I need a real videocardFollow

Build a new one. Really. Reuse your hard drive.

Barring that, there are lots of low power cards that will work with your machine. Do this though. Tell me how much you have to spend total on upgrading stuff in the next few months. If it's $200 or more, you should build your own. It's really that cheap these days.

Edit:

Ok I looked up your box. I changed my mind. Build a new one. If you can install the video card, you can build a new one. It's not at all hard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147010

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128090

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103214&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL062408&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL062408-_-CPUsProcessors-_-L2B-_-19103214

$225 shipped unless you live outside the US or in AK or HI.

Would run WOW about 15 or 16 times faster as a conservative estimate.

If you really, truly, want to go the video card route:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500001

Would work fine.



Edited, Jun 27th 2008 2:17am by Smasharoo

I told myself I wouldn't spend over $150 and have already spend $45 on new ram. I found some cheap 256mb cards but don't know if they're compatible - and even then, I wouldn't have any clue as to how to install a video card.


Ram's around $20 per GB now. I really think you should build a new one if you can fade the extra cash beyond your budget. If you can't, hey you can't.

The 8600GT I linked in my edit will run WOW at those framerates in a normal resolution just fine.

Your processor's old, but fine for wow. With 1gb of memory and not using any of the on board memory for the video you should be fine.

Again, my advice would be to build new, but I understand financial constraints. It's not quite cheap enough to build one for $100 yet.

ETA: Installing a video card is maybe 1.5 times as hard as ******** in a light bulb. You'd be fine.



Edited, Jun 27th 2008 2:24am by Smasharoo

Hello!

While I don't want to pressure you into spending more money, the 4850 for $165 AR is a steal and will perform better than any other card related to its price range. My recommendation is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253

Regards,
Berek

The 4850 doesn't actually take any more power than any other PCI express card to a significant degree, and even if its CPU bound its a great deal for that price range. The T5088 usually has a 400watt power supply, which is more than enough. I assume that is near to what he has.

He could go with one of the older 2xxx versions: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+106792278&Configurator=&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&Order=BESTMATCH&srchInDesc=

The 4850 doesn't actually take any more power than any other PCI express card to a significant degree, and even if its CPU bound its a great deal for that price range. The T5088 usually has a 400watt power supply, which is more than enough.

No, it's not more than enough. Firstly, it's 300W, not 400W. Even were it 400W: It's 1) Below the manufacturer's minimum recommendation, 2) Is a generic power supply with insufficient amperage on the 12v+ rail to power the card under load. If you install a 4850 into the Emachines PC question, it will not function well under load, and very likely will result in a burnt out PSU in short order.

Isn't the idea here to give people good usable advice, not to suggest they void their warranty by ignoring manufacturer requirements to install a video card that that will cost them more money for the same level of performance they could get by paying half as much?

The goal is to run WoW at 30fps, running it at 250fps at the same resolution isn't a good reason to spend more money.



Edited, Jul 7th 2008 7:05pm by Smasharoo