Video Card : Need to Upgrade - What To Buy?

Ok, so I just recently purchased Guitar Hero III and Battlefield 2 for the PC.

Guitar Hero 3 is unbearable to play, and BF:2 is choppy. I also currently play World of Warcraft, which runs fine, but could always be better. Getting around 20FPS.

My video card is onboard. It's a NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430. It came with the computer I bought from Dell.

Recommended Video Cards for the following Games

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BF:2 ---- NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 or greater (128MB or Greater)

GH:3 ---- Video Card (Nvidia): Geforce 8800 GT

My PC Specs Below

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AMD Athlon (tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+ 2.80 GHZ

2 Gigs of Ram

I was looking into the GeForce 8600GT 512MB video card located here ( link = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as... )

By looking at the required Video Cards for GH:3, it doesn't show this card on the list. Also, it says the 8400/8500 cards have known issues for Windows Vista.

Would the card I'm looking to buy work for these games?

Video Card : Need to Upgrade - What To Buy?myspace pics

You have a powerful processor paired with integrated graphics. It is perfect for business and 2D applications but also a perfect mismatch for 3D applications (games).

Your X2 5600+ deserves at least the mid level cards like 8600GT or ATI HD2600 XT. Get cards with gddr3 memory. 256Mb gddr3 will always beat 512Mb ddr2. I would not consider the card on the link w/ ddr2. I prefer the factory overclocked version, typically 600mHz core and 1600mHz memory. Overclock it some more and it gets into 8600GTS territory.

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Yes, it will run BF2 perfectly

It will run GH3.. but it may not be perfectly smooth

Also, just make sure your Dell has a PCI-E x16 slot and not an AGP one
The 8600 GT is a great card. This is all just a question of how much you're willing to spend, and the 8600 GT is great at its price point. (You'll want to make sure you've got the most up-to-date driver from NVidia for any of these. If GH3 won't play on the 8600 GT, it's crappy programming and rest assured that a patch - either to the game or the drivers - will be forthcoming.)

There's a great review at Tom's Hardware, as well as one at Sharky Extreme. Both approach things from every price point imaginable, so you can pick your comfort level and decide what you want to spend in the balance of "what can I play now?" and "how long until I replace this again?" Sharky Extreme also tells you the best price they could find on just about every configuration imaginable, in a separate article on their site. Happy hunting!
Im going to get a 8600GT just for Battlefield seria but your proboly better getting the XFX one which is what my (really smart) friend recommended =].