Need Graphics card advice

[salt_peanuts]

I have a Shuttle XPC ST61G4, small form factor pc, and I want to upgrade the graphics card from the on board Radeon 9100 that comes with it. What is the best card I can buy that will fit in the case (single slot AGP 4x-8x)? I wanted to get a 6600 GT I saw on Newegg for $99, but most of those cards recommend a 300 watt power supply or greater, and the Shuttle only has a 250 watt power supply. So I assume I will be somewhat limited, unless there are newer cards that are more power efficient. Thanks.

[stormy]

Shuttle power supplies are some of the best and can handle anything you can fit in the case, they are considerably underrated compared to standard psu's so that won't be a problem. I'm not familiar with that chassis specifically, but most people say shuttles will fit any card as long as it's not a dual slot design. If you want to know specifically ask in the small form factor forum at http://www.hardforum.com/ I did a quick search and didn't find the answer, but that type of Q comes up often. I am 95% positive that you will not have a problem fitting a 6600gt in there.

[salt_peanuts]

Sweet, any other replies? Keep in mind I do have 2 hard drives and a Soundblaster Audigy, so I don't know if that takes up some of my leeway with the power supply. I don't want the thing cutting out on me and restarting.

[Dyne]

stormy is right. that psu should be able to juice a 6600gt. actually making it physically fit will probably be the more difficult part.

[Xenobia_Omega]

Hey Guys,

I also have a graphics card question. I thought i'd put it here, rather thank make a new thread.

I took a nice openGL programing course a year back and was able to do all my program on the department machines and I never really had any problems do anything. But, since then, I'm not allowed to use the machines anymore, pretty much because I don't need to (I'm not in a graphics course right now). However, I want to keep working on my projects.

I currently have an nVidia GeForce 3. I was wondering if anyone knew of a good graphics card that can handle the nVidia vertex programming and fragment programming. I thought I heard that the first ones to do this were the GeForce 4s... but I'm not sure.

Also, I'm looking for the cheapest card I can get. As is seen by the GeForce 3 I have, I don't have a great deal of money to upgrade my system..

Thanks guys!

[kedawa]

That's a pretty specific technical question.
You'd probably have more luck looking on nvidia's site than asking anyone here.

[salt_peanuts]

So 6600 GT is what I should go with under $99, or are there better options for slightly more $. Should I or do I have to go Radeon since my onboard graphics are Radeon as well, or does it not matter?

[kedawa]

It doesn't matter what your onboard video is.
I'd say go for the 6600GT.
Anything faster will run too hot and suck too much power for a pc as small as yours.

[Dyne]

just make sure when you put the card in you use a driver cleaner to get rid of any ati drivers and then make sure you disable onboard graphics in your bios.

[Cowdisease]

Resurrection.

PC is currently running a GeForce 7600 GT that's a little more than two years old. I'm thinking of upgrading it to a GeForce 8800 GT. My old case was damaged during the move to Redmond, so it forced me to upgrade the case to an Antec Nine Hundred and a 650W power supply. Therefore, I should have enough power to properly run the new card, and my case is big enough to hold it. Still running XP, and I have no plans to upgrade to Vista, nor do I care about DirectX10.

Is this a good upgrade?