My current graphic card came with my 2007 discount PC, it's a GeForce 7300LE, quite old already and not really made for gamers. For example, it doesn't even support Shader 3.0 (not sure about 2.0). Since I mostly play GOGs, indies and freeware it's usually sufficient for my needs, but there are some games I'd like to play and won't be able to enjoy because of my weak graphic card. These include:

Amnesia - The Dark Descent
The Witcher 1 & 2
Trine 1 & 2
Neverwinter Nights 2 (not sure if it's only due to the graphic card but I often get terrible lag)
Dragon Age: Origins
Mass Effect
Overlord 1 & 2
Gothic 2, PoP: The Sands of Time and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (well, I can play them with low settings but they could run a lot smoother and look better)
the upcoming Legend of Grimrock, Limbo, Orcs Must Die! and some other newer indie and freeware games requiring Shader 3.0
Two Worlds, Gothic 3, Risen etc. (not sure if I want to play them, but having the option would be nice)

I'm willing to spend a little money on a newer graphic card, but I wouldn't want to spend much more than $80. Can anyone recommend me a modern graphic card that isn't too expensive and would still enable me to play all of the above? I'm quite clueless in this regard and have difficulties comparing all the different cards with their confusing names ...

Also, would a better graphic card improve the performance of DOSBox, too, or is that more dependent on the CPU? How important is the CPU compared to the graphic card in general? I've got an AMD Athlon64 X2 4000+, that is a dual-core 2,1 GHz - could that decrease the performance of any of the mentioned games even with a good graphic card?

Btw, I don't need to play at the best settings, if a game runs smoothly in, let's say, 1024*768 (or sometimes even 900*600) with shiny special effects turned off, I'm quite happy already.

Thanks for your advice!

For that you can most likely pick up at the very least a HD6770 which should play most games on high even with your processor (my backup system has a 5000+ and can pull ultra on BF3 when my 6950 is in it...)

I am running a "Sapphire ATI Radeon HD6450"... this line is quite cheap and I only encountered one game that is running way too slow (L.A. Noire).

A really good value... I am not sure about your $80 cap, as that one cost me about 70€ a year ago. Should be less now :)

What's your CPU? For many games, especially old ones, the CPU (rather than the graphics card) is the bottleneck. It depends on the game though. DOSbox games are almost exclusively CPU-limited in my experience.

You should also make sure that your mainboard and power supply can handle the new card. Especially discount PCs are often very limited with regard to upgrades.

Edit: Argh, forget that I asked about the CPU, I see you provided that info in your post ... the CPU is probably sufficient for the older games you want to play, not sure about the newer ones though.

Edit 2: One thing you can do to gauge what's the _current_ bottleneck in your system is to install a software that logs CPU and GPU load (Aida for example), and play some games while it's active. Then check the logs and see whether GPU or CPU are running at 100% load.

How's your power supply and computer case? If your case is too small, some cards won't fit in. If your older card doesn't need its own power cord from the power supply but the new one does, you'll need a new power supply. You'll also need a new power supply if the old one simply doesn't have enough kick in it. This I learned back when I upgraded a GPU for the first time ever, and it was a pain.

It'd also be kind of helpful if you have some store with a webstore in mind so people can check how much stuff costs around there :p

Does DOSbox even use GPU? I mean, other than for obvious rendering needs...

In a review of the PC I read the power supply could handle a better graphic card than the one included. The power supply is supposedly 300 Watts. There should be enough space for a normal-sized card, especially if I (manage to) remove the old one, but I have no idea how much is required. I was looking at amazon.de for convenience. I have no idea if that's teh best option though.

Ah well, was afraid this was going to be quite tricky and not just a matter of money ... If it's that complicated to upgrade I fear in the end I'll resort to being content with what I have and buy a better PC next time when this one's given up the ghost.

Most newer cards at present, even the silent running cards require a 400w power supply to run. Effectively what would happen is you would get random crashes etc.

If you could stretch your budget by and extra 10 euros roughly you could upgrade your supply and also get a Radeon 6570. The 6570 will struggle in higher resolutions and higher detail settings, however it would be a decent upgrade for someone like yourself.

It all depends also on what kind of computer case you have. You could have issues if it is one of those very slim desktop type models. If it is a standard type tower case you should be ok.

I looked around Amazon Germany and came across these :

http://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listing/B0012BBLPE/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1328113942&sr=1-1&condition=new

That is a 400 Watt Power Supply

http://www.amazon.de/Sapphire-Radeon-HD6570-Grafikkarte-Speicher/dp/B004WYV8WY/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1328113129&sr=8-10

Radeon 6570 which is also a low profile single slot card.

Spec sheet showing requirements for a Radeon 6570 :

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/amd-radeon-hd-6000/hd-6570/pages/amd-radeon-hd-6570-overview.aspx#3 This was a bit of a funny time when cards were being released. They started to phase out AGP on the Nvidia 6 Series cards, AGP was effectively the PCIE version card with a bridging chip so the architecture would work on AGP bus.

Now that you mentioned it, I actually remember exchanging the power supply two years ago because the cooling on the old one was not working anymore. Of course, back then I wasn't thinking about graphic cards and just looking for a working supply with cooling. The new one has 350 Watt and was quite expensive already (30 EUR).

What I find discouraging about this whole thing is not necessarily the investment I'd have to make but my complete ignorance in this regard and the high risks of failure and frustrations that come with it. I'm not really tech-savvy and I'm not even sure now if I'd manage to install all the hardware on my own. Finding a good graphic card is enough of a challenge for me already, all these things one has to consider doesn't make it any easier. And who knows, in the end I have a brand new graphic card and spent quite a bit of money and time on installing it and I still can't run half of the games because of my CPU or something ... I think you've convinced me not to pursue this any further for now. ;)

Thanks a lot to everyone who replied though! It's much appreciated. :)

We can help you out with some definitive answers if we get a good idea of what you have now. If your present computer has a make and model, just post it, and we can look up what it has. Then we can give you a list of upgrades at different price points.

So far, we know you have a 7300 LE, which is a PCI-Express only model, so you have to have a PCI-Express slot. And we know you have an Athlon 64x2 4000+; that means you have a Socket AM2 motherboard (so it should take DDR2 memory, as well). What we don't know is what manner of case you have, and whether your power supply is a crappy 300W model that won't take any upgrading at all, or a solid 300W model that would be fine powering an HD 6570 or 6670.

(I don't much like using Amazon for computer parts. Their catalog is badly organized, and they carry a lot of obsolete junk at high prices. Sometimes it's hard to tell what is good and what isn't, on their site.)

MISCO, which is a sister company of TigerDirect, is a reliable German online vendor. Others favor ATELCO. There are many; shop around.

A _solid_ 300 watts is plenty for most entry-level graphics cards: anything that doesn't require an auxiliary power connector, anyway. Manufacturers' power supply recommendations are invariably overstated and should be disregarded if you know what you're doing :)

The problem is, most 300 watt power supplies are _cheap_crap_ that can't put out anything like 300 watts. NEC/Packard Bell, Acer/Gateway/E-Machines, HP/Compaq, etc. towers usually come with awful power supplies from makers like Bestec.

The model was called Hyrican PC PCK 02084 and sold through a German supermarket chain. It looks like this. This site is in German but you should be able to understand the listed system specs, I think.

The new power supply I bought is called Xilence SPS-XP350.(12)R3, 350 Watt, ATX12V 2.3 Silent 120mm ventilator.

Oh yeah, I forgot, I already upgraded the RAM to 2GB (or maybe even more). Anyway, thanks a lot, that's really helpful advice! I'll think it over.

Do you think it would pay off to invest a little more and also buy a better power supply along with a more powerful graphic card, so that the effect will last a little longer (I mean so that I won't run into the graphic cards limit so soon again)? Or would it make no difference because of the low CPU etc.?