Picking a video card for GW:EN

I need the cheapest video card that will get me through GW:EN at max settings and good FPS at 1440x900 + 4xAA. I was thinking about 7600 GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130062

Will it get the job done? I'm trying to stay away from DX10 as long as I don't need it (GW2 ).

I can spare as much as $100, so this 7900 GS would be acceptable if the 7600 GT can't cope.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130056

One more thing.... I can't really find a good ATX12v 2.01 PSU for under 40 bucks, so any help would be appreciated.

The video card should be fine. Though you Might have to downgrade your settings to 2xAA but it should be fine running 4x. The Requirements for Gwen Shouldn't be that much higher then the current requirements.

What kind of FPS should I expect? because If the extra $30 for the 7900 means that I'll get a noticeably smoother & more stable gameplay, I wouldn't say no to it.

After just "upgrading" make sure it's an upgrade. All i got from my "upgrade" was better Visual settings (textures, AA, post-process effects and DX9 graphics). FPS stayed the same, or got worst if i cranked the graphics to max and GVGd.

Hold off buying a new card until it'll do what you want it to do. And imo "good FPS" is about 60 The minimum for "good" would be 30

I'm running the 512MB 7900GS clocked to (600/1500) because I can't be bothered to build an entirely new DX10 based system yet. As a stop gap card it simply can't be beaten for price vs. performance. I can run Guild Wars at 1680x1050 with everything maxed, and max AF & AA, and get back way over a constant 100fps.

Depending on the rest of your system you should get back at least 60fps which is very playable.

I'm using a 7600GT and it works perfectly with max settings at around 1280x1024 resolution.

if you cheap out on the power supply you deserve any and all stability/blue screens/etc problems you get

I have to agree on this. Your Motherboard and Power Supply are the two most important things you should NOT cheap out on. Anything other then these two pieces of hardware you can cheap out on because they are easily upgradable and less limiting.

The reason behind getting a high quality PSU is that there is a garanty on it and one with weight behind it. Not only that but it means that it is Certified not to crap out on you and take out one of more pieces of hardware out with it.

Stick with Premium makers like Ultra, Thermaltake, Antec and Zalman (there are other quality ones i forgot)

Unfortunatly, chances are you will not find a suitable PSU for the 40$ that your looking for

Such elegence in your posts lol as always though a very valid point.

$40 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817148027

$80 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171014

A GeForce 8600 or 7600 GT would do the job nicely. I would choose the 8600, personally, because it had support for DirectX 10. I myself, use an ATI chipset, but that was before I figured out Nvidia was better .

You saw the light my friend lol j/k

But really, ATI seems to be the underdog for some time now. Every attempt they have had at beating or even Matching Nvidia's high end card market have seem futile. (I read alot of reviews) It seems unfortunate but true, ATI just hasnt been able to match Nvidia for some time now.

I liked ATI and Nvidia but I've been playing ball with Nvidia for a long time now, proud owner of two EVGA 8800 Ultra 768mb Video cards that I put in SLI mode. EVGA pushes the envelope when it comes to producing Nvidia video cards and every review I read picks them above others.

EVGA does cost a little bit more, but its very well invested. They make the finest premium products

How about this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130085

7900GS will probably give you a few frames per second more, but this saves you a few $$ and gives you dx10 compatability should you want it in the future.

I would go down the DX10 route as well. The 8600 does offer slightly lower graphics (very marginal in term of real game play) but as stated above DX10 is the future.

Thanks for all of your input, but I'd just like to say that this upgrade I am making is only for the next year or so. Once DX10 comes out in full force, the geforce 8 series will be old news. That's why I'm need to buy the cheapest video card that will run the game well; I'm thinking of making a new computer from scratch sometime later next year. DX10 is something I don't want to sacrifice performance for, price wise.

That being said, I don't plan on ever doing anything bigger than guild wars on this computer, so I'm trying to save as much money as I can. However, if sub-$50 PSUs are really as bad as you guys say they are, I might have to stick to my geforce 6100 till next year

BTW, my PSU right now is so crappy that they had to import it from Taiwan, and it ran my computer for about 1/2 a year without me ever turning it off.

Is the apevia PSU mentioned any good? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817148027
I tried checking the website, but they didn't have the dimensions for it. do u guys think its 150x140x86?

Current PSU http://www.youngyear.com/store/produ...products_id/28
First on the list.

Power supplies, as motherboards do, follow a form factor. You are most likely looking for an ATX power supply.

Unless you own either a shuttle case or a non standard Case/Motherboard.

ATX power supplies mostly follow the same dimensions.

I was looking at some Rosewill PSU's earlier on this week and it said the dimensions were 140x150x86, making it completely useless to me... must have been a typo.

If thats all you want, i'd go for the 7600GT, it will do the job just fine, is cheaper than the other options, and is the least power hungry.

It will get me at least 40+ fps right?

I don't want to ever drop under 20 fps again *shudders*

7900GS is very tempting... even if I only plan on getting a 256 MB and no OC.
What I'm mainly worried about now is the performance difference between 7600gt and the 7900gs.

The 7900GS will be the best performer when compared to the 7600GT. It beats the 7600GT in every statistic, including the all important memory interface whare it has 256bit vs. the 128bit on the 7600GT.

decision finally made