower...

yeah... If the guy needs a fast card, go buy the 5970. Dont bug me about telling him to use a slower card. Since he has a pentium, im guessing he needs a cheap card, not a 600 pound card...

Sarcasm is rarely useful, even when it's clearly written (unlike the above).

Glad to be in the US. Here, the 5970 is a mere $600, rather than £600 (a bit less than $1k, at the current exchange rate.)

I suppose that I could have been more discouraging about making a silk purse (whizzbang gaming system) out of s sow's ear (Pentium D system with onboard graphics).

Budget?

Its still more than that god dam laptop! So are almost the card you suggested. If he has infinite amounts money (which i guess he doesnt) he can go and buy a better laptop, not a better GPU for a bad laptop...

And by the way: English is not my native, so please leave it out of this.

I must be missing something here Coolness, you can't change the GPU of any laptop.
Either get a whole new computer for what you need, or stick with what you got.

Not to sound rude, but if you want to get into PC gaming ---->> Desktop.

Although some laptops are capable to an extent, they were never meant or designed to be gaming machines.